Essay Reviews : URBAN SCHOOL CHIEFS UNDER FIRE. Larry Cuban. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976. 223 pages. Reviewed by Luvern L. Cunningham, Professor, and Nancy J. Pitner, Graduate Research Associate, College of Education, The Ohio State University
Abstract
Essay ReviewsURBAN SCHOOL CHIEFS UNDER FIRE. Larry Cuban. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1976. 223 pages. Reviewed by Luvern L. Cunningham, Professor, and Nancy J. Pitner, Graduate Research Associate, College of Education, The Ohio State University SAGE Publications, Inc.1977DOI: 10.1177/0013161X7701300210 "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun." Some become school superintendents, even work in the cities. They sweat a lot. The job is tough, is political. And the persons who hold superin- tendencies are vulnerable. There is rapid turnover, especially in urban districts. Few but the most courageous should apply. Among them, future historians will note both heroes and charlatans, of all sizes, mostly males, who work voraciously. On occasion they have time to see their families. So the characterizations usually go. So it is with Larry Cuban's description of urban superintendents. But only up to a point. That demarcation begins with his analysis and thoughts about its meaning for the superintendency. Three well-known urban superintendents, Benjamin C. Willis (Chicago), Harold Spears (San Francisco), and Carl Hansen (Washington), during the turbulent fifties and sixties were likened to "those desperate Japanese soldiers who continued fighting for the honor of Nippon years after World War II