William D. Hedges

Being a Leader.

A principals alienation from his faculty is a serious con sequence of authoritarian behavior. The author suggests that transactional leadership gets the schools jobs done better.

Comparing the United States and the Orient: Are American Schools Really So Bad?.

Perhaps we should not jump hastily on the bandwagon with those who consider transplanting the Oriental system of education that we hear praised so often, says this author, who recently returned from a year as a Fulbright lecturer in the Republic of South Korea.

Introducing Micro-Computers

Specifically, administration and faculty must address a number of important issues-issues which are reflected in such questions as the following: 1. What is involved in computer literacy? 2. Should I buy one brand of micro-computer or several? If one brand, which one-and why? 3. If I buy now, will my equipment soon be out of date? How can I find out? 4. While I can obtain quotations on installation costs, what about long-term maintenance and replacement expenses? 5. Do all the micro-computer companies possess high quality educational software? 6. Where do I find sound evaluations of educational software? In fact, what are the criteria for effective educational programs? 7. And what about faculty training-where do I get it and how much does it cost? Should each teacher have his or her own micro in his or her room or should there be a central laboratory? The above and a myriad of other questions abound. This article addresses two of the most urgent questions-questions 1 and 6.

Book Review: Just before SchoolJust Before SchoolChazanMauriceLaingAliceJacksonSusanOxford: Schools Council, Research and Development Project in Compensatory Education. Basil Blackwell: 1971, 220 pp.

Criteria useful in evaluating a report of research include the following:(l) the precision of the problem statement, (2) the clarity and comprehensiveness with which the research design and procedures are described. (3)familiarity with the relevant research. and (4)avoidance of any tendency to distort the findings or to overgeneralize. In all of these respects. the authors of Just Before School are to be eongratulated. The book reports one portion of a comprehensive. 311z·year reo search project centered in the Department of Education of the University College of Swansea, i.e••the fllst stages of Item 2 below. The entire study concerned children of infant-schoolage in selected areas of England and Wales. The three major goals were:

Loneliness in the Schools: What to Do About It. Marc Robert. Niles, Ill.: Argus Communications. 1973. 165 pp

William D. Hedges is chairman of the department of childhood education, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. I READ this little book with growing feelings of both respect and gratitude. Here is a thoroughly experienced teacher and administrator who has put together, with colorful cartoon illustrations, a number of significant and practical ideas in simply-worded, intelligible prose. Important problems are identified without the typical casting of stones at those teachers and principals who find themselves beset with these problems. The main thesis of the book is the prevalence of loneliness in the student, teacher, and administrator. The author jolted me into realizing how feasible it can be for us as professionals and for students to come to know and to trust one another. Most

Curriculum and the Cultural Revolution, edited by David E. Purpel and Maurice Belanger, McCutchan Corporation: 2526 Grove Street, Berkeley, California, 1972. 497 pp

William D. Hedges is chairman of the Department of Childhood Education, University of Florida, Gainesville. O F itself, Scriven’s chapter &dquo;Education for Survival,&dquo; makes this book worth obtaining by the serious student of curriculum. As one illustration of the quality of this chapter, Scriven describes how one of the first large teams of United States educators visiting the U.S.S.R. just could not comprehend or believe that moral values could be taught in an atheistic framework! For us today, a reasonable question is whether we can afford any longer this degree of ethnocentrism. If we cannot, are there implications for schooling for curriculum change? My reading of the other chapters resulted in a reaction similar to the above. This is not a tired book or randomly collected readings laden with platitudes and moralisms. This is an exciting, incisive, penetrating and (in particular) a thought-provoking series of chapters by different authors with the absence of any one chapter representing a gap. The book is divided into five parts: (1) an analysis of our changing society coupled with the authors’ clearly stated position