I work with an amazing group of innovative high schools around the country, and in the course of my work, we talk a LOT about what it means to be “college ready.” We want the kids that attend our schools to have access to all kinds of opportunities, and to be able to make choices about their futures. However, in this age of rapid economic and social change, I would…
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May 7, 2013Compassion is a response to suffering—our own, and to the pain of others. The word comes from the Latin meaning to co-suffer. Compassion is noticing pain, feeling it with another person, and then responding to it n some way. What an exciting-mind-blowing week I’ve had! I have “Skyped” with people from all over the world, participated in Google Hangouts, recommended materials for a peace education project in Indonesia, introduced…
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April 30, 2013In the 19th century a fascinating debate broke out between two public intellectuals about the purpose of education. Matthew Arnold, an erudite scholar, believed that children should be soaked in the Classics. Meanwhile, Thomas Henry Huxley, a man of science, spoke vehemently against learning Latin and other ‘dead’ subjects as a pointless exercise. In the end the exchange could best be characterised as a score draw, but debates about the purpose(s) of education have…
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April 24, 2013
The principal of the elementary school I attended as a little kid was obsessed with the baking-soda-and-vinegar-volcano “lab.” You know that activity– you spend a ton of time building a volcano out of clay (for best results, add little trees, dinosaurs, etc.), you dump baking soda and vinegar into the hole, and you get to make a mess. It was awesome, and resulted in years of colorful first-grade misconceptions about…
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April 10, 2013The iPhone launched in 2007 and though it may be hard to remember, there was no availability to distribute or run any third party applications. However, soon after the iPhone was released, a few enterprising individuals manage to “jailbreak” their phones and create their own applications. A subculture was born of individuals jailbreaking their phones and launching third party applications, some of them useful, some just fun to show your…
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April 9, 2013My most important mentor, the late Dr. Rosemarie Carroll, used this quote from a 2002 television commercial to introduce me to our Board of Education when I moved to a position at the district level. I have never forgotten the message, and it comes back to me all the time as I listen to keynote speakers and read leadership books, articles and blogs. It seems obvious that leaders must be…
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April 4, 2013What does leadership for a global future look like? What types of leaders do and will support ‘flat’ or connected learning that includes local as well as global experiences and collaborations? In a recent online presentation for the TICAL Leadership Summit, I talked about my vision for leadership in a future that is global. Let me share some of these thoughts here. In many respects this is not a post…
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April 2, 2013As an educator of many years and after extensive travel and observation, I found myself reflecting on our education system and a decision lay before me: remain within the status quo or step out and try to change things. Reflecting on the characteristics and importance of leadership was integral to my decision to start my own NGO and continues to be as I work with others to forge a different…
