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P.O. Box 1207, Manhattan, KS 66505-1207

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The MASTER Teacher is the name of the company and its original publication-which is a program of weekly inservice training for teachers. The program, along with introductory and supplementary materials, has been designed exclusively for principals and superintendents to purchase and give to their professional staff each week. Intended to be read individually by teachers in five to eight minutes as well as serve as a topic for individual teacher conferences and group sessions, the weekly writings are designed with the objective of giving teachers large quantities of practical and professional training in small segments throughout the 36-week school year.

The MASTER Teacher evolved out of a need Robert L. DeBruyn saw his very first year in education. In 1963, he began the first day of his educational career by attending an inservice session for new teachers. After a warm welcome, his principal gave him a teacher's handbook, a gradebook, a textbook, and a class roster and sent him into the classroom with 150 students and expected him to be a master teacher. Many teachers have had similar experiences. We were asked to learn too much on-our-own by trial and error. It is a very hard-and unnecessary-way to learn.

That first year Bob saw many potentially fine teachers start the year with a great deal of zeal, but lose both their ideals and their enthusiasm by Thanksgiving. Though all had high hopes and prepared detailed lesson plans, many weren't aware of a crucial fact about education: We must be able to understand and relate to people to be able to teach them effectively. Unfortunately, he saw that many teachers knew their subject much better than they knew their students. Many teachers in the school, new and old alike, began experiencing problems and began disliking teaching. Worse, they began disliking children, other teachers, administrators, the board of education, and parents. Many faltered-and they faltered for one reason: They didn't have the on-going training and specific help needed to be successful in the classroom or the whole of the school with people. He believed specific teacher attitudes and skills were needed if a teacher expected to have a high degree of success and satisfaction in being an educator. In addition, he believed exposing teachers to the attitudes and skills which had the highest probability of giving success and satisfaction was a duty and responsibility of principals and superintendents. This responsibility is, after all, one of the primary functions of administration.

The MASTER Teacher Publication

To meet this need, Bob wrote the original The MASTER Teacher in the fall of 1968 and founded the company in 1969. He is still writing every issue. At first, there were no employees and no office. He wrote two The MASTER Teacher brochures along with literature explaining the program-and mailed samples to principals and superintendents across the country. By the time the 1970-71 school year began, over 2,400 administrators had pledged to give The MASTER Teacher to their staffs. Today, over 12,000 schools and districts in all fifty states, every province in Canada, and twenty-two other countries are using The MASTER Teacher as a continuous and long-term form of inservice. Over 150 million copies of The MASTER Teacher have been published.

The objective of The MASTER Teacher staff development program is to give principals and superintendents a way to cover the broad spectrum of teacher needs and concerns which enhance success. The program is new each year. As both a comprehensive and continuous program, the issues address teaching methods and techniques, professionalism, ethics, discipline, motivation, public relations, student relationships, communication skills, parent relationships, staff relationships, grading, testing, and mastering meetings each year.

It was Bob's belief originally, as it is now, that teachers are influenced far too much by negative colleagues and learn far too much by trial and error experiences-and that teacher training is a process that must begin on the first day of a teacher's career and not end until retirement. Teachers need continuous and comprehensive training in two areas: the academic side and the people side of being an educator-with heavy emphasis on the latter for a vital reason. We must successfully teach all students academic subjects. And the vast majority of teachers who have difficulty in this profession have problems with people-students, colleagues, parents, and administrators. A teacher has to understand, relate to, and work with many different people to be successful-from students, to colleagues, to parents. Regardless of our academic competence, if we can't work with people, especially students, we aren't likely to be very effective in education.

In the process of meeting one need, the organization discovered other needs. The MASTER Teacher now has a total of ten publications for teachers, administrators, board members, support staff, students, and the public. And, as a result of our customers growing needs almost 800 products and services have evolved since 1969. Over 70% of the schools in the United States purchase the publications, products, and services each year. All publications, as well as the vast majority of products and services, are conceptualized, created, manufactured, sold, and delivered from the Manhattan location. The staff has grown to over 50 full-time employees, several part-time employees, 12-18 staff members from Twin Valley Developmental Service for disabled adults, a professional cadre of 80 superintendents, principals, teachers, and staff associates in schools throughout the United States, and one staff associate in Canada.

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