American public education has been on a merry-go-round of change for the past 40 years. We made something that is complex by its very nature into a strangled enterprise that is becoming even more knotty and complicated. A fog of reform is created obscuring issues and deflecting our focus from the real mission of schools. We need to emphasize ideals and principles in providing an education for our children in a caring and creative way. This book is about the fog of reform and getting back the ideal of a place called school. The sections describe a new metaphor and approach to change and examine the forces and ideals that can bring about the schools children need. Principles and values transform organizations, not mandates and fear. Recipes for making schools into caring places for children do not exist. Great schools must be created one-by-one. Numbers don't create change; people and passion do. Unless we focus on the moral imperative of educating children, we will fail them and possibly slide into an ethical quagmire.

"In this timely and uplifting work, Goens challenges us to be leaders who are moved by great passions and deep commitments to doing what is right and just, not simply individuals who occupy leadership positions. I suspect that, like myself, educators came into this profession anchored and uplifted by an attitude of optimism and hope. Writers like Goens help us remember why we got into this work and why we persist even when it is not easy." - School Administrator