Question Everything: express your right to speak

Xmas from the Kays - 2011

2011-12-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Christma-Hanu-Rama-Ka-Dona-Kwanzaa!

It has been an interesting year to say the least and for the last 6 months Josie has been pestering me on the theme of this year’s Xmas card. Her instructions were simple: no politics, as one day we would want to recall all of our efforts over the years without regrets as I shuffle my walker down the streets. Yes only good thoughts to occupy our brains, no wall of foreboding to cross our street. I also had to agree to no editorializing on the traditions and origins of Christmas even though “the reason for the season” is a relatively new (200 year old) concept in the history of our culture with Christmas having been a time when the starving working class would occupy the streets of the wealthy minority and demand food and payment to compensate for their work (we would call these people hooligans over time and they are our precursors to modern day charolers). “We won’t go until we get some!”

With these orders I find myself confused on what we would deem to celebrate this year (well that, plus, the toll that the attack by my right side of my brain on that left the left side of my body confused and disorganized and learning how to survive all over again: forward!) With our society divided by economic and political rife: how do we turn this holiday from a cause de celebre to a cause célèbre?

My mother in law is always asking us that saccharin question “What are you thankful for this year?” With the hardships and losses of family and friends, well needless to say I often get tongue-tied when trying to come up with the great response but this year I am truly thankful that my nephew Kenny made it home from the war. And this then is the conflagration of these holiday events: despite the politics, the religion, the rhetoric we celebrate the home coming whether it is thousands of miles or right around the corner – we celebrate each other for good or for worse. So this year let loose with the hooligans, juggle the political correctness and embrace the outright confusion. John is experimenting with his own blend of hops on his road to becoming a brewmaster, Pat… still owes me money.., Ian is continuing his education and finding life fulfilling yet difficult and Josie started a new job working for what she used to call the “darkside.” She works from home now and still complains everyday about the commute.

As traditions go Josie says it just ain’t Christmas until we hear John Prine sing…

remembering the children who have none
Happy Xmas

Khristian ‘11

Xmas from the Kays - 2010

2010-12-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Seasons Greetings from Oconomowoc!

Well we did it! We purchased our first home out here in Lake Country after much debate and squabbles we compromised by moving even further away from where we work. But it is a charming house grand in its character and we are right in town. But the town has a small town fervor, so we get that urban living feeling while still being able to hear the birds singing. The move was good as it forced us to unload some of our baggage and do a cleansing of the spirit. However we still have to unload some of that baggage we could not release.

Unfortunately Kodie did not make it into the new year but at 17 (or 119) his passing was embraced with knowing he lived a long, fruitful and well loved life. Also in misfortune Trixie was killed prior to us moving: a grief which hit us pretty hard. John has moved out and hopefully on. He is trying to establish himself in this world: not an easy task. Pat is alive and living in River West. Khristian (Ian) has gone back to school and all the boys have found loved ones to help guide them through the turmoil.

Josie and I took a road trip this summer 4 days on the bike we experienced the House on the Rock, Shakespeare in the Park, Wollersheim Winery, regional Wisconsin cheeses, and enough blue highways to keep us tourists in our own hometown. This excursion led to this year’s theme as every where we went we were greeted with warmth and kitsch.

The nest is not empty we have a new dog, a rescue from Tennessee named Coco, she’s a Carolina Dog which is a breed indigenous to North America (seems I cannot free myself of those southern women).

John is a steady visitor as he is making homebrew in our cellar and every morning we are visited by the 4:10 to Minneapolis. Pat owes me money so he doesn’t visit while we are home, and Ian is…well Ian and still living in Washington.

As traditions go Josie says we need to remark on how we are thankful for friends and family, good health and hair, paying taxes as homeowners, our jobs, a chance to get together and life in general (sorry no prime rib)…

and how ‘it just ain’t Christmas until we hear John Prine sing…

to knowing the truth of it

Happy Xmas

Khristian ‘10

Xmas from the Kays - 2009

2009-12-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Happy “the War is not over” Xmas!

