Handy Randy's Ramblings

4-day School Week - Thoughts to Ponder

2010-02-25T12:44:00.003-06:00

Challenging Conventional Wisdom

Conventional Wisdom – More time in school = more learning achievement

A Different Perspective – Malcom Gladwell’s work (Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) Leavitt’s book (Freakonomics)

According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, in four of the seven countries that outperform the United States in mathematics, students spend less time in class per week than U.S. students do and also less than the international average.

McREL’s meta-analysis identifies Teacher Quality (not the length of a school year or week) as the key variable in student achievement. Research supports the assertion that it is not the quantity but the quality of education time that is the critical determinant of how much students learn. Rigor, Relevance and Relationships (not time) are keys.

Time on Task is an essential variable that is controlled largely by the teacher but is also affected by systemic issues.

Four day provides excellent opportunities to protect instructional time.

Practices that effect teacher quality can be scheduled regularly on the off day (professional development, professional learning communities)

Promising practices for secondary education can be more easily managed and scheduled on the off days (ie. Senior projects, Internships, Job Shadows, Service Learning projects)

Other potential opportunities for the changed use of time (Teacher home visits, enrichment and remediation programs on the off day)

Alternative uses of time to increase student engagement

KSDE Goal: Redesign the delivery system to meet our students’ changing needs

“A fish is the last to discover water.” We’ve been swimming in the 5 day school week pond for the past century and a half. There’s probably another way we will not see until we try something different.

A patron put it better than I could ever imagine at one of our public meetings. She said, “ultimately the decision makers need to remember that they are a Board of Education, not a Board of Humanity.”

Best Web resource: http://educationnorthwest.org/news/832

Fix The Health Care System, Now!

2009-09-08T20:56:00.002-05:00

September 9, 2009

To My Federal Representatives

I am writing to implore you to step up and lead! Our country’s health care system is out of control. The big private health care providers and pharmaceutical companies are raping our middle class for the almighty dollar and leaving the working poor to live in third-world health care conditions. We have a long history of government regulation of public utilities. Equitable health care, in a country as rich as ours, is a public utility. I believe we need to treat it this way and regulate it.

This does not mean we must have a “government-run” health care system, but does require a “governmentally regulated” health care system. The private sector must not be allowed to continue to “cherry-pick” good risk, they must in some equitable way assume all basic health care risks. We must stop paying physicians based upon the number of procedure they perform, and move to a system that provides incentives for physicians to simultaneously reduce costs and improve patient health.

I suggest regulation of health care not be centralized in one federal system, but distributed to the States. We must find the lowest level of government possible to provide excellent accountability, provide for regional needs, regulate the system and at the same time provide for cost-efficient operation of the regulatory process.

Elected leaders at critical times in history must step beyond partisan politics and become stewards of the nation. Now is the time for you to step up and provide the stewardship necessary to put together a “world-class” health care system for all Americans, whether politically popular in the short-run, or not. It is your duty to coming generations. I would rather plant the seeds of greatness today than to cultivate weeds for a lifetime. I hope you would too!

Randy Rivers

Letter to My Kansas Representatives

2007-11-12T13:41:00.000-06:00

October 3, 2007

My Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20510

REAUTHORIZATION OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

I am writing you to express my recommendation that you strongly consider not reauthorizing the NCLB law. Our country's constitution does not give the enterprise of education to the federal government. Most state constitutions make it their primary responsibility. We need to do more to insulate education policy from politics, because in my experience, kids' true interests are very poorly represented by the political machine. Since the creation of the Department of Education, there has been a slow erosion of local control of schools.

Intuitively, we all know that problems are best solved at the level closest to the problem. Federal interventions into the complex issues our public schools face are not empowering the people who can make a difference in children's lives! Jim Collins in his book Good to Great points out the need for organizations to analyze what they do and to "stop doing" those things that are counter-productive.

The levels of bureaucracy that the United States Department of Education adds to the education of our children need to be tossed aside. I recommend that you seriously consider simple block grants to state departments of education with the simple directions that the money needs to flow to the classrooms, where the rubber meets the road. Local boards of education and teaching staffs are in a much better position to make the critical decisions necessary to effectively target this money. I'd also recommend that a portion of the block grants be set aside to reward and recognize the local schools and districts that are showing exceptional results for all children.

I realize that you may take some heat for this type of change. Some may say you don't support education. I say that responsible stewardship and leadership requires the courage to do what is right, not what is popular. The right thing for the children of America is to place public education policy back into the hands of the leaders closest to the children they are serving.

RANDL G. RIVERS
SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS

2007-06-02T14:41:00.000-05:00

"A fish is the last to discover water." This proverb speaks volumes about our educational system today. We [educators] are so immersed in our assumptions about what school should look like that we lose sight of the underlying purpose of schools. If we truly want to improve learning, we must look outside of the classroom walls. They imprison the mind to less than is possible.

2007-03-03T18:43:00.000-06:00

Abundance, Asia, & Automation

Daniel Pink's keynote address today at the AASA convention was, without a doubt, the event that will be the highlight of my trip to New Orleans. Mr. Pink is an exceptional communicator! The information from his book A Whole New Mind is a must read for every education policy maker in America. I encourage my Kansas colleagues to work together to find a way to bring Mr. Pink to our state to communicate his message to key policymakers in the Land of Ahs!

2006-07-06T16:38:00.000-05:00

Superintendent’s Summit – Angus King

I was very interested in Mr. King’s description of how the Maine one to one laptop initiative was conceived and implemented. It was through an interesting sequence of events, including a chance luncheon with Seymour Papert in the mid 1990s. Mr. King’s comment that this type of initiative will probably not bear fruit until he had left office for ten years is a tribute to his vision and long-term stewardship of the State of Maine. It would be nice if we had more politicians who shared Mr. King’s long-term approach to social, cultural and political problems today!

2006-07-06T16:23:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Negroponte Keynote

Mr. Negroponte’s keynote was very interesting. Although the One Laptop Per Child initiative will not likely be affecting US classrooms in the near future, the ideas and impact it will have globally will most likely have some side-effects on technology in America’s schools in the next five years. In the next five to ten years, we’ll still be on our own in reaching the goal of 1 to 1. It became obvious to me that we will need to begin to plan with the idea in mind of building budgets capable of providing for the professional development and hardware at price points much nearer to the current market than at the $100 per laptop level.

