Murrow's Bruckner Swam Against BloomKlein/Ed Deform Grain

UPDATED 12pm

The NY Times piece on the death of Saul Bruckner, founding principal of Edward Murrow HS, one of the most successful high schools in the nation, contains nuggets of his philosophy towards how to treat students and teachers, nuggets that indicate he probably was not a happy soldier in the regime of ed deformers BloomKlein.

And indeed, reports had surfaced when he retired in 2004 that the Klein regime did not care for Bruckner and the feeling was mutual. Some anecdotes have emerged that since he left Murrow is just not the same but that would be expected. Even if he remained could he have continued to swim against the ed deform grain? I hope he left some thoughts behind for future ed historians on the contrast to his ed philosophy. Of course, the freedom he offered did not work for every child and I don't know to what level he devoted school resources to those situations for kids who had trouble handling it. (Some of his teachers were the most critical and argued for more discipline and less freedom.) Ditto for teachers. I would love to get stats on whether in his 30 years how many teachers were sent to rubber rooms or U-rated.

Whether you read the entire article or the excerpts below I chose to highlight the Bruckner style, make note of the Diane Ravitch quote.

he stood near the entrance each morning, greeting by name many of the thousands of students who swirled by him. Like his well-tailored clothes and quiet manner, it served as a small reminder of the formality of an earlier era of public education in a school known for its progressive, free-wheeling spirit.

That mixture of big think and little think — the ability to manage the bureaucracy and politics of a urban high school of 4,000 students while remembering student names, picking up litter from the hallways, and continuing to teach a class nearly up to his retirement — was what set Mr. Bruckner apart as a principal, and made him a legend at Murrow.

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Even when it came under criticism, he refused to bend on one of the hallmarks of Murrow — the scheduling of free periods for students during the school day so that they could gather in groups in the hallway and socialize, a practice some teachers believed led to increased cutting.

“Most schools treat kids and teachers like infants,” he told The New York Times in 1988, when interviewed amid clusters of reading, talking and flirting students. Treating them like adults, he said, “reduced the tension” between social groups sometimes found at other schools.

“In most schools, there is an emphasis on order,” he said in a later interview. “Here the emphasis is on freedom.”

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Much about Murrow seemed different. There were no bells to mark the end and start of classes. Instead of two semesters, Murrow had four, so that students could choose more classes, many on collegiate-sounding topics like magical realism or broadcast and entertainment law. The practice, he believed, encouraged grade-conscious students to take academic risks.

Honors classes, like his own Advanced Placement American History class, were open to all students who wanted to attend, by lottery, regardless of academic record. If you wanted to be there, he figured, you would do the work, teachers recalled.

Mr. Bruckner’s observations of new teachers were thorough and nerve-wracking. One new teacher, Georgia Scurletis, recalled how he chose a particularly boring lesson on grammar to observe, standing inscrutably at the back of her class. Afterward, he criticized her gently, telling her that when the Torah is read, “it should be with a bit of honey on the tongue,” she recalled

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[Diane Ravitch] noted that Mr. Bruckner had a long period of apprenticeship before becoming a principal, serving as a teacher, department supervisor and assistant principal, beginning in 1956. His status as a “master teacher,” helped him attract, retain and train his staff. “There are not many principals left from the old school,” Ms. Ravitch said.

One last point. Murrow did cull from the best kids in the system. Call it creaming. But when you look at the other principals running top level schools like Brooklyn Tech (remember Leo McCaskill?), Teitel at Stuyvesant and the utterly awful Valerie Reidy at Bronx High, Bruckner stands out like a shining star. But I wonder how he would have dealt with a school like Thomas Jefferson, my alma mater, in East NY.


I'm adding Leonie's comment:

Many believed him to be one of the finest NYC principals, and who showed clearly how a large school can not just work, but excel.

According to someone who knew the school well, it also “embraces experimentation, creative approaches to teaching and that treats students with respect and dignity. If I had grown up in NYC, it is the HS I would have wanted to attend.

So many parents from Manhattan and Queens have told me that they wish they had an option of a large, progressive school like Murrow in their boroughs. Bruckner's leadership made a huge difference.”

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