While finishing Tom Sergiovanni’s Rethinking Leadership…I found my eyes slowly canvassing the walls, the halls, and the reinforced structure of the building where I work. I thought of how great builders construct sustainable buildings that support people working together for generations to come. Tom …is a great education builder who constructs enduring mental space that challenges and welcomes educators to conceptualize and practice new possibilities. His ideas are certainly not mainstream. I have witnessed firsthand the great unrest his ideas create among many school, district, state, and federal reformers. Tom’s writing turn conventional management and organizational thinking topsy-turvy. His words enable readers to imagine a new world of schools, he substitutes moral community for leadership, he dismantles system theory, and he shows how hierarchical control is the antithesis of what is needed in schools for today and tomorrow. Tom writes that schools do not need heroes, charismatic, and take – charge leaders. Rather schools to be consistent with their purpose, need to be led by those who prefer not to lead, but instead wish to stimulate, support, and bring thoughtful actions among the young and old membership of the school. - Written by Carl Glickman in a tribute to Tom Sergiovanni (October 1, 2010)
Tom Sergiovanni