The Archives reveal the historical portrait of the head proctor to be a great deal more nuanced than the caricature this school figure of the 19th and 20th century has left in its wake. An historical analysis based on the confrontation of sources (career files, official texts, testimonials, professional journals…) has enabled us to define the missions, the institutional expectations and the socio-professional characteristics of the head supervisor of a school. S/ he had to be a “solid disciplinarian” executing orders. S/he serves as a warrant for an education understood as a closing in and a closing down - education as enclosure. His or her career is an obstacle course towards the Holy Grail of a posting in Paris. The 1950s and 1960s, scene of a profound evolution in society at large and in its educational system, are the years that bred the Conseiller principal d’éducation or Senior educational counsellor. The change in name singles out a rupture that hides a somewhat more complex professional reality for this new school professional. The dregs of our historical inheritance have not always allowed him or her to control and conceive of his / her activity.