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Rating: 
Summary: A good book
Review: Being business-oriented, I wish this book had talked more about how he had built up this school and ran it. It does do that but not to the level where this could be considered a business biography. From a business standpoint, this is a book about leadership and how great leadership can do great things for an institution.Oh, and the drawings spread throughout the book really help convey the man. There's a number of photographs as well, but the drawings add nice touch. If this man was really as good as the book portrays him, this won't be the last book about him and, if so, I look forward to reading those as well. While not a great book, I would recommend it. It is a thin book of nice light reading.
Rating:
Summary: A good book
Review: Being business-oriented, I wish this book had talked more about how he had built up this school and ran it. It does do that but not to the level where this could be considered a business biography. From a business standpoint, this is a book about leadership and how great leadership can do great things for an institution. Oh, and the drawings spread throughout the book really help convey the man. There's a number of photographs as well, but the drawings add nice touch. If this man was really as good as the book portrays him, this won't be the last book about him and, if so, I look forward to reading those as well. While not a great book, I would recommend it. It is a thin book of nice light reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A Teacher for the generations
Review: From 1902 to 1968, Frank Boyden was the Headmaster of Deerfield, a private boy's school in the countryside of Massachusetts. When Boyden arrived, the school had 14 students, transportation was by foot or horse drawn wagon, and he intended to stay only long enough to get enough money. 66 years later, Deerfield was one of the leading prep schools in America, the equal to Exeter and Andover. Best of all, the school wasn't an imitation of British schools, as so many prep schools of the first half of the 20th century were. Boyden had turned Deerfield into an outstanding educational institution while keeping it uniquely American. Demanding, even a bit of a despot, Boyden shaped the school and its students into something special, a school where the students come first, then the faculty. Only John McPhee could tell the story as it deserves. Boyden and all the other residents of Deerfield come alive under McPhee's pen. The little touches, like the Headmaster's rejuvenating midday naps, followed by letter writing and inspections tours, make it seem as if the reader is there. I doubt you'll be able to read this book, and not wish you could have been a student under Boyden. For several generations, Deerfield under his leadership was what a school should be.
Rating:
Summary: A Teacher for the generations
Review: From 1902 to 1968, Frank Boyden was the Headmaster of Deerfield, a private boy's school in the countryside of Massachusetts. When Boyden arrived, the school had 14 students, transportation was by foot or horse drawn wagon, and he intended to stay only long enough to get enough money. 66 years later, Deerfield was one of the leading prep schools in America, the equal to Exeter and Andover. Best of all, the school wasn't an imitation of British schools, as so many prep schools of the first half of the 20th century were. Boyden had turned Deerfield into an outstanding educational institution while keeping it uniquely American. Demanding, even a bit of a despot, Boyden shaped the school and its students into something special, a school where the students come first, then the faculty. Only John McPhee could tell the story as it deserves. Boyden and all the other residents of Deerfield come alive under McPhee's pen. The little touches, like the Headmaster's rejuvenating midday naps, followed by letter writing and inspections tours, make it seem as if the reader is there. I doubt you'll be able to read this book, and not wish you could have been a student under Boyden. For several generations, Deerfield under his leadership was what a school should be.
Rating:
Summary: A Benchmark Across Time and Space!
Review: I read "Headmaster" as part of my Ph.D. program in Educational Administration at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. This was in the late 1980's. It spoke to me. I have no connection with Deerfield Academy other than having read the storyof Frank Boyden. Yet, somehow his story has prepared me for a major task: saving a "boot camp" for young juvenile offenders here in Wisconsin, where I live. The Youth Leadership Training Center is not a college prep school; it is a prep school for life. It is sobering to know that since 1996, four of its graduate have died from street violence. Nonetheless, as Boyden had a vision for Deerfield, even so I have one for the Center as I set about saving it from closing, as did Boyden for Deerfield Academy. If I can mean to my boys what he has meant to his boys, I will have led a successful life. His story tells me that today (5-7-01) I can climb the same mountains that Boyden did, meet the same challenges, and secure the same outcomes -- teaching young men what they need to know to grow up to be fully functioning men. It is funny, but when this book "spoke to me" I had no idea its story was planting a seed that now will take root in Wisconsin in a setting at the opposite end of the socio-economic spectrum. Yet, college prep or reform school, all of it is about the human spirit. As I set about keeping the "boot camp" alive in the face of state bureaucratic opposition, I will keep the example of Frank Boyden in front of me -- and we shall win and write another story about another school and another Headmaster. God bless Frank Boyden. Paul Rux, Ph.D., CEO, Founder, Youth Care, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to turning around the lives of young people on probation and at risk.
Rating:
Summary: The Headmaster at Deefield: a model for innovative educators
Review: Like many, I read a great deal but I rarely reread books. However, The Headmaster by John McPhee is one of those rare books that I have read and reread several times. Each time I gain a greater insight into one of the most innovative educators of our time: Frank Boyden. Using both humor and profound insight, McPhee paints the picture of a tenacious headmaster who was undaunted in his attempt to create one of America's finest preparatory schools. Boyden's unfailing optimism in the face of tremendous obstacles will inspire aspiring educational leaders. As an administrator in a small college I find that much of Boyden's philosophy of education is appropriate for educators in any setting. McPhee has done a masterful job of characterizing one of the greatest and innovative educators of the 20th century. I highly recommend McPhee's book to all who are dedicated to quality education and have a great love for students.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful into Deerfield's school culture
Review: McPhee has written a highly readable account of the impact of a single individual on one of New England's important boarding schools. This work is particularly interesting when juxtaposed against similar works on the history of Groton School, St. Paul's School, or Exeter/Andover when viewing how one person can cause an entire school culture to take root. Found most often in schools where strong headmasters have either founded the school or contributed a life of service, Deerfield Academy comes across in McPhee's work as the true child of Boyden whose various quirks in no way detracted from his personal mission of making a difference in boys' lives. While by no means a critical work, "Headmaster" is nevertheless an important document in understanding the history of an important boarding school.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful into Deerfield's school culture
Review: McPhee has written a highly readable account of the impact of a single individual on one of New England's important boarding schools. This work is particularly interesting when juxtaposed against similar works on the history of Groton School, St. Paul's School, or Exeter/Andover when viewing how one person can cause an entire school culture to take root. Found most often in schools where strong headmasters have either founded the school or contributed a life of service, Deerfield Academy comes across in McPhee's work as the true child of Boyden whose various quirks in no way detracted from his personal mission of making a difference in boys' lives. While by no means a critical work, "Headmaster" is nevertheless an important document in understanding the history of an important boarding school.
Rating:
Summary: they don't make em like this anymore
Review: Sure, this may be more of a panegyric more than a biography, but it's inspiring. As someone who has spent years in private schools, it's great to read about a headmaster who really shaped a school -- Boyden defines headmastership: he was head of Deerfield for 64 years! Even more impressive than Mr. Boyden was his wife whom he called the smartest person on the campus. Proves the theory that behind every great man is a great woman. I hope we restructure our school administrations so that we allow for heads like this again -- too much time is spent these days on fundraising and not enough on school. Though Boyden was not an intellectual, he inspired and trained generations of boys and never lost his personal touch.
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