It's Not the School I Hate; it's the Principal of the Thing

After reviewing the list of fifteen duties the new Holland High School principal was required to perform, Fred Bertsch concluded he had accepted a position that was essentially impossible. In It's Not the School I Hate; it's the Principal of the Thing, Bertsch shares the successes, frustrations, accolades, and condemnations he encountered during his fourteen years as a high school principal in Holland, Michigan.

This is the third in a four-volume autobiography of Bertsch, who resigned his commission as a U. S. Navy commander, accepted a Naval Reserve commission, and returned to his hometown of Holland to develop land and pursue a career with Lear Incorporated. Eventually, Bertsch accepted a teaching position at the high school from which he had graduated twenty years before. Rather than the calm life he sought as a teacher, he was drafted to serve as the principal on the eve of the first teacher strike in Michigan and found himself entangled in confrontations with friends and colleagues, some of whom had been his teachers.

This informal memoir discloses not only Bertsch's educational insights and understandings, but gives a unique insider's view into the sometimes tumultuous role of a high school principal.