SERVING AS a member of the local school board

won't catapult you to fame and glory, but it may.

serve as the springboard to a political career,
reports a recent paper by two Simon Fraser

University researchers.

The report, authored by
associate professor of educa-
tion Norman Robinson and
education graduate student
Carolyn Stacey, was based
on in-depth interviews by
Stacey, who is also a vice
principal in Delta. The inter-
views provided the basis for
her master’s thesis in the ad-
ministrative leadership ‘pro-

The, 10 politicians inter-
viewed were “representative
of political life in B.C:,” says
Robinson, including active
and retired, federal and pro-
vincial men and women from
all political partiés, with two
to 26 years of experience.

All of the group interview-
ed reported that their ex-

periences as school board:

memibers were key stepping
stones in their political
careers. For all but one of
them, the school board ex-
perience constituted the
beginning of a _ political
career, and, for all of them,
the school board experience
proved to be “an invaluable
political apprenticeship,”
conclude Stacey and Robin-
son.

Robinson points out that
their findings “contradict the
prevailing myth that educa-
tion is apolitical, that school
board trustees don’t have
political ambitions.” On the
contrary, he says, although
all but one of the sampling of
the B.C. politicians had no
political ambitions beyond
the local boardroom at the
time they were elected, their
experience = transformed
their “office-bound ambi-
tions” to “upward-bound am-
bitions”.

The overwhelming majori-
ty of the group studied came
from “politically conscious
families,” he says, in which
politics was part of daily
family life. In nearly half the
families cither a parent or
close relative had held
public office.

Despite carly exposure to
political life, the school
board trustees entered
political life with a certain
naivete, but emerged
politically skilled, report

obinson and Stacey.

A certain degree of
“political desirability” was
also acquired by the former
school trustees during their
term in office, report Robin-
son and Stacey,

Stacey and Robinson point
out in their study that they
examined only the ex-
periences of individuals who
continued to higher political
offices, and that most school
board members do not.
“Quite a few try, but most
fail.” Nonetheless, for all,
those who had the ex-
perience, it was {Powerful
and mind expanding,”
contrary to popular Srey
tion, “very political”.

Robinson points out,
“Most of the decisions which
affect our daily lives are
made on local levels such as
schools boards.”

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