I read more than one book at a time. Some through my Kindle app. Some live in iBooks. Some I listen to via Audible or iBooks at different points during the day or evening. I rotate between them, sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once. I stop one. I return to another. Over breaks, like the one we just had, I sometimes sit with a single book longer than usual. This is just how I read.
What follows isn’t a traditional book review, but a reflection on what a book reveals when read alongside a life spent in schools.
I am currently reading George Marshall: A Biography, by Debi Unger and Irwin Unger. It charts the life of George Marshall as a boy, a husband (and widower), and most notably his evolution as a military officer. History teachers like me tell his story as unique, shaped by two world wars, a quiet generation, and of course, his work during the post-war era. What is also fascinating are his contemporaries. Personalities like FDR, Pershing, Eisenhower, Patton, and MacArthur.
What stayed with me was how uncomfortable Marshall seemed with his own ambition, at times. It was a necessary evil. He also held strong beliefs, but he was willing to change his mind when the evidence demanded it. He could easily be portrayed as indecisive when he really was thoughtful. This helped shape a portrait of someone who was not easily taken in by politics and partisanship. If Marshall could maintain deliberation against the backdrop of two world wars then schools, as complex and demanding as they are, can afford to pause when decisions are not truly urgent.
I tend to lead with momentum. In schools, inaction carries its own consequences. Reading Marshall reframed momentum for me as investment rather than motion. I believe that carrying this forward means choosing depth over breadth, even when pressure suggests otherwise.
Unger, Debi, and Irwin Unger. George Marshall: A Biography. New York: HarperCollins, 2014. Apple Books e-book.