It is almost 2010, for my generation that sounds like something out of a science fiction novel but this futuristic landscape is far from utopian. This year filled us with naive hopes and broken promises as our economy floundered worse than ever in American history; unemployment is rampant and soaring; the war is surging; healthcare is being dictated by big insurance companies; and Favre is taking the Vikings to the Super Bowl – oh the audacity of it all! It is times like these that we have to reflect upon what we have and be grateful for each other. I am grateful for being a lowly civil servant and being able to work in a time of recurring doubt. Josie is in a field that is also in constant need and yet there are bright spots. Jo has begun teaching with me at UOP she is still trying to adapt to the title of Professor Kay, and I have completed my 8th year there. Through everything we have learned to not take things for granted as life wends its way through. Sometimes those little things erupt into an explosive reign of dissonance leaving us to dig out the pieces.

And some of those pieces we do not want to pick up: Kodie is 17, blind, near deaf and this will be his last winter; John is still trying to discover who he is and define his raison d’etre; Khristian (Ian) is still distant and rapping as “MC Tanuki” (maybe it is not cool for rappers to have supportive fathers); and Patrick… yes Patrick finally picked up the sticks and joined a band “Billy Dreamer” and is discovering that talent alone does not fill the seats. (Both boys can be found on MySpace.com). And of course Trixie’s a good girl.

“For the road is long, And the road is hard, And many fall by the side…” And that brings us to the theme of this year’s CD. Santa feels a little gypped and is taking matters into his own hands. Perhaps we have taken this season for granted (keep in mind this season existed millennia before Christ was added to it) and we should remember the true meaning of this season: that of renewal and rejoice; that that which has died shall be resurrected (funny that the early Christian Scholars would appropriate this season for their own use); days will become longer; the crocus will bloom through the snow; and the snows will fill the rivers with fresh purifying water – this cycle will continue regardless of the recession, the war or forgotten promises. Nature has a way of wending through, far after the dregs of the Christmas Lasagna, the bittersweet sticky of Old Fashioneds, the fallen needles and broken presents underfoot and refilling our empty vessels with wizened hope.

And as to traditions Josie says: ‘it just ain’t Christmas until we hear John Prine sing…’

to diapers hanging on the Rosemary

Happy Xmas

Khristian ‘09

The October Surprise

2008-05-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

The October Surprise meaning the American political jargon which describes a news event with the potential to influence the outcome of a presidential election. It is so called because Election Day in the U.S. is the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and events shortly before the election have greater potential to swing votes. Remember these?

• Humphrey & Nixon: 1968; then President Johnson assured that the war would be over by election time – with the war obviously continuing many people became disenfranchised with the Democratic nominee Humphrey – as history dictates Nixon won.

• Then in 1972 Nixon again when his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger stated that “peace was at hand” a month before the election – Nixon won again.

• 1980: Carter v. Reagan – it was released that the Carter administration was preparing a massive military invasion of Iran for rescuing the hostages in order to help him get reelected. Subsequent allegations surfaced against Ronald Reagan alleging that his team had impeded the hostage release to negate the potential boost to the Carter campaign. This October Surprise has led to several books detailing all the purported mishandling of the hostage crisis.

• 1992: Bush v. Clinton -- Just four days before the vote that year, Ronald Reagan's defense secretary Caspar Weinberger was implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal. Though he claims to have been opposed to the sale on principle, Weinberger participated in the transfer of United States’ missiles to Iran, and was later indicted on several felony charges of lying to the Iran-Contra independent counsel during its investigation. The relevance of the situation helped stop a late Bush surge in the polls.

• 2000: Bush v. Gore -- Days before the November 7 election, Carl Cameron of Fox News, working with the local Fox affiliate in Maine, unearthed an old report that Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush had been arrested for drunk driving in that state in 1976, a report which Bush himself confirmed in a press conference moments after it was revealed.

• 2004: Bush v. Kerry -- On October 29, the Arabic news agency Al Jazeera aired a video of Osama bin Laden. In a speech that justifies and takes responsibility for the actions of September 11th, bin Laden calls out the Bush administration and the American position in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Your security does not lie in the hands of Kerry, Bush, or al-Qaeda," Osama claimed; "Your security is in your own hands." This is believed to have helped President Bush's campaign as it thrust the War on Terrorism back into the public eye. There is debate as to whether bin Laden was aware of the effect the video would have on the elections; the "Bush bounce" from the video did not surprise most outside observers of the 2004 election.

Election ’08 will have a 3 prong October Surprise if Barack Obama is nominated by the Democratic party.

