A + A = F

About the Book

I wish someone else had written this book, but no one has. It may be ironic that I entered the public schools as a teacher and a coach in the same year (1959) that C. P. Snow wrote The Two Cultures. I certainly did not perceive the two roles as being in conflict, nor did I see them in that sense for much of the twenty-five years I served as high school principal. As a coach, I won a state championship (1961 Massachusetts High School Ice Hockey Championship); and as a principal, I was named Administrator of the Year (1971–72) by the National Association of School Counselors. During my time in the public schools, I did many of the things I will argue in this book should not be done. —From the author’s preface

About the Author

H. F. Cotton has a BA in political science from Boston University and an MA in teaching from Harvard University. He has served as principal of high schools in Lynnfield, Massachusetts; Stony Brook, New York; Woodstock, Vermont, and, for fifteen years, was principal of Cherry Creek High School—a school of over three thousand students—in Englewood, Colorado. He has served as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for the Development of Educational Activities, the Blue Ribbon Schools Program, and the Core Knowledge Program. He has been featured in U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement’s book, The Principal’s Role in Shaping School Culture as well as in Thomas Sergiovanni’s book Moral Leadership. He is now retired and living in Mexico.