There are common advantages to having a leader who has been in a district for decades and bringing in someone new. There are common challenges as well. Why might some districts hold on to their leaders for the long run and others feel the need to reach out to new ones with regularity?  Do causes lie within the leader or the district or the board?…

 Okay, maybe they don't kill it. They simply try to prevent students from learning very much of it.

 In our public schools, knowledge is a déclassé citizen, an illegal alien, a leper.

 You might think that knowledge would be an axiomatic part of K-12 education. Not so. Our Education Establishment is obsessed with limiting the amount of knowledge to be found anywhere in the school. This has been the pattern since …

 Student discipline is defined in Codes of Conduct and lives within schools' culture. School leaders and boards of education with input from school attorneys and others develop Codes of Conduct. They reveal and inform the belief system of the adults responsible for supporting appropriate conduct of the students each and every day. Discipline begins in classrooms and, if necessary, progresses outward. In most districts, the discipline buck stops in the principal's or the assistant…

The political atmosphere in which we are leading reinforces a destructive belief... that there is one truth or alternative truths but there is no such thing a truth. How can that be? As sides polarize, heels are dug in, differences are heightened, and common ground becomes the treacherous ground that causes everyone to lose identity. As this occurs, belief in the honesty of the 'other' diminishes. For the work of educators in some areas there are absolute truths, in mathematics and…

Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin made it a hit. Everyone could sing it and spell it...R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Baby boomers learned about it from their parents and in churches and schools. They were taught to respect their elders. Respect the flag.  Respect the uniform. Respect authority. We were raised to think there were consequences to not showing appropriate respect.

Respect for settings and environments was reflected in how one dressed. It was translated into professionalism and to…

Otis Redding and Aretha Franklin made it a hit. Everyone could sing it and spell it...R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Baby boomers learned about it from their parents and in churches and schools. They were taught to respect their elders. Respect the flag.  Respect the uniform. Respect authority. We were raised to think there were consequences to not showing appropriate respect.

Respect for settings and environments was reflected in how one dressed. It was translated into professionalism and to…

Educational leaders find themselves in an interesting position. After years of public criticism of public education from one faction or another, we are, with health care and defense, at center stage nationally. On that stage with us are those in powerful policy positions who are advocates of vouchers and charters to fix a broken system. Ironically, we do not see it as broken, though we agree it may need some work. So, we enter the drama in the role of the resistance. And, we know that, in…

Could we, like sunshine, invite delight into our schools? Currently, I am exploring the paradox of responsibility and delight.  As educators, we hold one in each hand.  I wonder how we can balance both the responsibility with the delight? I was wet behind the ears when I was hired as a Principal. In my early thirties, I had lots to learn.  I was very responsible.  But, I needed to grow in how to delight in my work. I can pinpoint the year when I learned the importance of morning…