• 1st: It will become widespread knowledge that during the primaries many conservative voters crossed party lines en masse to influence the November election. Knowing that the scuttlebutt for the last couple of years has been the election of Hillary Clinton to the American presidency; this would become the most influential way of stopping her by voting for the lesser candidate in order to push his numbers up; also it would create an overwhelming rift in the democratic party – disparity is too often difficult to heal.

• The 2nd prong will be the Freshman senator from Illinois’ “record” and the realization that the has played hookey so many times while campaigning for the presidency that his “experience” and “readiness” is indeed lacking. For a man to run on his “record” without having one is an incredible thing. I call this prong the “Where’s the beef?” prong. Where is the substance in Obama’s speeches? He is filled with eloquent rhetoric, and can stimulate a crowd but beyond the sound bites where is his “beef”? Again I point to one avenue concerning his “promise” to raise the salaries of teachers. In this country we have an anti-intellectual current and while we can publicly agree that we need good education for our kids we as a whole do not support our schools or the needs of our educational systems. This past spring how many school referendums were shot down and by those same people “concerned” with the nature of our children’s education? If we can not raise monies to maintain the infrastructure (the buildings) of our school systems how are we ever going to raise funds to pay our teachers? (Following the Maslow premise that having safe and dependable school buildings is first on our list of needs.) I think of my very conservative brother-in-law who commented on Obama’s rhetoric of teachers getting paid what they deserve: “He’s going to lower their pay?” This sentiment is not far fetched as you speak in any mixed grouping of ideologies the comment will readily come up on how teachers are over paid for their work. Again I ask Barack Obama where is the substance? How are you going to meet the promise you made to raise teachers’ salaries? How will you determine which teachers meet this pay increase: merit pay? Standardized test results? NCLB? How? How? How?

• But now we come to the 3rd prong of our October Surprise: as incredulous as it sounds – we this sum total of far flung immigrants from all reaches of the world are quite profoundly a racist bunch. The biggest October Surprise will be when this whole of America realizes that Obama is indeed a black man. As was represented in many of the state primaries and corresponding polls it was discovered that when asked point blank the whole of Americans will “say” they are not racist and that race is not a concern for the presidency but in the privacy of the voting booth racism raised its ugly head. And is racism prevalent in our nation? I have many black friends who will not even drive in a local suburb commonly referred as “Whitefolks Bay” even by its residents. It is a sad statement but this ethnocentric populace will vote according to their comfort zones; after all as we have seen time and time again it is not about the issues but rather the popularity of the rhetoric.

Can Obama’s rhetoric get past the “race card”? I try to be optimistic but I am too much of a realist. Which is too bad as John McCain deserves to win on the content of his character rather than the color of his skin.

Idealism does not a good leader make: or why I can not vote for Obama

2008-03-19T08:26:00.001-07:00

When I was a new teacher starting out I was full of piss and vinegar wanting to change the educational system as we know it. I promoted myself as an agent of change, promoted change as the ultimate goal of the educational process, and too umbrage at those who told me it could not be done: I often misquoted Robert Kennedy (since the quote really belongs to George Bernard Shaw) "Some see things as they are and say why? I see things as they could be and say why not?" My stance was often volatile "Hey sometimes you need to throw out the baby with the bathwater and start over." My arguments were saturated with comments that suggested people were too set in their ways, that things needed to be fixed, that the old guard of education had let us down and it was time to put new principles into action. Change=Better and it was time for a better educational process for our children. I was filled with idealism; still am. But then came the day of reckoning: during an interview for a high school English position I was asked HOW I was an 'agent of change' by the old guard without a hint of hiding their sarcasm. My answers were filled with beautiful, professional best practices rhetoric: but the more I spoke on this the more their eyes narrowed and their arrogant heads bobbled in negative disbelief. Affronted I found myself trying to explain this behavior: this disregard for the truths which lay evident, aye dormant but evident nonetheless when it comes to the best practices of educational discourse. The more I thought of their position and the coinciding arguments that went with their negativity the more I realized that my arguments were not grounded. My arguments were beautifully prepared rhetoric filled with idealism and vigor but they lacked the HOW of substance. I still dislike the old guard and am nowhere closer to understanding their positions but I am rational about how they felt about my lack of HOW substance in my own idealist ventures.

