Free Custom «Good to Great Schools» Essay Paper

During the pre-colonial period, there were no schools around. People in the African continent were deemed as naïve and had absolutely nothing to do with education. Most of African communities underwent basic training in accordance with their traditions and norms such as hunting; done by young men exclusively, and house chores; associated with women and young girls. Europeans scrambled for colonies in Africa, tremendous changes in terms of education and ways of leadership. Amongst the many objectives that the colonialists had, they saw a need of establishing schools where the blacks could obtain knowledge.Schools were established upon the arrival of the colonialists in the continent. The schools established offered basic knowledge or reading and writing. Since none of the Africans had experience in teaching, it became the colonialists' top priority to train African teachers. However, they had to assume a full responsibility of imposing knowledge to the Africans. A condition was laid down that education was mandatory to all Africans since it was availed to them for free. This therefore meant any black who tried to evade the basic knowledge of reading and writing was entitled to severe punishment. This therefore was the beginning of education light in the African continent. The schools established were good and well spread all over the continent to ensure that most of them accessed. Despite the limited facilities that were available, majority benefited from the education offered since unlike earlier days, Africans were able to read and write. This allowed a room for communication whereby they could understand what the Europeans spoke to them and could respond back. The teaching positions were first assumed by the whites before the training of the blacks who later took the teaching positions. The Europeans who had the responsibility of teaching had experience and therefore their subjects obtained quality education.Post-colonial era witnessed the evolution of the schools that were initially established during the colonial period from good to great schools. Due to the attainment of quality education by few Africans, they came back to shade light to their brothers and sisters back home. Through funding by other developed nations, better facilities and more qualified teachers were incorporated into the schools. Facilities such as dormitories, well stocked libraries and also modern laboratories were established in such schools. Competent personnel became the principals or rather the heads in various schools. This influenced thinking of majority since several lessons were learned from the transition of good schools to great schools that are present currently. For example Africans came to know that for any plan to succeed they first need to build a good relationship between the involved parties. The Europeans tried to convince Africans on importance of education. When Africans got a rough idea of its importance, they fully embraced the acquisition of knowledge (Caldwell, 2006).

 

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From the transition, people came to realize that it is crucial crediting others and accepting blame incase of failure. Patrick Bassett researched and found out that the act of accepting blame allows one to gain from the correction given, thus enabling them to be keen next time they are trying out something else. Thinking of individual was also influenced such that they came to realize that it is equally important to build a discipline culture. For any organization to move from ground level to a more prosperous one, discipline must be articulated. For a school to move to a level of greatness, it's not only its students to be discipline but also the staff members. Being discipline in school usually takes many dimensions. For instance, students are said to be discipline when they are time conscious and also when they have a friendly coexistence amongst them.

Principals and other staff members should forfeit their own interests first and prioritize the ambition of schools success. Many principals whose schools have moved a stride from being good to great used this principle of putting much concern to the schools' needs before their own personal interests. To sum up, getting the right and qualified staff members on board also allows the improvement of schools from one status to the other. These facts has hence influenced thinking of majority and allowed them to apply in their day to day activities.