John Casey Hurley has a tendency of turning everything upside down. And then he takes a good, hard look

"Does it make more sense now that I've turned it upside down or less sense?" the 57-year-old said by telephone. "What I've been finding in my career in public education is often things make more sense if you basically turn them upside down."

Hurley's recently published book with Rowman and Littlefield, "The Six Virtues of the Educated Person," does just that. Public school teachers and principals are his target audience.

"We as professors are supposed to teach the social scientific theories about how to improve schools," Hurley said. "I turned that upside down … and the answer became fairly clear to me. We will never improve education until we define what it means to be educated. And we've never done that. That's the premise of the book."

Hurley grew up in Appleton, attending St. Joseph Elementary and Xavier High School. He later went to St. Norbert College in De Pere. After serving as an educational administrator in Stoughton, Columbus and Lodi, in 1989 Hurley completed his doctorate in educational administration at the University of Wisconsin and moved to North Carolina to accept his current professorship in educational leadership at Western Carolina University.

In "The Six Virtues of the Educated Person" Hurley explains that the recognized theory to improve education in America is driven by politics and the findings of educational research.

His alternate model defines an educated person as one possessing intellectual, character and spiritual virtues. All educated people, he said, possess the same six virtues: understanding, imagination, strength, courage, humility and generosity.

Virtue, he added, is a capacity we develop as well as an ability to act virtuously.

Parts of the book, Hurley said, describe the teachings of his mother and his Catholic Schools teachers, both of whom formed the foundation for his educational philosophy defining the educated person as one who develops the six virtues.

The general consensus also has been that leaders should be understanding and be proud, Hurley said.

"But I don't want leaders to be proud. … Jesus is my example of a leader. He wasn't proud. He was humble."

Cheryl Anderson: 920-993-1000, ext. 1249, or canderson@postcrescent.com