Pivotal Strategies for the Educational Leader: The Importance of Sun Tzu’s Art of War

Public education has been criticized for under-achieving schools and one key phrase for long-term school success is school leadership. Taken comprehensively, leadership emphasizes the importance of where the leader stands at times of decision, challenge, and conflict.
The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu, a Chinese military strategist more than 2500 years ago, represents a very complex work of philosophy and military strategy. A good part of the work describes the pivotal role of a leader and his understanding and application of the winning factors. The Art of War application to education is about solving (i.e. fighting) problems (i.e. the enemy) to improve student and school success. The Art of War describes the significance of a leader and his knowledge and prudent application of the strategies. At the core of theses strategies is the non-negotiable moral purpose of the leader to be reinforced by other fine qualities as wisdom, commitment, discipline, and courage. Readers will be amazed and rewarded by finding the relevance and practicality of this ancient Eastern philosophy.