Published: October 1, 2004

Head of the Class

The letter from John McMahon [ "Passé Professors," August/September] reminded me of an idea that I came across two decades ago: Each administrator in a public school should be required to go back into a classroom for at least one semester every seven years. Furthermore, the classroom should be in a district other than the one in which the administrator is employed. Too many administrators have forgotten just how much effort is required to manage a classroom and how important their administrative role as supporter is to the classroom teacher. There is a lot more to being an effective administrator than pushing paper and being a PR...