2006-07-05T18:00:00.000-05:00

Session: Podcasting Standards: Using Technology to Teach Technology

"Teachers must model creativity to their students." This session was highly focused on music education applications of the ipod and podcasting. The presenter seems highly knowledgeable. The session did reinforce my idea that video podcasting (vodcasting) may well be the technology that will revolutionize distance and online learning. If we, and our students, can take the concepts provided for us from the American Film Institute and apply them to vodcasting, we will be able to provide our students with exceptional digital video learning resources on a large scale.

2006-07-05T17:12:00.000-05:00

Session: Podcasting with Purpose

The presenters gave a nice overview of how easy it is to begin podcasting, especially if you are using the iLife ’06 software and GarageBand. Their focus was on determining the purpose you have for communicating with a podcast and go for it.

I am intrigued by this concept for the future of schools. I can envision audio and video enhanced podcasts of master teachers, teaching a lesson that they can really get across to kids. Having several dynamic lessons from multiple master teachers on a single standard available to students to choose to complement their learning styles. If one teacher doesn’t connect, perhaps the podcast of the lesson on the standard from another teacher will strike the right note with the student. Education needs to provide more choice for students. (Not the version of choice that included vouchers) I believe having numerous versions of important standards based lessons available in multiple learning style modes will empower students to find that explanation or presentation that truly makes learning happen.

Presenters suggested readings:
The Long Tail by Chris Anderson
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them by Jean-Francois Rischard and J. F. Rischard

2006-07-05T16:05:00.000-05:00

Call to Action:

I met a nice lady on my way to afternoon sessions today. Her name is Hilary Goldmann and she was working the crowd, in the Sails Pavillion, to write letters to their congressional delegation to restore funding to the Ed-Tech programs. Hilary is the Director of Government Affairs for ISTE. I know in the State of Kansas, this program has been responsible for turning on hundreds of teachers to the promise of technology in the classroom. It is a shame that our president continues to cut education funding and has completely eliminated the ed tech areas from the newest federal budget. Please get involved and let your representatives know how much more important this area is than the current focus on testing.

2006-07-05T13:07:00.000-05:00

Session: Absolute Value: Discover Ideas for Increasing Engagement in Math

Website: http://fletcher.davidsonepic.org/smart

Mike is a very passionate math teacher. He has some great ideas on how to use technology, especially "Smart Board" type technology to help students visualize geometric and algebraic concepts. He believes technology in the math classroom should not be used to learn the tools but to assist students in visualizing and seeing the relevancy of the math they are learning. Be sure to share the website with all of your middle and high school math teachers.

2006-07-05T11:18:00.000-05:00

Session:
AFI Screen Education Center: Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum

The language of the screen is the literacy of the 21st century. The American Film Institute Education Center has developed a curriculum for teachers to implement in the classroom. The program includes staff development for teachers, instructional clips for students and extensive (.pdf) planning resources and lesson plans to use with the students. This wonderful resource will be available this fall free of charge to any school district that has access to Discovery network’s United Streaming. This program has been made available through the resources of the U.S. Department of Education and the Best Buy Educational Foundation. One of my favorite authors of late is Roger Shank and his thinking behind the importance of kids “doing” things in school to maximize true learning. This curriculum is a great opportunity for the core classroom teacher to move from being the doer to being more of a facilitator of learning.

2006-07-05T10:27:00.000-05:00

Reflections On My Reading
I'm listening to Blink by Malcom Gladwell on my way to the NECC conference. As I listen, I am visualizing a common thread in it and other recent reads including Freakonomics, First Break All the Rules, and Good to Great. That theme seems to be that "conventional wisdom" and much of what we learn in our formal education can cloud the tremendous "sub-conscious" knowledge we gain with experience. That's a huge problem today in the K-12 educational realm. It is a great deal of "conventional wisdom" coming down from the US Dept. of Education that is driving our curriculums. As we take this opportunity to see the real educational possiblilites here at NECC, I encourage everyone to go back home and do everything that you can to evangelize the problems with current testing insanity. I always try to remind myself of something my grandfather regularly quipped while when I was young and working on the ranch: You don't fatten a steer by weighing it!

2006-07-04T18:18:00.000-05:00

NECC Conference - July 4, 2006
Just arrived at our hotel room Best Western Island Palms Hotel and Marina. This is a beautiful site. The island is closed to traffic and is packed with people waiting to watch the fireworks over San Diego Harbor. It's going to be interesting finding my way to the Convention Center, but the hotel location is great and my family should really enjoy the room and shaded private porch overlooking the harbor. Gotta go...need to figure out how we're going to get to the opening Reception. Have a great conference!

2005-09-26T15:16:00.000-05:00

A Vision for 21st Century Classrooms

In his national bestseller The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman describes a “quiet crisis” in America. This quiet crisis is the failure of our educational system, or perhaps more appropriately - our culture, to appreciate the need to motivate our children to love math and science. We desperately need leadership in our country to step forward and provide us with a vision for the 21st century that will create a renaissance of imagination, creativity and innovation within our society.

Great leaders in our country have provided us with great visions to lead us to a higher plane in times of crisis or turmoil. Our country is now in need of a new vision that will unify us in the pursuit of conquering the opportunities of this new age in world history. I have been inspired by Thomas Friedman’s suggestion that this vision be to make our country energy independent in the next decade.

It seems to me that America’s competitive advantage throughout her history has been the ability of our people to use their tremendous ambition to create additional value and an ever increasing standard of living through imagination, creativity and innovation. It was our ability to be visionary leaders in these areas throughout the industrial revolution, subsequent industrial age and cold war that allowed us to become the preeminent world economy. During that period we needed a setting that helped our society bridge the gap from the farm to the factory and our schools were designed to do just that and performed very well for us for nearly a century. Now we face another major shift in world economics and politics and must proactively plan and prepare for it.

Globalization is now available to small enterprises and individuals, not just countries and big business. Our organizations, including schools, must learn to become more horizontally aligned to allow for the communication and collaboration between individuals that is now possible on a global scale. Our schools and classrooms must adjust to the new realities of the information age.

