This is a superb little book for all those people who love to sail and to cruise. Lots of gentle wit and wisdom. We bought several copies and gave them to friends we have cruised with. Everyone who has a copy treasures it.

I did a book report and presentation for my secondary education class at Oakland University on this book. The first few chapters are excellant. Barth has an excellant conception on schools and has brilliant ideas on what, we as teachers can do to improve our schools and make our communities a "community of learners". I love his ideas on how there is always room for learning on all levels of the education spectrum. He has exellent advice for principals who are having trouble with their jobs. This is an excellent book, but for every excellent book there are a few downfalls. While doing my presentation and discussing Barth's views, I received negative comments because my audience felt that his ideas could only work in a utopia community. But you will just have to read this book to find out. My other complaint is in the latter part of the book, where Barth discussed Principal Centers. In these last chapters he becomes an advertiser for these "principal centers" that he runs instead of conveying his own ideas on how to improve schools. I highly recommend this book for principals, but if you are a future teacher, then I would not recommend reading this book, because it is not directed to you.

I approached the book with anticipation of finding answers for me now as a teacher and in my future as an administrator. I was inspired to be a better visionary, but left in the dark when it came to practical applications.

Several of our Site Based Council members read this book a few years ago in planning for a staff-wide summer retreat. This book changed the way we looked at staff development and helped us bring everyone (well almost everyone) on board with whole school change. We continue to use quotes from this book during current staff development opportunities. We've shared this at numerous national conventions and at workshops that we put on in our own school. We now see many of the same excerpts (the bee story!)that we've shared at other conferences that we go to.