Ron Gleason lives in Juneau where he is principal of Juneau/Douglas High School. While still in grad school, Mr. Gleason's teachers taught him that each and every student had the potential to succeed. These teachers - Mrs. Wilson, Mr. Rollins, Mr. Lynch - were there to awaken that potential and to help shape it. As a novice teacher he also learned that "education can only occur (successfully) with the cooperation of the students and not through blind adherence to the rules of the system." These lessons have stayed with him and are apparent today in his own efforts as principal. The old lessons that we do not discard become our values, but in a changing world and community such values, as Mr. Gleason's experience suggests, go hand in hand with a sense of improvisation. "I recognize that the dramatic changes that must occur in education have to occur within the current structure. To effect change, I must be able to communicate with each of the constituencies involved in the educational system.
