I met an entrepreneurial headmistress recently. A few years ago she was appointed to rescue a failing school, which suffered chronic problems with pupil discipline. On her first day she shut the doors and asked every teacher to identify the worst offenders. They provided 72 names. She excluded every disruptive teenager, saying they would not be readmitted until she had met them and their parents for individual sessions in her study. Over the coming days she saw each one and in time almost all returned to finish their education. Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the school improved radically.
我最近認識了一位頗具企業家精神的女校長。數年前，她受命「拯救」一所長期受學生紀律渙散問題困擾的失敗學校。上任第一天，她關上門，要求老師們說出最搗蛋的學生。教師們列出了72人的姓名。她將所有的「搗亂分子」趕出課堂，稱她會在自己的辦公室分別與他們和家長單獨談話，然後才允許他們重返學校。接下來幾天，她與每一名學生會面。最終，幾乎所有人都返回學校，完成學業。同時，學校的風氣也得到了根本的改善。