In 2006, Dr. Leonard developed MaHakkaat at-Tafkir, a discussion program in Arabic for the Ministry of Education in Jordan for 6th–9th graders. He currently spends half the year training teacher trainers who implement this program in the public schools. He just completed work on a book in conjunction with the Minister of Education in Jordan: Re-Defining Arab Education for the 21st Century.
Dr. Leonard received his PhD in Education from Harvard University. A lifelong educator, he worked at UNESCO, UNDP, UNRWA, and International Planned Parenthood. Among his many achievements, he has taught at the Friends School in Ramallah (1950–51, 55–57), Birzeit University, and was Dean of Students and Associate Professor of Humanities at the American University of Beirut (1960–63). As an instructor, he helped to create the Department of Education at the Experimental State University of New York (1970–73). He was visiting professor at National Teachers University, Beijing, People’s Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution (1979–81).
Dr. Leonard is a fluent speaker of Jordanian colloquial Arabic and French. At the age of ninety-four, Dr. Leonard continues to work passionately and tirelessly in the field of education. Few “foreign experts” understand as deeply the vital distinction between modernization and westernization, which is a theme that pervades Dr. Leonard’s consciousness and influences much of what he has to tell us concerning educational reform. His work reflects his ability to dissect these two elements with the skill of a surgeon, separating unwanted tissue from healthy tissue. This requires a lifetime of careful attention to cultural differences, which Dr. Leonard acquired through more than 65 years of work in the Middle East.
Additionally, Dr. Leonard has a deep and broad knowledge of the history, theory, and practice of education in the West, its failures, and its progress. Unlike many educators, his perspective is not one of narrow specialization but a broad yet detailed understanding of all aspects of society that interact with and influence education, whether we like it or not. A deep moral commitment to all that is good in humanity guides Dr. Leonard always. He has devoted his life to education because he understands that only through education can progress be made, allowing every society to become creative and self-sufficient, not dependent on the ideas—and therefore the power—of other nations.