On Becoming a School Principal: From a Humble Beginning as a Country Schoolteacher to Leadership of an Innovative Elementary School

By G. Wayne Mosher

On Becoming a School Principal originated as a study of a new open space elementary school and how it engaged faculty and staff in designing programs and procedures.
Monthly planning sessions focused on the development of a school culture devoted to developing “good persons” within an atmosphere of cooperative teaching and collaboration. Considerable attention was focused on the principal and his history as a one room country schoolteacher at age seventeen.
In recent history, public education has become highly politicized, with reforms focusing on test results as a measure of progress. With each new administration, the nation has taken on a new mantra, but the reforms have not significantly improved achievement.
This book was written in the spirit of John Dewey and his advocacy for school-based research initiatives designed and implemented by practitioners. It is meant for educators and parents who want to help schools be the best that they can be.
The narrative examines how one man rose from humble beginnings to lead a new, innovative school. It is an ethnography of a school principal and a group of teachers in the act of doing good things for children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jun 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665706513

G. Wayne Mosher

G. Wayne Mosher is a native Missourian. He attended Truman State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and education. His master’s degree in biology and science education leadership was from the University of Northern Iowa. The Ph.D. in education leadership was awarded by Washington University in St. Louis. A life long educator, he was a high school biology teacher and science department leader, and also served as Director of the St. Louis Metropolitan Teacher Center, a staff development agency under the auspices of the United States Department of Education. He has published several papers based on his research in plant physiology and education leadership. Now retired he and his wife live near St. Louis.

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Copyright © 2021 G. Wayne Mosher.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

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ISBN: 978-1-6657-0652-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0653-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-0651-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021908463

Archway Publishing rev. date: 05/27/2021

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1 Origins of a School Leader

Growing up in the Great Depression

The Return to Duncans Bridge

Chapter 2 The Life of a Country Schoolteacher

Life in a Small Town

Escaping the Depression

Finding a Sense of Direction

Teaching in a One-Room Country School

Last in the Box

Developing Credibility

Becoming Aware of Personal and Professional Worth

Summary

Chapter 3 Research Methods

Ethnography

Origins of the Study

Sources of Data

The Organizational Plan of the Book

Chapter 4 Planning a New School

The Architecture of an Open-Plan School

Educational Change: A Familiar but Complex Process

Temporary Systems: A Training Model

The First Staff Meeting

Beliefs as an Expression of Formal Doctrine

Steps in Building a Staff

The Good Person Ethic

Getting Organized

Summary

Chapter 5 The Long March to the Opening of School

Important Topics on the February Agenda

Task Force Groups—Parent Volunteers

Chapter 6 Building a School Community

Origin of Richard’s Ideas about Community

Dialogue with Parents

Chapter 7 Substantive Additions to the Planning Schedule

Looking Ahead

Important Elements in the Final Months of Planning

The Prominence of the Reading Curriculum

Chapter 8 Highcroft Ridge Elementary School Takes Flight

Orientation

Public Relations

Addressing Last-Minute Issues

Chapter 9 The First Day of School

Organized and Prepared

Lunch Procedures

A Successful First Day

Chapter 10 Teaching in an Open-Plan School

First Encounters with Flexible Space

September 14: Open House

Ongoing Adjustments to Lunch Procedure

September 29: Richard Overfelt Recognition Day

Formal Patterns of Staff and Pupil Recognition

The Parent Volunteer Program Is Launched

Chapter 11 The Pursuit of Collaboration

Assumptions about Team Teaching

Statewide Testing

Reading Program Adjustments

Gradual Steps toward Collaboration

Increasing Stress

Summary

Chapter 12 Analysis and Implications

Introduction

Nature or Nurture

Awakened Leadership

Expansion of the Principal’s Responsibilities

The Collaborative School

Pitfalls in Selection of the Right People

Professional Development of Teachers

Educational Change

Educational Change: An Imperfect Process

Implications for the Future

Epilogue

Introduction

Initial Impressions

Staff Meeting

Creative Teaching, Staffing, and Collaborative Planning in Open Space

Enter the New Superintendent

Sustainability

Professional Development and Teaching the Good Person Ethic

Final Thoughts

References

To Dr. Richard Overfelt, teachers, and staff who opened

Highcroft Ridge Elementary School in 1978

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to extend my appreciation to Dr. Richard Overfelt, teachers, and staff who allowed me to be part of the planning and implementation of Highcroft Ridge Elementary School in 1978. They included me in a special moment in their professional lives by providing access to their classes, team meetings, and school events. The year that I spent with them was more than instructive; it opened my eyes to the complexities of teaching children and building a community of learners. I will always be grateful.

