Category: school leadership

Despite all the economic difficulties most of us don’t have to go to sleep wondering if we will eat tomorrow or where we will go to get clean water.  Unfortunately for millions of people living in the developing world that is the case.  Whatever our circumstances are by world standards we have all won the lottery of life.  We can hope to see a more prosperous tomorrow

Charitable giving is an American tradition.  Surveys show that 85% of American families make charitable donations each year.   Giving money to charity is part of living an ethical life.   Peter Singer author of “The Life You Can Save” believes that giving to the right charity could end world poverty.   The reason is it takes much less money to help provide clean water, food, agricultural supplies, and basic medical care in the poorest parts of the world.   In his book he cites some examples of how a little bit of money goes a long way.

One story is about a group of women among the lowest caste group in India who pick through the landfills looking for recyclable materials.  Their problem was finding a reliable market.  One of charities promoted through givemore.net gave them enough funds to organize and secure buyers.  Today this group no longer accepts charitable funds.  The good news about supporting the poorest of the poor is the impact is huge.  Workingwomen in India have fewer and healthier children and have the resources to rely on their own best efforts.  This same scenario is repeated in every dirty and forgotten corner of the globe.  When money gets into the right pipeline it changes things.

Teachers can make a sustaining impact on this endeavor by adopting a yearlong charitable cause for their classroom.  Doing this not only teaches your students about culture, geography, and history it also is the beginning for them to be part of a call to positive action.  It empowers your students to make a difference in the world. 

It takes only a little bit of imagination to make this possible.  Students should be encouraged to give.  Create opportunities to give small change.  Students can pay nickels and dimes for extra perks like watching a movie, or having a pizza party.  Throughout the year much can be collected.  Classrooms can aim for a specific dollar amount.  

Teachers can find information from Peter Singer’s book.  The web provides lots of resources like givewell.net. and kiva.org, both allows you to give small amounts of money to lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world. Your students will be able to read first hand accounts of helping a real person make strides towards improving their life.

Help your students learn the value of charitable giving and tap into the possibilities in life.

In the famous words of George Bernard Shaw.

“You see things and you say, why?  But I dream things that never were and I say why not?”

Yesterday President Obama called for sweeping changes to American education.  One of the more controversial parts of his plan is to implement performance pay for teachers.  Obama laid down a challenge for teachers and public school systems demanding more accountability. 

The President wants to reward excellence.  It’s been a long time since the word excellence and public education have been spoken in the same sentence.  As predicted Union leaders reacted cautiously to the plan, while they welcome the vision they fear its implementation.  The question is: how will we know that our children are learning more?

Almost every school district in American has a mission statement posted somewhere.  Typically it will say to provide the right environment in which children can learn.  Few schools are bold enough to promise excellence.  Now think about any product seeking your consumer dollars.  All promise and some guarantee the greatest satisfaction and the best results when you buy theirs.  Education needs this type of challenge, the challenge of excellence.  

Einstein said we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them.   The system under which education operates needs a new foundation.  It took a long time for the current system to develop its institutional practices and they are naturally resistant to let it go.  But schools must not cave into the resistors who see failure and difficulty with the new proposals. The resistors fear that if one thing is wrong how many others might also be wrong.  How much of this institutional establishment are we going to pick apart? 

Intellectual honesty must be a part on this discourse on change.  If schools are ever going to make real progress they must admit that some of their current practices are wrong.  Changing our thinking is the only hope for the future. 

It’s easy in our culture to feel not quite good enough.  For some of us it takes a lifetime to come to terms with the flawed notion of perfection and accepting and loving ourselves.  In the book, “Surviving Marcia Brady.” Maureen Mccormick reveals how the character of Marcia Brady became her alter ego and how far down she fell struggling to accept herself. 

Her story is a modern fable that shows that all the glitters is not gold, despite how much it sparkles.  I was past the age of influence when the Brady Bunch was popular on TV but I remember how much my younger sisters wanted to be just like Marcia.  Popular culture in the early 70’s had not yet wormed its way into the youthful psyche the way it has today so I have to wonder who are the modern day Marcia Brady’s and how much dysfunction are they creating now?

