HEADMASTERS
SIR,—" Ex-assistant Master's" proposal of a five-year tenure for head- masters fills me with horror. In my experience it takes at least a year, some- times two, for a new headmaster to learn his job. I have sometimes felt that no headmaster is really established until the last of his predecessor's pupils has left. Of course much of the management of a school consists of day-to-day administration ; but the headmaster's main work is a matter of long-term policy. If he knows that his appointment is for five years only, he will be discouraged from taking long views and building for the future, and will be content to become merely a competent administrator.
Incapable headmasters can be removed. It is possible that some head- masters remain too long in one post. I have heard one very distinguished headmaster suggest ten years as the period in which a man's best work is usually done, but many have served usefully for longer terms. I agree that there are many assistant masters who would make excellent heads, and that opportunities for promotion in the profession are not as numcrous as could be wished; but a perpetual shuffling of headmasters in order to remedy this would not be in the best interests of the schools.—Yours
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