Yes I believe good ideas will brew and formulate and attract others like a conglomerate stone soup of ideals we all keep adding our flavor to, soon developing a stew rich and brimming of nutritional effective practices. This is the beauty of being an idealist. I get to come up with ideas and mix them around add a pinch of wry devil's advocate to the mixture and watch as the lump of clay takes form and shape and then perhaps even a life of its own. Idealists make good poets, writers, teachers spiritual leaders and such but they do not make good CEOs where a practical affirming sense of HOW is mandated. Good CEOs will always have a court poet to keep them entertained and to provoke them to think in creative and critical arenas but good CEOs also know that they need to put ideas into play and pragmatism is the necessary ingredient. I think of my own stone soup analogy where idealists toss in their ideas but there needed to be the pragmatic sense of water first or no stewing ideas could even be thrown into the mix. Without the pragmatism of water we stand around tossing about ideals like empty peanut shells hoping that peanuts will grow.

This year I keep hearing great rhetoric: the rhetoric -- nay the hope of change and the essence of these ideals smell good but good smells will not put sustenance into our bellies. Yes, we want CEOs to be well versed in the mix but we also rely on them to make the difficult decisions of HOW, because in the HOW someone is always left out, good ideas are tossed away for the practicality of the decisions. As the CEO of a country our president needs to have this ability: to be pragmatic. An idealist president is good in theory but when substance is needed I think it pertinent we have a president who can provide the HOW of sustenance as opposed to good rhetoric.

One of my favorite cartoons is the S. Harris one you have probably seen also: Two white-coated scientists are working frantically on an incredibly complex equation that fills several blackboards in both directions in a large room. In the middle of the equation, where there seems to be a gap in the figures, one scientist has written, "And then a miracle happens." I want an idealist president yes, but I want one who is a pragmatic. When asked HOW we will be given solid procedures and not a lot of "hoping for a miracle."

Idealism is for poets, spiritual leaders and inspirational advisers not for leaders of countries.

Why the meter's running...

2007-08-29T22:06:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time this space was used to provide me the availability to vent or "rant" which I seem to do on a daily basis. However my "Weekly Rant" has gone the way of the Dodo and soon to be Polar Bear. So instead of Weekly Rants these have become the "once in a great while rants" but it is not due to apathy or disinterest no it is more on the line of my favorite line from the Mel Gibson vehicle "Conspiracy Theory": Mel drives a cab and unceasingly talks to his passengers at one point he looks into the back seat and no one is there whereas Mel states "Well if no one is there... why is the meter running?" Unlike Mel's character who has a quite literally captive audience the two (or thee now that I know my brother is reading these) of you can move on whenever you feel like it. Therefore I need to think of this as why the meter is running.

But why care about the meter at all? Ah this then is the gist, for as I said it was not because of apathy that I broke away from my daily rants (just ask my students my rants are nearly on an hour to hour basis) but rather it was due to the finicky nature of the status quo. I am speaking of those who look upon the internet, on-line journals or "blogging" with abject fear. I am reminded of the Mark Twain saying "We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove." It seems that we live in a country where freedom of speech only includes what is mandated by those who are in positions of authority. We are seeing people who will end up losing their jobs, careers, livliehood because they utter words dissimilar to the company line. We can argue the company line; this is one of the things I teach: I've heard the arguments and agree in theory with many... but not in principle. Theory because I understand that the social contract we call democracy is but an experimental venture that is proving unprofitable. Unprofitable is not the way of business in a capitalistic society.

It is not threats per se but rather recommendations if you will, that suggest that one not voice their opinion as it seems that some people can take offense at one's opinion. I used to have quotes by famous people all about my classroom: words of inspiration to inspire young minds about knowledge and education. Words by Antole France, Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein, Maya Angelou, Barbara Kingsolver -- Bob Dylan: you know all the great minds... I was, er... instructed to remove them specifically the statement by Mandela "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." This as well as these words by Einstein: "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." were deemed offensive -- this is the battle then, as an American educator warranted with the task of exersicing young minds to become individualized creative and critical thinkers, to have them exalt in their learning experiences, to become the future leaders and caretakers of this world: without being able to utilize any of the tools within my tool belt.

This then is why this page was removed from my professional education page and why the fury of my words are left unwritten here. But as a drover I must get back to my driving and occasionally when I turn to look over my shoulder to acknowledge you in the backseat I find there is no one there. But if no one is there, then why is the meter running?

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I am an anarchist!