For many children the only template they have for a purposeful life is the one marketed to them through the medium of entertainment. Often promoting a life where popularity and being envied are the standards of success. 

Schools are tapped out right now and to ask them to pick up the slack and restore value where it’s lacking is a heavy proposition.  Despite the difficulties I know schools can influence positive change.   And the steps are simple and free. 

Providing character education and guidance is nothing more than practicing it yourself first.  It doesn’t’ even have to be an institutional practice but it would be more effective if the entire teaching staff embraced it.   

One resource I discovered several years ago was “The Four Agreements” by Dan Miguel Ruiz.  This little book is a gem of practical wisdom that can transform anyone willing to be better.  The four agreements are simple rules to help you honor and respect your own life and everyone you encounter.

The first agreement is to be impeccable with your word.  Speak with integrity say only what you mean.  Avoid using your word to speak against yourself or against someone else.  Never gossip.  Instead use the power of your word in the direction of love and truth.

The second agreement is don’t take anything personally.  Recognize that nothing others do is because of you.  What they do and say is a projection of their own reality, and of their own shortcomings.   When you choose not to be offended you become immune to the opinions and actions of other people.  You cannot become the victim of needless suffering.

The third agreement is don’t make assumptions.  Communicate as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.  With this one agreement you can transform your life because you practice communicating clearly frees you from emotional poison.

And the most important agreement is to always do your best.  When you allow yourself to be human you recognize that everyday is different.  Different mind, different body, different moment and under all these changing circumstances you simply do your best.  This attitude helps you avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

I find the last to be the agreement of forgiveness.  Forgiving yourself is the most critical step to accepting your imperfect yet beautiful self.   Embracing the four agreements is breaking with all your old emotional binds and contracts.  It’s liberating because this practice allows you to be better, to become noble in the truest definition of the word.

I have used the agreements as rules to live by and instructed students in their meaning.  Many students found the simplicity of this creed an easy way to practice respect and  helped them let go of unhealthy judgment and negativity.  

John Lennon sang, “Living is easy with your eyes closed misunderstanding all you see.”

These simple agreements help you live with your eyes open.

How much time everyday do children spend outside? How many minutes a day do children engage in real physical activity?  

Our children do not move enough or play enough.  Read the evidence

• A study published this month in the journal of Pediatrics studied the links between recess and classroom behavior among 11,000 children.  Children who had more than 15 minutes of recess a day had more positive behaviors.
• A Harvard study of middle school students reported in the Journal of School Health that the more physical fitness children have the better they do on academic tests.
• Dr. Stuart Brown author of “Play: How It Shapes the Brain” claims play is a major health issue.  During play children develop skills to solve social problems.  It is a fundamental biological process that creates resiliency and social life skills.
• Neuroscientists at Oxford University believe that repeated exposure to computer games, chat rooms, and social networks sites could leave a generation of children with poor attention spans.  In addition the lack of play and interaction interferes with developing critical communication skills.
• The Journal of Attention Disorders found that for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder improved on test scores by simply taking walks outside.
•  A study by the Broadcaster Audience Research board found teenagers now spend seven and a half hours a day in front of some kind of screen. 

This research shows the intimate connection between the body and the mind.  And that connection can be compromised when children lead out of balance lives.  Too much time devoted to the wrong things.   This information is critical yet in order for it to have any impact those in education must first start to believe it and then to make adjustments.

Scientists know the brain uses two forms of attention.  Directed attention that allows us to concentrate on work and involuntary attention that takes over when we are distracted.  Directed attention is a limited resource.  Long hours sitting whether it be in a classroom or in front of a computer screen create mental fatigue.   But spending time in a natural setting, outside appears to activate involuntary attention giving the brain time to rest.  

Unfortunately this information comes at a time when schools are making cuts to recess and physical education.  Thirty percent of public schools offer no recess at all to children and forty percent of schools surveyed are offering only one daily recess period.  And even more injurious are those teachers who punish students by taking away recess privileges.  You don’t punish children by taking away a math class.  It’s illogical to limit or take away the one activity that promotes greater brain activity and learning potential.

Physical activity is essential to education.  Teachers must work to guarantee that their students have access to being outside and being active even if they must  integrate it into their daily lesson plans themselves.