Our current school organizations are heavily steeped in “command and control” structures. My vision is to break these structures down and to place the responsibility and resources needed to engage students in true learning in the hands of the players in the classroom…teachers and students. In my “Future Ready” classrooms, I see a teacher who is a generalist providing nurturing and guidance to students who are doing relevant work through communication and collaboration with other groups and individuals throughout the world. Doing is the key action in my classrooms of the future. Experience is the best teacher. Imagination, creativity and innovation are not nurtured through curriculum guides and standardized tests. We must provide our students with opportunities to learn the way the brain learns best, by trying and failing and developing greater understanding of the interrelationships between all things.

My classrooms (with and without walls) will need to provide individuals with options for their learning. “One size fits all” pedagogy must go the way of the dinosaur. We must focus on catching our students doing things right and abandon the bell curve mentality. The teachers in my classrooms will be models of adaptability for our students. The teachers will model the really adaptive behavior that is required in a world that requires education to truly last a lifetime. Learning and relearning constantly must become the status quo for both teachers and students.

To accomplish much of what I describe, the classroom players will need to be “wired” to the world. We will provide tools to our teachers and students that are digital, personal, mobile and virtual. Tasks in the classroom will not always require technological tools, but they should be always available to provide communication and collaboration in learning activities. Assessment of learning in these classrooms will be based on the quality of the “products” or “value” created by the students’ efforts. Reflection and metacognitive activities will abound in these classrooms.

American historian Lynn White said, “We live in an era when rapid change breeds fear, and fear too often congeals us into a rigidity which we mistake for stability.” Our schools today are caught in the rigidity to which Lynn White refers. The profound changes our world is experiencing due to the leveling of the “economic playing field” will eventually force educators to change, but it is those with the foresight to change now that will best serve their charges. In his introduction to Future Shock, Alvin Toffler noted, “Change is the progress by which the future invades our lives.” We must prepare our student for their futures, not our past. The lives of our students will be forever enhanced the sooner we make imagination, creativity and innovation the foundation of education in America.

2005-09-16T11:22:00.000-05:00

My Reflections on the Standard & Poor’s Statewide Education Insights - KANSAS

The report is a statistical analysis that determines the upper and lower control limits of the current educational system. My analysis of the data leads me to conclude that our current system will not statistically allow us to get to the state and national goal of 100% proficiency. The report is designed to identify models to allow schools to try to get closer to the upper limits. Since our goal for schools is to reach 100% student proficiency in reading and math, the study illustrates the absurdity of reaching this goal within our current system.

I believe leaders are asking the wrong questions in their quest to improve the performance and achievement of our children. Rather than seeking the statistical “top performers” within the current system, we should be asking what significant systemic and organizational changes can be made to allow schools to move the statistical control limits much closer to the ultimate goal.

2005-06-20T21:19:00.000-05:00

Re-imagine!

I was fortunate enough last week to attend a presentation by nationally known business guru, Tom Peters, in Wichita, as part of the Kan-ed Conference. I have also spent considerable time reading his newest book, Re-imagine! Mr. Peters' expertise shared with the business world in his book In Search of Excellence is often credited with the resurgence of American business in the 1980's. Mr. Peters pulled no punches with the audience of educators, librarians and public hospital officials. He let us all know that the status quo is not good enough for us to continue to compete with the rest of the world. We have become complacent. Our schools, especially high schools, have become irrelevant.

I take to heart what Mr. Peters has to say. The governance systems and bureaucracy of most school systems, even the small ones I have worked in, make it like ice skating in molasses to make meaningful progress and improvement. I'm a twenty-two year veteran of the education wars and am growing increasingly convinced that a radical change is necessary for our schools to jump out of the ruts and take off in an innovative new direction to assure students perform at the levels needed in this new century. We need to throw out the statute book and start from scratch. It's time for visionary leaders to step up to help make this happen. I, for one, am willing to enlist in the cause!

2004-08-02T19:21:00.000-05:00

Library Media Centers

We all know the stereotype of the grouchy old librarian with her finger perpetually pressed to her lips and a scowl that could pierce the soul. She would cringe with every fingerprint placed upon a book. These stereotypical places are not what I define as a library media center today. I view them as archives and sources of today’s reluctance for people to use libraries.

Now, envision the modern bookstore. It’s a user-friendly place that invites you to snuggle up and get comfortable with a book. Many types of media are available: music, fiction, nonfiction, references, video, and books on tape. There are strategically placed sofas and chairs, reading areas, discussion areas and service areas. This is what a school library media center should more closely resemble; a place where the customer comes first and the variety is expansive.

Today’s school library needs to provide a happy medium between that stereotypical library of the past and the modern bookstore. Many resources used in today’s schools are on video tape, cable TV, on audio tape, laser discs, DVD’s, and the Internet; therefore, the library must be a place that provides students, teachers, and other library patrons convenient access to and space to use these forms of media. Additionally, the school library still must provide a comprehensive collection of fiction and the space to properly store and display it. It is the reading of fiction during the formative years that provides the needed practice to become a fluent and thoughtful reader.

The library media center should become the nucleus of the school’s commitment to the value of literacy. It should become a resource that is a source of community pride. The promotion of recreational reading should be a guiding principle. Opportunities to increase the amount of recreational reading should be seized. Recreational reading will efficiently increase a student’s vocabulary, improve student attitude toward reading, refine reading skills, increase the realization that leisure time reading can provide pleasure, impart information and broaden a student’s range of experience. Activities in the classroom that will reinforce the importance of reading must become the norm. Providing students with independent silent reading time is very important in every class and subject. A reduction in the number of workbooks and skill sheets should be initiated. They should be replaced through the use of more pre-reading preparation and follow-up discussion of what was read. In addition, lessons should be structured so students spend more time in independent reading activity. Reading is a skill that requires practice and a low anxiety environment.

Our goal at Northeast schools is to make this vision of libary media centers a reality.

2004-08-02T19:16:00.000-05:00

Pride & Ownership

The feeling of pride and ownership is a powerful elixir to the human spirit. We well up with a powerfully good feeling when the Wildcats or the Jayhawks give us a reason to stand tall and say, “That’s my team!” It’s the same feeling that a rancher gets when he sees the truck pull out of the drive with the last load of the season’s best calves, or that the local homeowner has when he puts the finishing touches on the home improvement project that he (or she) completed himself. It is this feeling of pride that we need to find and make real in our schools.