2007-08-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

I shall not rule nor will I be ruled. Anarchy is the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal. Anarchy is the absence of formal Laws, rules, regulatory establishments. Anarchy is the cooperative the voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society. Anarchy is a mode of being, a manner of responding to conditions and relating to others...

This is not utopian or some ideal to serve; it is simply a way of dealing with present circumstances. Anarchy is not lawlessness, chaotic bloodshed; it is not thievery, arson, destruction These monstrosities are features of a capitalistic society. Anarchy means peace and tranquility to all. Anarchy means to strip living of its deadening, mind-numbing theatrics, of its gloom and compulsion. Anarchy makes society an instrument of joy, of strength, of color, of real harmony, so that the poorest sort of a man should find in living both recreation and hope. Anarchy advocates revolutionary changes... an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism and the elimination of political repression. Anarchy is opposed to violence. It is life based on the freedom of the individual, without the intervention of the police. For this reason we are enemies of capitalism, which depends on the protection of the police to force people to allow themselves to be exploited.

We are therefore enemies of the State, which is the coercive, violent organization of society. The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. Anarchy is the process rather than the finality. Finality is derived from gods and governments, not of the human intellect. Patriotism is a finality not a process. Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Patriotism assumes that our world is divided into little spots, each one a unique color of mind surrounded by its own corresponding border. Those who had the fortune of being born on some particular spot, consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the other living beings inhabiting the other spots.

Patriotism is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on their chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose their superiority upon all others. It is the belief that power corrupts, and that people become irresponsible in their exercise of power. Power must be dispersed not because everyone is always good, but because with absolute power people tend to become extraordinarily evil. In the hands of a people whose education has been willfully neglected, the ballot is a cunning swindle benefitting only the united barons of industry, trade and property.

Government cannot exist without the tacit consent of the populace. This consent is maintained by keeping people in ignorance. Voting is not an expression of power, but an admission of powerlessness, since it cannot do otherwise than reaffirm the government's supposed legitimacy. If voting could change anything it'd be illegal! Charity is no substitute for justice withheld. Slavery may change its form or its name — its essence remains the same. Its essence may be expressed in these words: to be a slave is to be forced to work for someone else, just as to be a master is to live on someone else's work. In antiquity... slaves were, in all honesty, called slaves. In the Middle Ages, they took the name of serfs; then indentured servants today, we call them wage earners. What shall we think of a government to which all the truly brave and just in the land are enemies, standing between it and those whom it oppresses.

The most dangerous citizen, to any government, is the one who is able to think for themselves... they understand that governments they live under are dishonest, insane, intolerable Neither god nor master! There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven nor hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds, the more intense the religion of any period the more profound the dogmatic belief, the greater the cruelty and worse the state of affairs.

In the so-called ages of faith, when people really did believe the Christian religion in all its completeness, there was the Inquisition, with all its tortures; millions of unfortunates burned as witches; as heretics there was every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of God. Who burnt heretics? Who roasted or drowned witches? Who built dungeons and filled them? Who brought forth cries of agony from honest men and women that lit up the countryside –living writhing Roman candles? Who spat filth over the graves of Paine and Voltaire? Christians – of organized religion. Look around the world every single bit of progress in humaneness, every improvement in criminal rehabilitation, every step toward the diminution of war, toward better treatment of races, of people every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christianity, as organized in its churches, is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

This is anarchy: the freedom to exist intelligently unfettered by dogma or doctrine but by interacting eloquently with one another.

Anarchy is as Nelson Mandela said:
“When injustice becomes law resistance becomes duty.”

We need to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world – its good, its bad, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world through intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by fear. We ought to make the best we can of this world, and if it is not as good as we wish for, it will still be better than how we found it.
A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create.
This is anarchy.

Geneva Convention - No longer matters?

2006-06-05T10:21:00.000-07:00

The news? The Pentagon, the formidable representation of the might of the United States of America, the free democracy which represents the purity of freedom in the world... will no longer adhere to the Geneva Convention when it comes to holding prisoners. Americans complain of the atrocities in the world, that American POWs and MIAs still exist, that the treatment of our soldiers captured during war time must be treated in a decent manner. And yet, WE no longer have to adhere to this ruling. We can toruture, maim, abuse at free will. Pentagon to omit Geneva ban from new army manual: report

is this the America we fought for? Is this the America our forefathers laid down their lives for? Is this what America represents? Have we become Stalinesque Russia in just a decade?

