"sean neill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Canals and waterwaysRestaurants managed by chefs are >notorious for going bust. (Why are schools managed by head teachers, >btw?) > >Adrian > >Because the long-term interests of the children and their education are seen >as the main function of schools
"are seen" - yes. "are" - no. The function of a school is to educate its students. That's it. The long-term interest of the students is none of the school's business, in the same way that the long-term interest of the boaters is not the business of a navigation authority. Moreover, my question was about the management of schools, not the education of children. My thesis is that a better-managed school will make better use of the assets available for providing education, and thus there will be more or better (or both) output from the school (i.e. education) . I see no reason to believe that the best school manager will (especially always) be a teacher. Actually, one can argue that the school manager should *not* be a teacher, as a teacher might tend to manage rather too much for the benefit of teachers (as opposed to students). How does this relate to the waterways? I think waterway managers need to be good managers and to understand how waterways work. Being a boater is not essential, although going boating periodically (especially in full-gauge craft) looks like an ideal way to improve that understanding, to see whether success is being achieved, and to guide the allocation of resources. However, those managers must be given appropriate objectives for their management. This can be done only by the board (commissioners, council, whatever), and the performance of the managers with respect to achieving those objectives must be monitored by that board. I am worried that the BW board is doing neither of these tasks adequately, perhaps because of an unfortunate set of qualifications being used for choosing directors. The board now seems to me not (sufficiently) to recognise that the prime function of BW is to provide navigable waterways, in the same way that the prime function of schools is to provide education.. Adrian Adrian Stott 07956-299966
