By the time you read this—however you spent Thanksgiving—what was served, and how you spent time together with family will have morphed into the frenzy that is often associated with the start of the traditional holiday season.  As I took the time on Wednesday, November 21^st to express my appreciation to the staff of our school district prior to the actual holiday break I was reminded of the many things that I am thankful for, especially at this time of year.

The brief conversations with teachers, secretaries, custodians, and others revolved around our appreciation for family, our health, and the good fortune to be in a place that has the determination to remain true to the simple ideal of teaching children well, even during the difficult times that sometimes swirl all around us.  For so many people both locally and globally we see our world, or at least parts of it, in need of the love and support that only our humanity can offer.  In these harried times let us never forget about the importance of being there for one another.  Let us not succumb to the overbearing pressure to out race, or out achieve the competition.

This hit home for me in a dramatic way recently as I sought to comfort our learning community in the wake of a tragic loss of a 14 year old student.  The grieving process desperately called out for each of us to provide that love and support for both children and adults alike.  In the aftermath of the terrible storm that struck the Northeast last month there must have been countless moments where school leadership demanded a similar compassionate response—where we take the time to be giving and caring people first, and efficient managers of a bureaucracy second.  Taking the time to do the right thing is in fact important; it means keeping our priorities straight.

Keeping the focus of making academic progress and preparing our children for their future and not our past should never come at the expense of being mindful of our most basic human quality, to be there for one another in times of need.   These two twin targets are not mutually exclusive.   As with any and all tasks involving both leadership and management, there is a compelling need to oversee all situations with this dual focus.  What strikes me most about the current wave of “reform” is the subjugation of all things affective in the name of the hard, efficient, data-centered, world order view.

I am thankful that I still have the opportunity to connect with members of the learning community that I work in on a personal, individual level, despite the pressure to search for more efficient ways to manage the system.