Why is this happening?

The Scent of a Woman

2004-11-08T23:00:00.000-08:00

I have a coworker who smells delectable. I cannot put it into any other terms, some things no matter how much poetry, cannot be described other than how it is. This is the problem with our sense of smell. Scent triggers memories our associations moreso than any other of our senses. Yet, these associations come from deep within the recesses of our consciousness. They exist in means that conjure no discernable rhyme nor reason. We talk of beauty as being in the eye of the beholder, we describe the sense of touch in small erotic passages. I fell for the mother of my son because she sang like a dusky angel. I'm easy that way. But our sense of smell, those things we remember alight past us on the drift of the wind. This sense is the most wicked of them all.

There are times as the wind sends a fragrance from my past and immediately I am transported to another time, another place - all of the sensations of sense are vivid and alive for that moment. I wrote a poem about this phenomena once, titled "The Smell of worms" for I attributed the smell of wet earth with the pilgrimage of worms I would see crossing the sidewalks. There is a scent I receive that instantly transports me to some dusk lit backroad highway in South Dakota. 24 hours into my ride across the country, my motorcycle churning westward and the taste of the South Dakota prairie floating on my tongue. So vivid is this sensation I can nearly feel the wind on my face, the locusts slapping at my coat...

Our memories are fickle, they present us moments of our lives at times when we least expect it. While writing this memories of my mother come in sporadic drops - my mother passed away when I was seven - that was some thirty-seven years ago now. What memories I have of her visually have been supplanted by the photographs and made up memories that I have been told about. But there are a few that surprise me every now and then. Like the time I was in a dance recital and being a boy conveniently forgot to tell my mother that I needed make-up before going onstage. This seems to be a phobia of mine but then I digress ... I can almost see my mom bending over me, chastising me as she pulls her lipstick and rouge from her purse and getting me ready in the stairwell to the stage. I have this memory: but what I "see" is my mom bent over a little boy - so again this memory while exacting in its happenstance is made up in my recollection - for there is no way I "saw" my mother bending over me from the angle I "recall." There is no way I can remember the deep red of her lips, painted with the thick lipstick paste of the day, the catlike eyeliner and shadow, the smell of her perfume. But I do see this young, too young, woman bent over her son who was too "proud" to wear makeup. I see her trying to keep her cool in front of the other mothers, her ability to makeshift makeup in the stairwell. And I can always remember her smell - I catch that fragrance every now and then on the wind.

I'm sorry mom, I was a real shit at times.

Like that other time when my sister and I came in from picking dandelions to give to you and I hid mine under the rug afraid to give them to you, afraid of you.

See how memories affect us? I remember this, the picking of "flowers" to bring to my mother, she was in the house doing motherly things, those mysterious things that I had no notion of at the age of five. But I was aware enough to make that connection of the Madonna - the saintly mother - to the Magdalene: the widowed bride. When my sister and I came into the house with our handful of flowers I noticed my mothers toes, they were painted, for some reason this bothered me, (and unbeknownst to my wife this phobia of the "painted lady" still persists today). The bother came about in the realization that my mother was not the saintly Madonna but rather she was a young spirited woman, the Magdalene: a woman who wanted to be beautiful, attractive to her husband, to others; she embraced her intelligence and touted her individuality; she wanted to be sexy, sensual, loving... this all conflicted with my concept of what mothers were - (Look, give me a break I was five, grown men have done this to women for the last 2,000 years!)

I hid my flowers under the rug. I was afraid of the sensuality that flowed from my mother.

I try to find other images or memories of my mother uncorrupt in their interpretation or affected by outside influences. I remember her moving between me and Kolga the day he went mad. Kolga was my sister's dog I remember seeing him coming down from the upstairs slowly moving along the stairway faltering and bouncing off of the walls a low growl in his voice and his face covered in foam. Funny, I can see Kolga and his sway, I can hear the growl through the foam, I can hear myself trying to reason with him, trying to calm him down, I can "see" my mother moving between us and something about getting onto a chair... but I cannot really see my mother she is just a phantom I have put into the memory, a fulfilling of the need to "see" her.