The local schools are very important parts of our rural and small town culture. The schools can be an asset or liability to continued growth and vitality in a rural community. There is more to the school than the building, but it is the facility that is generally the source of a visitor or patron’s first impression. When it comes to our schools, the old adage, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” certainly rings true.

The schools of the Northeast district are a great community asset. We place a great emphasis on the care we take in preserving and “spit polishing” the assets we currently have. If you have suggestions regarding ways to make our buildings and grounds more appealing, please let us know. We do have limited resources for facility maintenance but I’m sure with great ideas from the community we can find ways to stretch those resources and make the schools great sources of community pride and the entire community can have a feeling of true ownership. I’m particularly curious to know if there is any interest in scheduling volunteer work days for the purpose of “sprucing up the buildings and grounds.” I feel that volunteerism in the schools is an excellent way for the entire community to reestablish the feelings of pride and ownership that can lead to improvements in all areas of the school program.

2004-08-02T19:11:00.000-05:00

Reading IS the curriculum

The Kansas State Wildcat football teams and Kansas Jayhawk basketball teams have recently generated tremendous excitement in our state. We all marvel at how well these teams play. Did you ever stop to think what it takes to play at the level these teams are on today? As an ex-coach and player, I know! It takes hours, and days, and years of practice.

We seem to know intuitively that to be good at anything, requires practice. What about the subjects we want our children to master. Yes, they take practice. In the Northeast schools, the vision I wish to inspire is that “Reading IS the curriculum.” We want our students to be very good readers. Simply wanting this for our children is not going to make it happen, though. Our kids need hours, days, and years of practice to do it well.

A famous study of schools a number of years ago by a gentleman named John Goodlad, found that in the average junior high school in the United States, students only actually practiced reading for about 12 minutes per day. In high schools, this time was less than 10 minutes per day. As a community, would we allow our athletic coaches to hold 10 to 15 minute daily practices? I’d say not! This is what we do with reading in most schools, though. We allow students to get away with practicing the single most important skill they will learn, on average 10 to 15 minutes per day.

Another recent study found that the kids who spent the most time reading in their free time outside of school were the students who performed the best in school. Conversely, the students who spent the most time watching television and playing video games in their free time outside of school performed the worst. Mom’s and dad’s are a child’s first and most important teacher. Think about it. In the first six years of a child’s life, the child is with mom and dad over 52,000 hours while they are at school only 700 hours. Children need to be read to during this time to develop a broad listening vocabulary to prepare them to begin the process of learning to read. Without that listening practice they won’t be ready when they start school.

Our schools need to rethink priorities as well. Math requires the ability to read, science and social studies require reading, using a web page requires reading, passing the driver’s test requires it. I intend to see to it that reading IS the curriculum in the Northeast schools. We will, over the next several years, increase the amount of reading practice that takes place during the school day. This will require some changes in what we teach, but well developed readers are lifelong learners and that is what “education” is all about!

I encourage parents, grandparents, and concerned community members to take time to read to children. Even high school aged children benefit from being read to. I encourage parents to limit television and video game time during the school week. And when the TV is on, switch on closed captioning to provide additional reading practice.

Please always remember “reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”

2004-08-02T19:01:00.000-05:00

High Touch

As we begin this new century, I believe it to be a good time to reflect upon the state of our schools and to set expectations for their future. The past century was an incredible one in the history of man. We saw our culture move from an agricultural base through industrialization and into an information, communication, and knowledge based culture. Pretty heady stuff for anyone to imagine taking place in 1000 years, let alone 100.

Twenty years ago, John Naisbitt authored the book MegaTrends. In his book Naisbitt spoke of a concept he called High Tech / High Touch. The idea was that as our society became more and more dependent upon technologies, the more important it would be to have institutions and outlets for people to interact with people. As I reflect upon my forty plus years of participation in the past century, I can see that we are not doing a very good job of providing high touch to our lives, including in my chosen profession, education.

Our schools were designed early in this century to separate the cream from the milk. To, in effect, sort out the students most capable of learning in a specific way and prepare them to go to college and become the leaders and managers of our emerging political and industrial institutions. After the Second World War, our classrooms were changed to a model that nurtured generations of students who were trained to sit in rows and to churn out mass produced compliance with a system designed to teach how to function in the industrial jobs that were fueling the greatest economy on earth. The schools still were separating the cream to run the country. Until about twenty years ago, this system seemed to work. Unfortunately though, the past twenty years have produced profound change in the way our economy and world functions but little change in the way the school functions.

I believe that today our unrelenting focus on testing and comparing our schools is stifling the innovations necessary to allow our schools to prepare children for the world they will inherit. The testing we depend on today assumes a very narrow definition of intelligence and competence. I’m sure we all know moving stories of people who struggled in school but went on to become great successes. I’m also sure there would be many, many more of these stories if we spent more time in schools nurturing the individual talents of all students rather than continuing to sort them into the haves and the have nots.

We need to change our schools so that they provide “high touch” along with “high tech.” Our programs must be flexible enough to nurture the individual strengths and learning rates of all students. In order to accomplish this end, a new vision for our schools must be brought into focus throughout the entire community. The school should be a place for the education of all citizens, not just the children. The mind, body and soul must be nurtured, educated and trained as one. I hope as the communities of our region step into the 21st century, they can endeavor to become learning communities that will prosper and grow.

2004-08-01T19:22:00.000-05:00

Seeking Synergy

1 + 1 = 3. New Math? No, it’s synergy. The idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I’ve recently been reading Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. It contains a wealth of wisdom concerning how human character influences our lives. It also provides a valuable blueprint for organizations to use in reaching their goals.

After a recent session reading, I began reflecting upon what I had read and its relation to the leadership of schools. This reflection led me to realize that a district’s greatest need is to seek out opportunities to practice synergy. To effectively reach a district’s strategic goals and objectives, it needs to begin the process of creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

I think it is important to understand a critical difference between two important terms before beginning a journey toward a system that every patron is proud to claim as their own. That difference is between the terms compromise and synergy. Compromise is defined as “A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.” When looking at this definition of compromise, it is evident that compromise is making something whose sum is less than the sum of its parts. This, to me, is a critical difference between synergy and compromise. Synergy creates more than what was originally present. Isn’t that what we want for our children and our communities?