As we search for cost efficient ways to improve our schools lets not forget these simple rules. 

Virtue is an old fashioned word that seems out of place in our society today.  You don’t hear much about virtue.  But what’s truly needed to rescue us is a resurgence of the practice of being virtuous. 

Barry Schwartz author of “The Paradox of Choice,” writes about psychologists who interviewed hospital janitors around the country.  They asked them what their job entailed.  The job description of a hospital janitor is a long  list of maintenance and cleaning.  Nowhere in the list is a single word that mentions or involves another human being.  Yet during the interviews psychologists discovered that hospital janitors described situations that demanded they be wise. 

There was Mark who described how he stopped mopping the floor because a patient needed to get out of bed to exercise.  There was Charlene who ignored her supervisors and didn’t vacuum the visitors lounge because some family who had been there for 24 hours were taking a nap.  And then there was Luke who mopped the floor of a comatose young man’s room twice because the man’s father who had been keeping a vigil for six months didn’t see him do it the first time and was angry.

Behavior like this whether it comes from a janitor, nurse or a doctor doesn’t just make people feel better it actually improves the quality of patient care and enables hospitals to run well.  The janitors who behaved this way were interacting with people with kindness, care and empathy.

Aristotle said that practical wisdom is a combination of moral will and moral skill.  This group of janitors was practicing both.  

You don’t need to be brilliant to be wise, but without wisdom brilliance isn’t enough. The camera is always on when you are teaching.  As a teacher you are being observed even when you think you are not.  Unlike the janitor your job description demands the moral will and moral skill to be successful.

A wise person knows when and how to make the exception to every rule.  As the janitors knew when to ignore their duties in the service of another person, having wisdom means you know how to improvise. Real world problems are often ambiguous and ill defined.  The context is always changing.  A wise person knows how to use these moral skills in the pursuit of the right aims.

The context in your classroom is also always changing, student skills and needs shift and challenge what you believed was the norm.   So how can you bring practical wisdom into your day?

The most single important thing you can teach to your students is first to respect themselves, second to respect others and last to respect learning.

Your school community has an obligation to nurture the development of the moral will and moral skill of all its teachers.  It must recognize the even the wisest and most well meaning among you will give up if they have to swim against the current. 

A wise person is made and not born.  Wisdom depends on experience and not just any experience.  You need the time to know the people you are serving.  You need permission to improvise and to try new things and occasionally to fail.  And to learn from these failures.  Most important you need to be mentored by wise teachers.

Teachers must celebrate moral exemplars.  We are inspired by our moral heroes, acknowledge them and celebrate them  and strive to become an everyday moral hero yourself.  The future of education depends on an injection of this type of leadership.  

When Ryne Sandberg was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 2005 he said, “ I was in awe every time I walked onto the field.  That’s respect. A lot of people say this honor validated my career, but I didn’t work hard for validation.   I didn’t play the game right because I saw a reward at the end of the tunnel.  I played it right because that’s what you’re supposed to do, play it right and play it with respect.  If this validates anything, it’s that the guys who taught me did what they were supposed to do.”

Playing by the rules is an institutional practice.  And these practices are passed down and evolve.   “There is a deep reverence for those who came before and built up the rules,” writes political scientist Hugh Heclo in his book “On Thinking Institutionally.” 

Heclo believes we are defined by what life asks of us.  As we go through life we travel through institutions, family, school, and then institutions that become part of our profession.

Your students need a model to learn how and why to play by the rules because right now it seems everyone has broken all the rules.   As educators you have not just an opportunity every day but an obligation to pass on the importance of respect in every aspect of your students life. 

So how can you do this? 

There is nobility and integrity in honoring what is right and especially doing this when challenged.  Classroom teachers are challenged everyday by the disruptions and demands of their students.  It is impossible to plan without planning for the unexpected.  The unexpected is the student who is testing your good humor and your patience.  It is the love and the discipline of the one student that communicates the love for the others. 

Stephen Covey author of “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” said, “It’s how you treat the one that reveals how you regard the ninety-nine, because ultimately everyone is the one.” 

If students can learn this lesson of the importance of the one they can practice playing by the rules for life.  They can learn to become persons of the highest integrity, calling a penalty on themselves when need be. 