The project took years to complete, and I couldn’t have finished without the interest and support of my family. Words cannot express my appreciation for their patience and understanding. Given that I grew up in the typewriter age, I needed a good deal of help using the computer. Thanks to my daughter Megan who provided assistance with technology, and to Spencer Wheelehan, who developed graphics for the manuscript. Special thanks to Jane Greer, a former English teacher, who shared expert proofing and editing, and to Dr. Mary Ellen Finch for her review of the manuscript and encouragement. Thanks also to Denise Francisco, who gave important assistance with the manuscript in the early stages of writing. Finally, although he is no longer with us, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Dr. Louis Smith, who patiently introduced me to qualitative methods of research.

I have had several great teachers in the past, and Richard Overfelt was one of the best. He has been a friend and supportive influence in shaping my career as a high school principal.

PROLOGUE

There was a time in American history when children were educated in one-room country schools, governed by local boards of education with shoestring budgets, few amenities, and teachers who lacked formal training. Within these schools, children received a foundation for life in a democratic society. Country schools dominated the largely rural landscape for more than a hundred years, eventually fading away with urbanization and school consolidation. Teaching during that era relied on rudimentary textbooks, simple lessons, recitation, and hands-on learning activities. Children were expected to volunteer for tasks such as retrieving water from the well, collecting firewood for the stove, cleaning blackboards, and the most valued task of all: raising and lowering the flag each day.

Country schools were important institutions valued by the communities they served. In contrast, support for present-day schools seems to fluctuate in a sea of concerns expressed in the public dialogue. Noted education historian Diane Ravitch (2001) defined the current struggle as The Troubled Crusade, dominated by a complexity of factors such as education funding, legislative mandates, increasing diversity, education of handicapped children, racial issues, school violence, poverty, and the failure of school reform efforts, among others as sources of disaffection.

In recent history, public education has become highly politicized. Reforms have largely centered on student achievement and formalized testing procedures as measures of progress. From nominal beginnings, the testing movement has resulted in significant expenditures for test development, with little to no evidence of improved achievement. With each new administration, the nation has taken on a new mantra. In the 1990s, reform was formalized in the No Child Left Behind Act. In the early 2000s, it was called Race to the Top, while in the current administration, reform shifted to charter and private school education at the expense of public schools. None of these politically driven reforms have significantly improved achievement, but state and national education agencies continue to pursue testing programs as the focal point for school reform.

In his book Schools for Tomorrow written in 1915, John Dewey argued for a genre of research that focused on school-based inquiry as a means for promoting the improvement of schools. His point of view was lost in the reductionist view of education research prominent at that time. This view assumed that the collective knowledge from research would produce a holistic understanding of schooling. My argument is not with the role of scientific inquiry but the utilization of a wider range of methods such as case studies, participant observation, and ethnography as a means of understanding complex systems like schools. Adherents to school-based research studies, some of which are cited in this book, may be more useful to education reformers.

This book is written in the spirit of John Dewey and his advocacy for school-based research initiatives designed and implemented by practitioners. It is intended for an audience of educators and parents who want to help schools be the best that they can be. The narrative examines how one man rose from humble beginnings to leadership of a new, innovative school. It is an ethnography of a school principal and a group of teachers in the act of doing good things for children.

CHAPTER 1

Origins of a School Leader

Growing up in the Great Depression

T he stock market crash in October 1929 heralded the start of the Great Depression, which plunged the country into one of the darkest periods in American history. Money was in short supply, unemployment was rampant, and vast numbers of people relied on soup kitchens and charity for survival. People in rural areas were particularly hard hit when bank closures prevented farmers from securing loans they depended on for planting the next year’s crops.

Ten years earlier, following World War I, another economic crisis occurred that was every bit as serious. Farmers were crawling out from under one crisis to face yet another one that was far more ominous. Richard Overfelt was born into this world on July 18, 1929. The little town of Duncans Bridge, nestled in the Northeast Missouri farm country, was home during his early years.