If you can agree with the premise that we want “the best” for ourselves, our communities and for our school district, then we must next look at our history and learn from it. Each of the communities in our school district and the many demographic groups all have interests which affect the way they interact with the school district. Parents of students obviously have greater direct interest in schools than those who have no relatives in the school system, but we all have, in one way or another, an interest in the quality our school district.

How then do we reach synergy? Interdependence! No that word was not independence, it was interdependence. To become interdependent, we must view conflicts as “win-win” situations and we must “seek first to understand others before we can be understood.” Then synergy and a truly effective ecosystem will emerge. Our world is made up of numerous ecosystems. Ecosystems are those whose existence depends upon effective interdependence between its components. We must seek to understand a district’s “ecosystem” and strive to make it effective.

Is creating synergy easy? No, it is not. Compromise is easy. That is why it has historically been the chosen method. Our culture tends to emphasize quick-fix, instant-gratification solutions to problems. Getting to synergy is hard work. But, isn’t hard work a value we cherish? I do, and I hope it is one we can work together to nurture in our school district.

2004-08-01T18:56:00.000-05:00

Teaching our Kids Responsibility

The events at recent home football games have started me thinking about how children learn to act socially. As an experienced teacher, parent, principal and now a superintendent of schools, I regularly hear negative comments about the state of youth today. In my view, we are allowing our culture to turn us into "arm-chair quarterbacks." Most of us have the intuitive understanding of how our kids should act, but we fail them by forgetting an ancient proverb. "It takes a village to raise a child." It is easy to sit back and diagnose ills and give lip service to the way it should be done, but much more difficult to get involved and walk the talk.

One important lesson my seventeen years of experience as an educator has taught me is that kids are the same today as they always have been. The nurturing that they receive is what determines who they are, what they know, and how they act. Another important lesson I've learned from experience is that children are not little adults. They're kids and, therefore, act like kids and experiment with life's complexities. When life teaches them a lesson, it generally sticks. Science and research on the brain have also taught us that kids entering and going through adolescence and early adulthood are not only undergoing significant changes that are outwardly visible but they are also going through physiological and chemical changes in the brain. It is this process that allows children the capacity for abstract, critical thought. This is the time that our children are most in need of the village.

At this age it is only natural for children to begin expanding their social universe from the family to their peers and in the best case the community as well. For this best case to materialize, we, the community, must be willing to step in and nurture the social values we cherish. We must set high expectations and be willing to set good examples. Please, for our children's sake, don't take the easy route and simply ignore social misbehavior and violations of rules or laws. Step up to your responsibility as a citizen and seize the opportunity to use kids' missteps as "teachable moments·" When you do this, remember, they are kids and have an enormous potential for learning. Don't yell and scream, rather, get to know the child, explain what you saw them doing and how it failed to meet your expectations for appropriate social behavior. Then each time you see the child be sure to greet them and model the kind of relations that will make them good citizens of our community.

"It takes a village to raise a child" and a village committed to raising its children well will forever profit from the extra effort it took to do so.

2004-08-01T18:52:00.000-05:00

Teen Proofing

Everyone who’s had a baby is familiar with the concept of child proofing the home. Putting on cabinet latches, removing small objects from reach, putting gates in front of stairwells and the numerous other safeguards we take to keep an infant safe. If you can child proof a home, doesn’t it make sense that you should be able to teen proof a home as well? That’s exactly what John Rosemond, author of Teen Proofing: A Revolutionary Approach to Fostering Responsible Decision Making in Your Teenager, writes about in his new book.

I’ve been a long time fan of John Rosemond’s practical, common sense child rearing advice. His new book, Teen Proofing, is a must read for every parent. Rosemond writes that parenting children is a process of adapting to three major stages of child development that are separated by two, rather difficult, transition periods. The trick to raising happy, healthy children is to understand these stages and transitions and to adapt the parenting style to each one.

The first stage consists of the first two years of a child’s life. During this period, the parent is the caretaker and assumes the role of servant to the child. The parent during this time builds the “roots” of the child’s life through the giving of unconditional love and attention. At about two years old though, the parent must begin the “pruning” process.

The terrible two’s are the result of the pruning process. It is at this time that the parent must shift away from the caretaker role and assume the authority figure role. The parent must now begin teaching social values and the difference between right and wrong. The terrible twos are the child’s reaction to being thrown from the spotlight, from being the center of the family’s attention to finding that they must now pay more attention to mom and dad than mom and dad pay to them. In their minds this is a revolting development and therefore they act “terrible” in an attempt to avoid the coup. With a steadfast consistent application of authority the child will soon succumb to parent rule and assume his place in the family. Effective parents establish their rightful authority during early and middle childhood. They in effect become the center of the child’s universe.

Rosemond terms the next major transition in parenting, the “terrible tweens.” The parent usually perpetrates the crisis at this point in the parenting process. The parent has, during early and middle childhood, established authority but the tweenage years are ripe for challenges to authority. The child’s peer group begins to replace the parent as the center of the child’s universe. Parents who are not willing to give up some authority and begin the process of slowly and carefully mentoring the child toward adulthood will find themselves yelling and screaming much like the child did during the terrible twos. This period requires a phased approach to handing over the reins to the child. The parent must be a mentor and help the child through this time of difficult decisions. The authority role held during early and middle childhood must gradually disappear and be replaced with a mentoring style.

There are no sure things in parenting, but with the proper perspective and a good understanding of the developmental process, the odds your child will grow up to make mostly good and healthy decisions improve greatly. I encourage every parent to curl up with any of Rosemond’s books. They provide excellent guidance and common sense parenting advice.

2004-08-01T18:44:00.000-05:00

The Case for School Activity Programs

Activity programs in the schools are regularly criticized. I suspect that much of this criticism is not based on data, rather on personal experience. School activity programs are one of the best bargains around. It is in these vital programs – sports, music, speech, drama, and debate – where young people learn lifelong lessons as important as those taught in the classroom.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a creeping indifference toward support for school activity programs by the general public. This neglect undermines the educational mission of our schools and the potential prosperity of our communities.

I submit for your study and reflection the following comments and citations to “data” that support the existence of and need for activity programs in the public schools.

