Leading Schools That Focus on Both Meaning and Purpose
June 7, 2022This week I am visiting the venerable Tower Hill School in Delaware to share thoughts about the status of education in a rapidly changing world, and some vision about how a leading school might impact the big challenges ahead. I was asked to share a few examples of schools that are really leading the way.…
The Delta School: A Learning Model for Rural Education?
May 23, 2022Education and rural American have always been symbiotic. In the 19th century, small towns built one-room school houses, and land grant colleges created the foundations for what are now many of the most thriving cities in the country. Today that symbiosis is under severe threat. Most education systems in rural America are underserved and under-supported;…
Join Me on Wisdom Road!
May 9, 2022If you follow my social media at all, you know I am getting ready to launch a big, daunting, exciting, new project, #EdJourney on steroids: #WisdomRoad. I won’t repeat the details here; the short one-pager in on my new website landing page, and a short launch article was published last week by my “communications partner”,…
A Model for Real World Learning Partnerships
April 12, 2022Is your school, like so many others, thinking of leveraging community partnerships for real world, student-choice learning? If so, read on! About four years ago, Legacy Christian Academy in Frisco, TX launched their Professional Schools Program (PSP) in grades 9-12. I visited them just before the launch, and revisited yesterday to get an update. You…
One School Tackles the Patriarchy Head On
March 9, 2022If you want your school to be considered a “leader”, but you’re not sure exactly what that might look like, here it is: Whatever strides towards empowering women and girls that K-12 has made over the past few decades, and there have been many, it is not enough. Many post-secondary futures are highly gender-imbalanced. The…
Teach History This Week
February 24, 2022Napoleon. Stalin. Hitler. Putin. Will the good Russian people ever learn that the wars that dictators foment never end well for them? The European wars of the 20th century are not ancient history; I was born 11 years after the end of WW II, which killed tens of millions in Europe alone. Now, Putin, an…
New Free Video Library For SEL In Athletics/Advisories
January 31, 2022All educators, not just those who teach in a traditional classroom, have a critical role to play in the social and emotional wellness of the next generation. And beyond the traditional classroom, more American youth choose to spend their time involved in athletics than any other activity. Isn’t it time that we stopped viewing athletics…
First Look At “The Best School In America”
November 19, 2021In April I was asked to join a team to design and build “the best school in America”, a provocative and audacious challenge from the edu-leaders at Alamogordo (NM) Public Schools. Alamogordo is a small, diverse, rural lower and middle class town tucked away alongside the extraordinary beauty and climate of the Tularosa Basin, the…
Decreasing “Friction” Is More Effective Than Increasing “Force”
November 10, 2021When it comes to human decisions, reducing friction is radically more effective than increasing force. This simple lesson is evident in everything from rockets to swimming. And it is is key to understanding how to get people to “move” from where they are to where we want them to be. Loran Nordgren at the Kellog…
Leverage Points of Change: Part II
October 22, 2021If you are trying to change your school, this is where your efforts will be most rewarded. In Part II, we again visit the work of systems guru Donella Meadows who identifies ” ‘leverage points’ within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an ecosystem) where a small shift in one…
Leverage Points of Change: Part I
October 13, 2021Schools are complex systems. In a meaty article by systems guru Donella Meadows (HT to Tim Fish at NAIS for sharing with me) we find that, “Folks who do systems analysis have a great belief in ‘leverage points’. These are places within a complex system (a corporation, an economy, a living body, a city, an…
A VUCA Antidote for a VUCA World
September 2, 2021Educators are gradually becoming familiar with an acronym that has gained increasing relevance over the last decade: VUCA. Our world is undeniably becoming more Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous. We are tasked with preparing out students to live and succeed in VUCA world. VUCA arose in the American military sometime in the last two decades…
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