As teachers you don’t need a plan or a special time of day to weave this lesson into the curriculum you can do this simply by practicing and honoring your craft.  You have a relationship to teaching that could almost be described as a covenant.  Your job is to do it right, to play by the rules yourself so your students can follow in your footsteps.

Creative World Connection Series 1 is a collection of daily messages that help you reinforce this lesson with your students.  As a small company CWC is able to adapt our material to the needs of your student population.  Contact us today for more information on how we can help your students learn the importance of playing by the rules. 

Science stands alone as an extraordinary intellectual invention, it helps to neutralize our human tendency to see only what we expect to see.  The scientific process creates experiments to establish a clear connection between cause and effect.  Science cancels out our prejudices, groupthink, tradition, pride, and dogma.

The importance of science cannot be over stated.  Students of science not only learn to abandon ideas when new evidence is presented they also learn to practice intellectual honesty.  This intelligence simply means that when confronted with new evidence they can admit that far from knowing more they suddenly know a lot less.  Science allows us to live in the mystery, to be in the quest of knowledge. 

Schools have not embraced the study of science.  Many of us persist in believing what is most comfortable instead of what is evident. Evolution and climate change are two examples and still hotly debated despite evidence to the contrary. 

Schools need to start early to capture the minds and imaginations of their students. The timeline from Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton to Einstein demonstrates a group of individuals who rejected the easy familiar conclusions to explore the unfamiliar ones. 

I propose that science be taught in much the same way that literature is.   Instead of teaching just the facts present the big picture and the excitement that made the big leaps possible.  In this way students can learn to love science and not to fear it.   For many in schools both teachers and students the study of science has an elitist attitude.  Classes like chemistry and physics cannot be reserved for only those considered smarter.  This idea is damaging to students and to their understanding of science.

Our students are surrounded by technology but yet have little understanding of how we got here.   In our daily lives we arrive at our beliefs usually though a patchwork of opinions, prejudices and personal experiences.  Most of us would be hard pressed to trace the source of these beliefs in any rigorous way.   Creating a population of scientists gives our future generations a tool to allow examination and reason to form their beliefs. 

Encourage your students to constantly ask “why.”  Asking the difficult questions is what leads to discovery.

Failure to thrive is a medical term used to describe children who have stunted development.  It’s unclear why but doctors know this affliction is not a result of malnutrition, infections or any other single physical process that science can identify.  What they do know is the condition is reversed when children are in a loving and nurturing environment. 

Children can be stunted physically if they are not given sufficient love and attention now imagine the effect a lack of this has on the learning process.   Our current education system is being stressed by enormous social and economic factors, some of which seem overwhelming.  The suggestion that a failure to thrive is now the responsibility of a school is not meant to criticize but to empower. 

Creating a sufficient loving environment should not be a challenge for a school but a requirement.  Every school should ask: what conditions are necessary for a student to learn?

The most important condition is every student must feel and know that their classroom is safe.  They are treated with respect and trust what their teacher will ask them to do.  At some level the student must believe that their teacher has their best interest at heart.  It is in this environment that students will want to do some work to please their teacher.  They are engaged and attending to the work.  This is a great first step in the process to change from schooling to learning.  

The second step is students will begin to realize that what they are learning is important, it’s relevant to their life and is useful.  They will begin to bring the community of learners into their quality world.  They trust those around them and work together for a common goal.  The momentum is contagious and learning can become fun.

The last step is students learn how to self evaluate their own work.  They decide to make it better.  At this phase students are learning for the sake of knowledge. 

All of this sounds slightly utopian and out of reach.  But remember it’s derived from the basic premise that children thrive in a loving environment.  Any environment that tells a child you matter, you are important, and you can master this is a place where a child can excel.

Schools need to move away from mediocre standards and models.   They can solve their own problems but only by changing their thinking. 

Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking which created them.”

Our best thinking got us here, we can change. 

Recently the New York Times ran a health article about self-handicapping.  Self-handicapping is one way to lower expectations and protect your ego.  The way you do it is to make a disclaimer before attempting a task where failure is anticipated. 