Activities Support the Academic Mission of Schools. They are not a diversion but rather an extension of a good educational program. Students who participate in activity programs tend to have higher grade-point averages, better attendance records, lower dropout rates and fewer discipline problems than students generally.
Activities are Inherently Educational. Activity programs provide valuable lessons for practical situations – teamwork, sportsmanship, winning and losing, and hard work. Through participation in activity programs, students learn self-discipline, build self-confidence and develop skills to handle competitive situations. These are qualities the public expects schools to produce in students so that they become responsible adults and productive citizens.
Adolescent Time Use, Risky Behavior, and Outcomes: An Analysis of National Data, issued in September 1995, by the Department of Health and Human Services found that students who spend no time in extracurricular activities are 57 percent more likely to have dropped out of school by the time they would have been seniors; 49 percent more likely to have used drugs; 37 percent more likely to have become teen parents; 35 percent more likely to have smoked cigarettes; and 27 percent more likely to have been arrested than those who spend one to four hours per week in extracurricular activities.
A study by Search Institute in 1995 indicates that co-curricular activities play a central role in students’ healthy development. Yet too many schools are finding it necessary to cut these programs for budgetary reasons. With asset building as a focus, these programs are not peripheral to the school’s mission, but important components of a comprehensive strategy.
School-age children and teens who are unsupervised during the hours after school are far more likely to use alcohol, drugs and tobacco, engage in criminal and other high-risk behaviors, receive poor grades, and drop out of school than those children who have the opportunity to benefit from constructive activities supervised by responsible adults. In a 1994 Harris poll, more than one-half of teachers singled out "children who are left on their own after school" as the primary explanation for students’ difficulties in class. This information comes from the National Education Commission on Time and Learning.
A 1989 nationwide study by the Women's Sport Foundation indicated that athletes do better in the classroom, are more involved in school activity programs and stay involved in the community after graduation. The study also revealed that high school athletic participation has a positive educational and social impact on many minority and female students. The study, based on an analysis of data collected by the U.S. Department of Education's High School and Beyond Study, indicated that: 1) Girls receive as many benefits from sports as boys. 2) The "dumb jock" stereotype is a myth. 3) Sports involvement was significantly related to a lower dropout rate in some school settings. 4) Minority athletes are more socially involved than non-athletes, make higher grades and have better attendance.
Findings from the National Center for Education Statistics, Extracurricular Participation and Student Engagement, June 1995, revealed that during the first semester of their senior year, participants reported better attendance than their non-participating classmates. Half of them had no unexcused absences from school and half had never skipped a class, compared with one-third and two-fifths of non-participants, respectively. Students who participated were three times as likely to perform in the top quartile on a composite math and reading assessment compared with non-participants. Participants also were more likely than non-participants to aspire to higher education; two-thirds of participants expected to complete at least a bachelor’s degree while about half of non-participants expected to do so.
A 1992 study by the Colorado High School Activities Association and the Colorado Department of Education revealed that Colorado high school students who participate in some form of interscholastic activity have "significantly higher" grade-point averages and better attendance. Of the students surveyed, the average participant's GPA was 2.96 (on a 4.0 scale), compared to 2.35 for the non-participant. In one school, participants had an average reading test score of 76.30, compared to 58.91 for non-participants. In another school, participants scored 16.17 on the math standardized test, compared to 13.31 for non-participants. A participant missed school an average of 3.59 days a year, while a non-participant missed 5.92 days. The survey showed that the larger the school, the more pronounced the differences in participant and non-participant test scores and attendance results.
1990-91 study in the Randolph (North Carolina) County school system showed a strong correlation between participation in athletics and positives such as improved grades and increased attendance rates. Athletes in grades 9 through 12 in the school system's four high schools recorded an 86 average, compared to 79 for the general population. Athletes averaged four absences, while the general population averaged seven. Eleven percent of the athletes had discipline referrals, compared to 25 percent of the general population. None of the athletes dropped out, while 3.7 percent of the general population were dropouts.
In a 1988 survey, John Chevrette and Kenneth Patranella concluded from an investigation in San Antonio, Texas, that educational outcomes related to scholastic performance are enhanced for those secondary students who participate in activity programs. A study of a high school population of 3,536 students found that secondary pupils who participated in more than one activity during a semester tended to experience higher academic performance levels than other participants and non-participants.
Students participating in a number of activities not only achieve better academically but also express greater satisfaction with the total high school experience than students who do not participate, according to a 1985 survey conducted for the National Federation of State High School Associations by Indiana University. The grade-point average for "high activity" students was 3.05 on a 4.0 scale, compared to a GPA of 2.54 for "low activity" students. Researchers defined high activity as involvement in four or more activities, while low activity students were involved in one activity or none.

Participation in activity programs yields positive results after high school as well.

The May 5, 1999, issue of Education Week reported on two studies presented at the April annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. The studies both drew on data from a national sample of 25,000 high school students. The Center for Research on Sport in Society at the University of Miami in Florida looked at how often behavior problems cropped up among 12th graders who had taken part in athletics at some point in their high school careers. Even when the researchers controlled the numbers to account for students who already had behavior problems in 8th grade or those who were predisposed to have more prosocial attitudes toward school, sports participation had a positive effect.
Results of a 1987 survey of individuals at the executive vice-president level or above in 75 Fortune 500 companies indicated that 95 percent of those corporate executives participated in sports during high school. In addition, 54 percent were involved in student government, 43 percent in the National Honor Society, 37 percent in music, 35 percent in scouts and 18 percent in the school's publication.
The American College Testing Service compared the value of four factors in predicting success after high school. "Success" was defined as self-satisfaction and participation in a variety of community activities two years after college. The one yardstick that could be used to predict later success in life was achievement in school activities. Not useful as predictors were high grades in high school, high grades in college or high ACT scores.
The College Entrance Examination Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was examined in much the same way. It was found that having a high SAT score did not necessarily indicate success in a chosen career. The best predictor of later success, the study showed, was a person's independent, self-sustained ventures. Teens who were active in school activities, had hobbies or jobs, were found to be most likely to succeed at their chosen profession and make creative contributions to their community.

This rather long-winded column should provide ample evidence that school activity programs and investment in the facilities within which they can be provided are some of the best educational investments that can be made. We are very fortunate in small communities to have programs that allow high levels of participation. If we truly want our youngsters to acquire the skills to be successful in the “real world,” we must provide opportunities to participate in co-curricular activities for all of our youth!