I remember the day she found the lump on her throat. She came out of the bedroom from our Northwood's cabin thinking she had gotten bit by a bug during the night. (Not quite an uncommon event in the Michigan woods.) Her face is like one of those Twilight Zone episodes where no facial features are discernable just a fleshy blur and her hand lighting upon her throat where the lump occurs. I remember the day or two before this when we are outside and she is helping my plant rhubarb with my plastic gardening kit we must have picked up at the local five and dime. Rhubarb had been my favorite thing to eat and I was planting my own crop, mine alone! I remember also the next summer when a fire took to our woods and I stood there in my pajamas with the plastic feet stomping on the smoldering grass to keep it from getting at my tender young plant, my mother already gone near half a year.

I remember my mother at the kitchen stove laughing at me, at my anger as I proclaimed that I wish that she were not my mother. She laughed logic at me, claiming that if I had had a different mother I wouldn't be here myself. I remember telling her "You'll see! You'll see!" she would not be my mother for very much longer. I remember watching her crumple to the floor in pain by the stairs ... there are some memories I wish I couldn't keep.

But the one memory I can truly claim my own, distinct unfettered by time, unspoilt by other influences, or wishes for what might have been. My mother, as mothers are wont to do, would cat bathe my face by taking her handkerchief out of her purse, wetting a corner with her tongue and then proceed to scrub my face spotless. There is an enzyme in mother's spit, it has the texture of hard counter cleanser and the acidity of nitric acid. My mother would scrub and lick and lick and scrub and polish my face shiny like some oxidized silver until my cheeks shone bright. I do make light of this ritual, because the irony is that mom's handkerchief smelled of her, her special perfume, her scent - a scent that would haunt me for nearly thirty years.

Whenever I caught a taste of that scent I would instantly be transported to that place wherever it happened to be as my mother scrubbed away at my face. For years I would try different perfumes at the perfume counters trying to find that smell, not in some bizarre Oedipus desire but in a means to perhaps put to rest some of the demons that tussled with me each night. I knew they still made that perfume because I would catch it every now and then when a woman would pass by. Either on the edge of the sidewalk where the wind would tease me with a hint, or sometimes I would lean close to woman as I worked with her and catch just the glimmer of her scent, my mom's scent.

It is too weird. You ask me why did I just not go out and ask these women who bore my mom's scent what the name of their perfume was right? It is too weird.

Either it is a freaky stalkerish "come on" - I think of Norman Bates from the Hitchcock movie Psycho. In a sequel to that Hitchcock masterpiece Norman would be holed up in his little twin sized bed with a girl he would bury his head in her bosom and declare that she smelled like toasted cheese sandwiches. She asks if he likes toasted cheese sandwiches and he replies that they are his favorite. It is a touching moment for her you have an individual who has been suppressed and can only express himself in the method of what he finds tasteful and pleasurable - toasted cheese sandwiches. So yes smelling like toasted cheese sandwiches would be a good thing. But walking up to strange women and saying "Excuse me, you smell like my dead mother, what is that perfume you are wearing?" If I were a woman I would take Norman Bates over that.

I also have a vivid recollection of Anthony Hopkins playing Hannibal Lecter. There is a scene where Jodie Foster as Clarisse passes by him, Hopkins is great at capturing the nuances of his characters. As Clarisse passes by Hannibal can be seen catching her scent on the wind, its a sly nearly imperceptible motion, head tilted slightly, eyes half closed anoticeable "sniff" and a slowregistering smile: (an action I find myself doing at times, catching that fragrance, savoring the inhalation as if I was imbibing on a rich bodied wine.) Hannibal exudes the elegance of class at that moment, a sense of sophistication and animalistic lust all in the same breath.

So? "Excuse me, I am Hannibal Bates, you smell like my dead mother my I help myself to your toasted cheese with fava beans and a little Chianti?"

But why all of this strangeness? My goodness we are merely discussing the effect that scent has on the brain: specifically the scent of a woman on the brain of a man. My coworker does not smell like my mother, no her fragrance is a different intoxication, breathtaking nonetheless, but again indescribable except in visions that appear to have no connection to good or bad but merely are.