I’ve done this unconsciously for years; I’m always quick to say that I’m not good in math, poor at navigating directions, and not skilled at team sports.  These disclaimers quickly excuse my mistakes in advance.  This is a strategy in protecting my ego. 

Now imagine your typical classroom filled with students who are self-handicapping.  This lowered self-image creates a real impediment to learning because students who are convinced of the truth of this will not even try.

So how does a classroom teacher encourage students certain of failure to try?

One important way is to create a classroom environment that is cooperative instead of competitive.   Cooperative learning groups promotes a positive kind of interdependence where individual success is not as important.   This type of structure also gives students of all learning abilities a chance to succeed.   And results show that students who are given a chance to work collaboratively learn faster and feel more positive about school.  It would also seem likely they would self-handicap less often. 

One of the consequences of self-handicapping is it constantly reinforces the negative belief of not being smart enough to be comprehend difficult subjects.   Many students believe that high intelligence is only associated with book smarts and higher graders.  When in fact there are seven measurable kinds of smart. 

Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliners” says high IQ even at the genius level is not a predictor of success.  He illustrates in his book that practical intelligence helps an individual read a situation. It’s procedural and is about knowing how to do something without necessarily being able to explain it.  Practical intelligence helps you handle the challenges of life.  And it is not innate but can be taught.

We’ve grown accustomed to associating smart with success and high academic achievement.  That could be why even as an adult I will avoid having to do complicated mathematic calculations.   Just to test myself and try to undo some of my old scripts I forced myself to take an online math test.  I did the equations over and over until finally I began to understand what had been missing. 

Researchers have discovered that being good at math is not an innate ability.  It’s not so much ability as an attitude.  You can master mathematics if you are willing to try.  Success is a function of persistence and the willingness to work hard to make sense of something.  

My little experiment is too late for rich academic development but it did prove to me that self-handicapping has been an impediment to learning.  I wonder if given different circumstances as a child would I have discovered a talent or even a passion that I don’t have now. 

Teachers have an opportunity to shape the beliefs of their students by giving them the freedom to have a “glorious misconception” (as Mr. Gladwell writes) about something and then the time to work enough to resolve it.   These “ah ha” moments are truly the windows of opportunity because students will tap into the possibilities. 

The New Year presents the perfect opportunity to teach your students how to begin to live a principled life by writing a mission statement for themselves.  Today’s teenagers are the ultimate consumers and already too familiar with the slogans and mission statements of companies eager for their spending dollars.  You can introduce them to another kind of mission statement one that can be a blueprint for their future. 

To help students begin to deeply reflect on the purpose of their lives divide them into small groups, each group will receive the pieces to a jigsaw puzzle.  Do not give them a picture of the completed puzzle.  (Perhaps you can solicit your co-workers for enough puzzles to go around).  Students will quickly discover how difficult it is to put the puzzle together without a picture or a blueprint.  Use the blueprint as a metaphor for their mission statement.  In the same way you can’t complete a puzzle, or build a house without a blueprint you don’t build your life without a plan.  If you want to be successful, have joy in life, and experience meaningful relationships you’d better have a plan.  The mission statement is their plan.

Students can begin brainstorming by using these questions to dig deeper.

·       What do I want to have?

·       What do I see myself doing? (In my school life, in my personal life and as a contribution to others)

·       Who has served me as a role model and has influenced me in a positive way?

·       What qualities does this person have that I would like to possess?

·       What qualities of character do I admire most in others?

·       Think of something that represents you (something in nature, music, poetry ect.)  … Why does it represent you?

Do not give your students too much time to think about these questions, the purpose is to freely associate and record their first responses.   Remind them hidden in their responses are challenges that can be incorporated into their statements about who they are and what they will stand for. 

Explain to your students this first draft represents a new script for their life.  This script is based on personal leadership because they are now acting on principles not opinion, not peer influences, and not emotions.  You could call this statement their personal constitution, or Bill of Rights.  Their statements like the constitution must be based on correct principles.  It empowers them to respond to problems and obstacles in life with strength and resolve. Students can begin to discover that they can live with change and even uncertainty if there is a changeless core inside.  

It might help your students if you can share some of your own core values and use these as the foundation for your classroom Bill of Rights.   Practice what you teach and help your students discover  the  real excellence of living a principled life.