2004-08-01T18:39:00.000-05:00

The Education Voter

Recently, I ran across an editorial cartoon that piqued my interest. The cartoon depicted two school-age children standing in a dilapidated old school building surrounded by graffiti and outdated equipment and books. They were looking at a poster on the bulletin board about a presidential candidate who claimed to be “The Education President.” One boy looked at the other and said “Geez, we don’t need an education president, or an education governor, what we really need are education voters!”

As I follow the legislative process in our state, I am disturbed by lack of long-term commitment to the education and nurturing of children. We don’t have a problem creating long-term funding systems for economic development or highways, yet we constantly leave the development of our state’s human resources for the wrap-up session to scrape the pan for leftovers. What do we get for this shortsightedness? That’s an easy question to answer. Annual requests for additional funds to expand our prisons and juvenile detention facilities. The old adage “You can pay me now or pay me later” is quite apropos. We know for a fact that education is significantly more cost effective than incarceration, yet our concentration on short-term, materialistic concerns continues to take priority over the long-term benefits of a more significant investment in our children.

In this election year, I turn to my own education and look for wisdom. When looking for this wisdom in the education field, I regularly turn to a forefather who few can argue was a true visionary, Thomas Jefferson. I share with you some of Jefferson’s thoughts on the importance of education:

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.” --Thomas Jefferson

“An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic. Self-government is not possible unless the citizens are educated sufficiently to enable them to exercise oversight. It is therefore imperative that the nation see to it that a suitable education be provided for all its citizens.” --Thomas Jefferson

“Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to, convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty.” --Thomas Jefferson

“If the children are untaught, their ignorance and vices will in future life cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have done in their correction by a good education.” --Thomas Jefferson

“If the condition of man is to be progressively ameliorated, as we fondly hope and believe, education is to be the chief instrument in effecting it.” --Thomas Jefferson

“I feel... an ardent desire to see knowledge so disseminated through the mass of mankind that it may, at length, reach even the extremes of society: beggars and kings.” --Thomas Jefferson

“I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness... The tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.” --Thomas Jefferson

“[Surely no] tax can be called that which we give to our children in the most valuable of all forms, that of instruction... An addition to our contributions almost insensible... in fact, will not be felt as a burden, because applied immediately and visibly to the good of our children.” --Thomas Jefferson

“Although I do not, with some enthusiasts, believe that the human condition will ever advance to such a state of perfection as that there shall no longer be pain or vice in the world, yet I believe it susceptible of much improvement, and most of all in matters of government and religion; and that the diffusion of knowledge among the people is to be the instrument by which it is to be effected.” --Thomas Jefferson

With this great wisdom in mind, I challenge you to get involved in the political process. Call your representatives. Tell them how you feel about education and children’s issues. When we have local education issues, get involved, vote, talk with your board representatives, and communicate with the teachers and administration. As Jefferson notes, “I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness.”

2004-07-25T11:40:00.000-05:00

You Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone

The farmers and ranchers know how important it is to care for the land and the livestock they depend upon for their livelihood. They fertilize the soil, feed their livestock the best feed available and nurture both to maximize their production capacity. That same concept applies to a community’s schools. The resources of the school must be well cared for and nurtured in order for the school to maximize its performance.

In my view, the most valuable resource the school has is its teachers. These people have the opportunity to create environments that touch children's lives in priceless ways. It is important that we, as a community, care for our teachers in much the same way the farmer or rancher cares for his production resources.

In the recent past, I had the pleasure of listening to a dynamic keynote address at the Kansas Association of School Boards convention. The keynote speaker was Dr. Mike Kneale a former teacher, coach, principal and superintendent who now travels the globe speaking on the importance of valuing people and the institutions that develop them. As I left the speech, I was inspired to write this piece.

According to research done by Dr. Kneale, teachers have the highest rate of attrition of all professions. Large numbers of teachers leave the profession within three years after starting. The reason, it would seem, is obvious...the pay. But pay is actually far down the list of reasons given by those leaving the profession. The top reason, according to Dr. Kneale’s research, is the lack of affirmation for the job they do. Think about it, when was the last time you told a teacher what an important job they have and how you appreciate their efforts. How many newspapers, magazines and news shows over the past 15 years have reported positive, supportive stories about teachers and the job they do in comparison to the critical, negative perceptions that are created?

People, kids and adults alike, will live up to or down to expectations. High expectations bring people up and make them better. Criticism and low expectations do just the opposite, they perpetuate mediocrity and stagnation in job performance. Teachers are psychologically starved for positive expectation and affirmation. I encourage everyone who reads this piece to find three to five positive things a teacher you know does well and let them know about them. Then if it is necessary to point out a problem in the future, the teacher should not feel threatened. The positive comments will have created within that teacher the confidence to take the criticism in stride and put it into proper perspective.

Letting people know what they do right is a great way to get them to do more things right. Positive energy is contagious. When you share it with one person, it is usually passed on and grows. Let’s all endeavor to saturate our lives with positive rather than negative energy.

I highly recomment the book How Full Is Your Bucket by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton.

2004-07-25T11:32:00.000-05:00

Planning for the Future

The rent is due! The boss wants that report first thing tomorrow morning. The hoses are out and it’s going to freeze tonight. What are we going to have for dinner? The kids want some help with the homework. The car needs an oil change. When was the last time I changed the furnace filter? Which meeting should I go to tonight? Sound familiar? Sometimes it seems as if there aren’t enough hours in the day. It’s easy to get caught up in these routines and forget about planning for the future.

I’m certainly glad many of our ancestors did some long-term planning and investing in our futures. I am thankful everyday because I am currently living during the most prosperous time ever in our great country’s history. We need to make sure we do the same for our children and future generations. Remember why the Roman Empire fell?

Our fast-food, convenience store, one hundred eighty channel culture is hypnotizing us into a state that allows us to forget to reflect upon our values and what is in our long-term best interest. When was the last time you sat down alone, with your spouse or family and did some goal-setting or long-term planning? Most of us probably can’t remember.

As the general election nears, I’d encourage everyone to make the time to sit down and reflect upon what is important in your life and what you want the future to hold for yourself, your family, our community, our state and our nation. I attended a seminar called SUCCESS a few years ago and learned that one of the things that practically all highly successful people, organizations and communities do is make time to develop long-range plans and regularly review them. These people and organizations are proactive…not reactive. They begin with the end in mind and put first things first as they live their lives, run their companies or govern their communities.

