Caring Enough to Lead : Schools and the Sacred Trust

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Summary: Caring Enough to Lead
Review: An enjoyable and enlightening book that richly describes what true leadership entails.
Angie Hallman

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Summary: Caring Enough to Lead
Review: Can a series of essays on leadership be described as pleasurable, thoughtful reading material? It can if it is Caring Enough to Lead by Pellicer. Pellicer presents twenty essays that are thought provoking as well as entertaining. Personal stories lead the reader into more in-depth philosophical questions about leadership. The essays contain countless statements that lead the reader to stop and think.
"Life affords us too few opportunities to show others how much we care, we can't afford to waste these opportunities."
"I wish I could find a way to encourage all the teachers in our school to run around and flap their arms on a more regular basis."
"Leadership is never about ruling others, it is about serving others."
"A good teacher can give a child power over his or her own life."
Pellicer feels that becoming a leader requires some who cares, excepts the responsibility of leading, and nourishes and supports others who care. All this is required in order to successfully educate our children.

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Summary: Caring Enough to Lead---Schools and the Sacred Trust
Review: Caring Enough to Lead was an easy to read, interesting, thought-provoking book. By sharing personal experiences and perspectives in his book, Dr. Pellicer helped me begin to understand what it means to be a leader and to focus on some of the attributes and attitudes of an effective leader. The questions at the end of the chapters caused me to stop and reflect on my role as a leader in my school and in my classroom. The short chapters in the book enabled me to read one or more chapters at a time depending on how much time I had available.

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Summary: Caring Enough to Lead
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dr. Pellicer's book, Caring Enough to Lead. It was easy to read and very entertaining while at the same time very applicable for teachers in any situation. It gently reminds us of why we choose teaching in the first place, to touch lives. Dr. Pellicer also reflects on several ways to lead as well as the responsibilities that come with leadership. It was easy to reflect on myself as a leader as I was reading this book. I was able to relate my own experiences to most of his chapters. His writing style of vignettes and questions was fun and unique to read. The short chapters made it convenient to read a chapter or two at a sitting and come back to it later.

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Summary: Caring Enough to Lead
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dr. Pellicer's book, Caring Enough to Lead. It was easy to read and very entertaining while at the same time very applicable for teachers in any situation. It gently reminds us of why we choose teaching in the first place, to touch lives. Dr. Pellicer also reflects on several ways to lead as well as the responsibilities that come with leadership. It was easy to reflect on myself as a leader as I was reading this book. I was able to relate my own experiences to most of his chapters. His writing style of vignettes and questions was fun and unique to read. The short chapters made it convenient to read a chapter or two at a sitting and come back to it later.

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Summary: What do I care about?
Review: In "Caring Enough to Lead--Schools and the Sacred Trust", Mr. Pellicer gently but effectively compels the reader to reflect upon their own values and behaviors and evaluate them. Educational jargon was very minimal and the style used to present the various moral facets of leadership was subtle and personal. Pellicer is very readable, depending largely on personal experiences and anecdotes to lead into each of the issues he addresses within individual chapters. There is a profound meaning behind each of the author's tales.To be a leader is to be a human being.

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Summary: Do you have to care to be a leader?
Review: Leonard Pellicer posed many questions in his book, Caring Enough to Lead. By using questions as chapter titles he captured my attention as an educator. I found myself writing comments to myself throughout the book because of the thought provoking questions that he presented. In Pellicer's book, he quotes Autry(1991)"...proper management involves caring for people, not manipulating them." This sums up to me how caring is the most important leadership quality. As a special educator, one of my favorite quotes was "...a leader without the capacity to give away love and caring is seriously handicapped!"

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Summary: Pellicer's Caring Enough To Lead by Rise Strickland
Review: Leonard Pellicer's Caring Enough To Lead is an appropriate reading assignment for our Teacher Leadership course. While Pellicer provides his insights on educational leadership, he also prompts the reader to explore his/her thoughts on topics and therefore allows the reader to become a part of the discussion. Beginning with the title of the book, Pellicer's work is compatible with the Teacher Leadership 655 course organizing themes of leadership and stewardship. Pellicer's chapters focus on the specific goals of the course that include self evaluation of educational leadership, applying reform and renewal strategies, and demonstrating effective problem solving skills. In chapter twenty of the book, Pellicer states, "People choose to follow a leader because they can identify with the leader's values... The leader's actions serve as the conformation that the head, the heart, and the hand are truly joined, and the leader is indeed authentic, or as I like to call it, congruent" (122). I find this statement by Pellicer to be the strongest connection to the course because all of our class discussions have an underlying theme of discovering leadership values. I think about our course as I prepare to attend, on the way home from class, and sometimes on the job a thought will pass through my head. I'm still thinking about the information that I gleaned from a specific session or I may be pondering some other question prompted by discussion or reading. My purpose for taking the Teacher Leadership class was to generically explore my leadership skills but after reading Pellicer, I am more interested in learning how to develop skills to become a "congruent leader" so that I can make things better for others.

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Summary: Caring Enough to Lead: Schools and the Sacred Trust
Review: Pellicer's book was an excellent book for anyone in the education field. Through short essays, he gives a clear, sometimes humorous, always honest view of what it takes to be a successful leader. While reading this book, I was able to personalize many of the experiences he speaks of and apply the lessons that he has learned through the years to my own life and career goals. Because of the way it is written, the reader has the ability to "skip around" and read the chapters that seem the most pertinent at the time. As a classroom teacher, I found this book to be a source of inspiration to me--inspiration that I desperately need at this mid-year point! After reading his thought-provoking, encouraging essays, I think I might just be able to make it until the end of the school year after all!

Rating:
Summary: Caring Enough to Lead: Schools and the Sacred Trust
Review: Pellicer's book was an excellent book for anyone in the education field. Through short essays, he gives a clear, sometimes humorous, always honest view of what it takes to be a successful leader. While reading this book, I was able to personalize many of the experiences he speaks of and apply the lessons that he has learned through the years to my own life and career goals. Because of the way it is written, the reader has the ability to "skip around" and read the chapters that seem the most pertinent at the time. As a classroom teacher, I found this book to be a source of inspiration to me--inspiration that I desperately need at this mid-year point! After reading his thought-provoking, encouraging essays, I think I might just be able to make it until the end of the school year after all!