The Overfelts lived in a white two-story home with a large wraparound front porch, built in the Southern style. It was perhaps the finest home in town, and it remains so in the present day. It was but a short distance from the Salt River forming the town’s southern border. The home was a simple but elegant structure built by Richard’s grandfather, Thomas Edward Overfelt, in the 1880s. Richard’s parents, Thelma and Chester Overfelt, eventually occupied the home, which also served as a boardinghouse managed by his mother. Boarders included rural schoolteachers and a few students from other parts of the county who attended the local high school. Upon occasion, the Overfelt boardinghouse also accommodated men who worked on the roads.

As an only child, Richard received lots of attention from parents, boarders, and teachers. Some might say that all the adulation may have caused a bit of spoiling. Much of Richard’s early life was immersed in Duncans Bridge and the adversity of the Depression, an era that influenced the direction of his life and future prospects.

In the late nineteenth century, Duncans Bridge was little more than a cluster of nondescript homes, a barbershop, general store, gas station, Methodist church, and a gristmill that depended on the energy of the Salt River to process grain from local farmers. There were no more than two dozen residents at that time. The collection of buildings was arranged along both sides of Highway 151, at that time a primitive dirt road. However, a county newspaper article described Duncans Bridge as a place with significant economic potential, a prediction that would never materialize.

The region was dotted with many little communities like Duncans Bridge, dispersed through farmland that was originally prairie. In the early 1800s, pioneers from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky settled there and began farming and raising cattle on the tall bluestem prairie grass. Rich soil, verdant pasture, and a moderate climate favored agriculture, which remains the primary industry today. The region was also known for Missouri mules, important in agriculture throughout Missouri. The nearby town of Clarence served as a railroad collection point for the export of mules throughout the United States and abroad for military service during the First World War.

The Return to Duncans Bridge

Richard and I returned to Duncans Bridge in the fall of 1999 to visit the town and the nearby Woodlawn School, where he began his teaching career in 1946. Although once a bustling place, the town had changed a great deal since the 1930s, when Richard was a boy. The businesses he remembered from that period had long since disappeared, and only a handful of dwellings; the school he attended, his former home, and old Duncans Bridge Methodist Church remained. Upon entering the church, I noticed a sign documenting the previous Sunday attendance: six people! The dilapidated remnants of Farmers Bank, founded by Richard’s grandfather in the 1920s, was still visible, but like many rural banks, it closed during the Depression.

The Salt River still ambled through the south end of town, but aside from the church, there was little observable human activity. Over time, the population shifted to larger cities with better employment opportunities. Duncans Bridge was like an eddy turning slowly along the edge of a swirling river. In years past, little towns like Duncans Bridge were centers of community life where everyone knew and took care of each other. Richard often spoke fondly of the benevolence of people in Duncans Bridge, remembering how they responded to people in need. If you arrived at someone’s home at mealtime, there would be a place for you at the table. People were enterprising and resilient in the face of adversity.

Most of us find it hard to conceive of life without electricity, but most rural communities had none until after the Depression. However, some of the folks in Duncans Bridge took matters in their own hands and created a limited electric grid of their own. They used a kerosene-powered generator to produce current through wiring they installed, and for the first time, homes had electricity. Independent and gritty, rural folks found a way to get things done.

Woodlawn School is located on a dirt road a few miles from Duncans Bridge, in the Woodlawn Township. The white clapboard building stood on an acre of ground, with tall trees surrounding the old playground, outhouses, and well. After the school was closed, it became a residence for a time and eventually shuttered permanently. However, the memories remained.

Richard and I wandered the school grounds talking about what it was like to teach in a one-room school with multiple grade levels and how he enjoyed playing games with children at recess. At seventeen, just graduated from high school, he was not much older than his students were, and he lacked experience in teaching. It was truly a virginal experience. No matter how tenuous the beginning, his experience at Woodlawn was the platform for a career covering more than seventy years and continues as this tome is written. It all began in the town of Duncans Bridge and Woodlawn School, in the vast rural setting of Northeast Missouri.

CHAPTER 2

The Life of a Country Schoolteacher

Life in a Small Town

A s an only child, Richard lived among a large extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and several cousins. Most were farmers who lived in and around Duncans Bridge. Richard described his parents as hardworking, caring people who provided guidance and affirmation but didn’t closely monitor his activities. They held high expectations for appropriate behavior; this allowed Richard to make a few of his