Those successful people, companies and communities also try to think in ways to create win-win relationships with everyone they work with. They seek to understand the point of view of those they come in contact with before they try to get others to understand their perspectives. Ultimately, this type of approach to life results in relationships that have results that are truly greater than the sum of the parts. Again, it is the time these individuals, companies and communities make to assess their values or missions and make long-range plans and invest in the future that pays the dividends they acquire.

Our great country allows us the freedom to exercise our right to vote on many issues that will affect us, our children, our grandchildren and our communities far into the future. Please make the time to think about and reflect upon the long-term implications of your vote this November.

2004-07-25T11:20:00.000-05:00

Balance & Common Sense

Republican or Democrat; Pro-Life or Right to Life; Phonics or Whole-Language; Conservative or Liberal; Coke or Pepsi; KU or K-State…many of the issues in our lives today are oversimplified and polarized. The mass media love to exploit distinct differences in philosophy and use them to sensationalize issues. Fortunately, we human beings have the ability to, when it is engaged, think on a level that allows us to see and think in color, not just black and white.

Engaging our minds in thoughtful analysis of issues provides tremendous opportunity to enter into dialogue with each other and to see issues from many perspectives. It is when you can look at an issue and consider all of the different ways of seeing it that you can truly understand and develop a balanced view of it. As I consider the wonderful things that technology has brought us in the past half century, I sometimes long to live in a much simpler time. A time when conversation and learned debate of issues was considered entertainment. I wish we could develop more balance in our private and community lives today. I believe that the hunger for cheap thrills, a fast buck and passive entertainment that much of the new technology provides to us has blinded us to the need to engage each other in more meaningful dialogue and people-focused pursuits.

As an example, I’d like to look at the issue of “higher standards” in schools today. It has become politically correct to stand on a “higher standards” platform in school reform. But what does that really mean? To me it means discrimination and ignorance of how children learn and why we teach what we do in schools. The “higher standards” bearers say that we need every child to do better on the “test.” I say that the tests that we depend upon to define “higher standards” oversimplify what is really important to learn. The amount of information available to learn today is leaps and bound greater than what was taught in school in the 50’s and 60’s. Today, we provide a curriculum that is a mile wide and only and inch deep. Our children deserve better. We must do a better job of defining what skills need to be taught and develop curriculum that is far deeper than it is wide.

How will we do that? I believe that first we must instill in every teacher the belief that every exemplary teacher intuitively knows. That is – a teacher must teach kids, not subjects or material to be tested. In other words, it is the relationships that are created between teacher and student that nurture and stimulate the desire to learn. Human beings have an innate desire and curiosity to learn. We must work hard to eliminate obstacles to learning that our school systems have created. Continuous school improvement is important, but we must question top-down, state and federally mandated, school improvement initiatives because of their lack of balance and common sense.

2004-07-25T10:24:00.000-05:00

Thoughts about “Change”

We live in an era when rapid change breeds fear, and fear too often congeals us into a rigidity which we mistake for stability.
Lynn White (American historian 1907-1987)

Change can either challenge or threaten us. Your beliefs pave your way to success or block you.
Marsha Sinetar (American Author, teacher, lecturer)

Change yourself, change your fortunes.
Portuguese proverb

Life has got a habit of not staying hitched. You got to ride it like you find it. You got to change with it. If a day goes by that don’t change some of your old notions for new ones, that is just about like trying to milk a dead cow.
Woody Guthrie (American folk musician 1912-1967)

There is nothing permanent except change.
Heraclitus (Greek philosopher c. 460 B.C.)

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better.
Richard Hooker (Anglican theologian 1554-1600)

Man must be prepared for every event of life, for there is nothing that is durable.
Meander of Athens (Greek comic playwright 343-291 B.C.)

The search for static security–in the law and elsewhere–is misguided. The fact is security can only be achieved through constant change, adapting old ideas that have outlived their usefulness to current facts.
William O. Douglas (U.S. Supreme Court justice 1898-1980)

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.
Benjamin Franklin (Printer, scientist and statesman 1706-1790)

To stand still is to lose,
To move is to gain,
To change is to grow.
Gene E. Megiveron

At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope that it can be done, then they see that it can be done--then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago
Francis Hodgson Burnett

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.
Charles F. Kettering

Everything changes, nothing remains without change.
Buddha

Being willing to change allows you to move from a point of view to a viewing point -- a higher, more expansive place, from which you can see both sides.
Thomas Crum

It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to manage than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who profit by the preservation of the old institution and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new one
Machiavelli

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it the superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
Thomas Paine

I do not believe you can do today's job with yesterday's methods and be in business tomorrow.
Nelson Jackson

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory."
W. Edwards Deming

"Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts."
Arnold Bennett

"We are chameleons, and our partialities and prejudices change place with an easy and blessed facility, and we are soon wonted to the change and happy in it."
Mark Twain

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.
Francis Bacon

In a progressive country change is constant; ... change ... is inevitable.
Benjamin Disraeli

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen

The one unchangeable certainty is that nothing is unchangeable or certain
John F. Kennedy

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.
Reinhold Niebuhr

"Change is the progress by which the future invades our lives."
Alvin Toffler, introduction to Future Shock, 1970

Change in all things is sweet.
Aristotle

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Alan Watts

2003-09-13T13:11:00.000-05:00

I'm a school administrator in Kansas. I've spent the last three years thinking extensively about school in the twenty-first century. It's ironic that I became a school bureaucrat. I hated school as a kid. I was good at it (school), probably because I'm good at games. I simply learned the rules and applied them. It started becoming more clear to me why I didn't like school after I read the books, First Break All The Rules, and Now Discover Your Strengths. I found that one of my strengths is as a learner. As I reflected on the irony of being a learner and not appreciating school, it dawned on me that school systems, in their current form, are not about learning, but about control and programming. As we are embarking upon some major changes in our cultural expectations about schools (moving from expectations of universal access to expectations of universal proficiency) it is important that we make schools into places for learning rather than for control and programming. It is this dilemma that has led me to a point of extreme frustration with the highly political nature of school governance. We could easily make our schools places for learning if only more leaders could understand the differences in universal access and universal proficiency. I tend to believe the politicians who so loudly demand accountabiity and one would assume, "universal proficiency", are secretly scared to death of the control they would lose if schools no longer persisted in turning out the uniform product we have for the past half-century.