Being a general studies mesivta principal provides a unique perspective on general studies education. On the one hand, you are involved in curriculum, on the other hand you are only as good as your teachers ability to teach it. On one level you are involved in discipline, on the other hand, its mainly up to the teachers to maintain order in the classroom. On the one hand you set the tone of the afternoon, on the other hand, your teachers do most of the heavy lifting in this department. To summarize, it could be said that as a principal you do everything but very little at the same time. What it does provide in full measure though is the unparalleled view of the whole system. You oversee the curriculum, the books, you interact with the teachers, the parents, the State and make sure the students are in a serious, safe and productive learning environment. My role though as principal has another dimension to it: I am brand new at the job. As I am still in shana rishona so to speak, my first year, I get to go through this job and responsibility with open eyes. Like a child beholding a new phenomena for the very first time, my perspective is still yet unclouded by years of experiences that leave me with definite positions on matters of general studies education. If so, what does this perspective provide and what could you, the reader, hope to glean from this? Freshness? Clarity? Or just plain laughs at my naiveté? Maybe all of the above. Hopefully though, through the sharing of my experiences, new insights and perspectives can be gleaned about this most important aspect of chinuch in our time...