Schooling is about education, of course.

However, there are other aspects of school as well, and one of the main aspects is power. There are groups that rise to power in a school.

Students

Students vie for power among themselves. There is a class leader. In younger girls' classes there might be a class queen and there may be a class bully or even several. Cliques may form. The students have a constant struggle to see who is going to be the tough guy or leader.

Within classes there is a similar power struggle in which the higher grades often try to exert their authority often by force.

Teachers

Teachers also vie for power among themselves. Some rise to positions of relative authority such as co-ordinator. Some teachers in higher education may vie for titles such as Assistant Professor or Professor, and since there is a limited number of these titles that can go around and since the title is worth prestige and money, there is a significant power struggle.

The teachers of course also vie for power over the students and over their superiors.

Administrative Staff

The administrative staff has to constantly exert its authority and show its power or it also feels that it has to do so, so that the teachers and the students will know that they are the boss. In the beginning it may be a good feeling to know that they are in a position of authority. However, as time goes on this relative authority does take its toll.

The staff sometimes realizes that instead of getting respect, they are getting fear and as they see their students later on after they have completed the school and students cross the street rather than meet them, some principals may regret this temporary authority.

Yes, it does give them a kamut respect but the respect is often not worth it in the long run. Some people do need this authority and respect and it questionable whether they are getting all of it that they could get from the school system instead of getting it from other sources.

The Bureaucractic Level

People in positions of still higher authority, those who sit in Board of Education or the Ministry of Education also have to exert their authority. They are in the position to tell the principals what to do and the principals and the teachers what to teach. This position is also one of relative authority because they have to show that they have power. They're not actually in the classroom. The teachers ofteh complain that they have an ivory tower relationship. Since they are not in the classroom they don't really know what is going on according to the teachers and the teachers criticize their ability to make decisions in some cases.

In each of these cases there is an inter-relationship between the level above and the level below, the party indicated and as people move further and further away from a particular level they have less contact with them. Thus, the principal has contact with the bureaucracy and the teachers more than with the students in most cases.

Is this a healthy relationship?

That is difficult to say. It is the system that has been used for a long time and there is no way of knowing how it could be otherwise.

The independent cheder is long gone. In those cases sometimes the rebbe would have a strong devotion to his children. He needed nobody above him in order to be able to his job well.

We do find cases in which independent special programs develop such as those that are set up in order to help students pass major examinations. They have no bureaucracy above them except for the institution that hires. Very frequently they are more successful than schools. Indeed, the children who have not succeeded in school then go to these institutions in order to be able to succeed on these important tests.

Does that mean that the relative arrangements in the schools is unsatisfactory or that it does not work?

Not necessarily. The power struggle is inevitable in a large establishment. All of the examples that were presented now of successes without a bureaucracy are smaller establishments in which they have their own drive, their internal drive, to succeed.

Would schools be able to succeed if they were not given this pressure?

That is difficult to say. There is no way to know whether they would succeed if the pressure was removed from them.

Of course, there could be a different form of pressure and that would be reimbursement.

Teachers who succeed may be paid more. Teachers who fail would be paid either less or would be removed from the system.

In other words, they would be paid by the work that they accomplish.