As for my mother's perfume I finally located it. It has been a hunt of thirty some years but that scent is exacting, it is always the same, and it connects with me when I least expect it. This is how I know it is real and that it belongs to me. Not because there exists a fragrance like it or similar in context, but because when I do catch it on the wind it pulls that memory from my wrenched psyche and lets loose with a torrent of emotive reflexes. It is funny how we associate smells with things that are completely illogical in their truth but completely logical in our associations. I go back to the worms, whenever it rained the worms would come out of the ground and for whatever reasons they would make their pilgrimage across the concrete. That smell of hot, damp earth quickly and logically associated itself with the pilgrimage of the worms. Forevermore I would think of worms when that scent caught up with me. And I love the smell of worms, they take me back to the innocence of my youth, they take me back to fishing with my dad, with walking through puddles in my bare feet, of dancing in the rain. Worms.

It was my wife who brought my mother back to me. It was eureka all over again as I caught the scent, the visions, the memories all flooding into me with one emotive breath. An inhalation that would reconcile my quest with desire: with my apologetic penance. It seems that out of one necessity over another my wife would have to temporarily change brands. It was this new brand, previously a stranger to our household that would cement the sangreal with the questing knight. Keep in mind that it was the handkerchief, the token of a knight's quest, the flutter of cloth provided as a reminder for the knight to live an earnest life, chaste and of not ill repose. There is a something of a woman that wants to remain hidden within the folds of a handkerchief kept in a purse placed there in the event of an emergency. It was this handkerchief with which I would associate as the perfume of my mother – the scent of a woman.

Somewhere in America there's a Street Named after My Dad

2004-07-15T14:00:00.000-07:00

Service is my raison d'etre. It was something I was born into, raised with, and is what I am held accountable for. My parents were activists, not in the sense of burning flags and bombing buildings, but in the sense that they quietly tried to un-wrong what they understood to be wrong. It was demonstrated to me through my mother who had me, well all of us kids, march across Milwaukee's 16th Street viaduct in support of Fr. Groppi's attempts at racial unification in Milwaukee. It was presented to me when my father would pull to the side of the road and offer assistance to strangers who appeared disoriented, or perhaps in need of assistance. Service was presented to me as my father, an independent contractor, would often underbid his work in order to help others in the repairs of their homes. Because of this, and the best advertising being word of mouth, the clientele my father worked with were often on a lower economic rung of the American social ladder. Ironically this is a struggle my father still has: trying to heed the American dream of becoming "rich" while feeling the personal obligation to assist in others in their dream. My mother left me with her legacy of critical thinking and open-mindedness.

Mom was a vibrant woman, liberal in her ideals and philosophy. I remember this one occasion as I came bolting through the front porch door. I must have been five years of age because this story concerns my mother and she was dead by the time I was seven. My mother was in the living room doing the ironing in front of the black and white Philco. The television set sat on that 1960's semblance of innovation and elegance of living room furniture that was comprised of simple brass tubes and wires. Mom was ironing in front of the TV as was the method of women in her day, and on the television was one of those serial westerns that were inundating the broadcast airwaves in the 1960s. I glanced at the television and watched as an "Indian" was shot from his horse by a cowboy. See, this fit my perception, my white, male, American media "Ovaltine" lens: everything I knew. Cowboys shoot Indians –that is what they do. And Indians get shot by Cowboys: that is what Indians do. Being the swaggering all American cowboy that I was I cheered this shooting. But even before I could relish in my mind what it must have felt like to be that courageous, daring gunslinger slinging his six-shooter from the leather holster, before I could even digest the imaginary gunpowder shot mixed with the dry breeze of the prairie west, before I could even squint down the site on my right hand thumb and forefinger and squeeze off that wondrous shot… my mother stopped me cold, dead, admonishing. Her eyes welled with tears in her anger, fear, hatred, remorse that swelled into her as she saw her son, her baby, perversed in the world of media fed racism. She looked hard at me and my gun hand felt limp, her words penetrated deeply "The Indian was the good guy, the cowboy killed them and took their land, the Indians were the good guys…" 'The Indians were the good guys?' I looked up at my mother, "but…" 'The Indians? were the good guys? But the cowboy wore a white hat. And we all know that the cowboy in white was the good guy, bad guys wore black. How could the white hat cowboy be the bad guy? And we all know the Indians are bad so bad in fact that we called them 'injuns' - they weren't even real people…'

At that moment I realized I had done something wrong, something monumental, and for the first time in my short life my brain started to trigger differently - things are not always the way they seem. This lesson in many ways haunts me throughout my life. I say haunt, because while thinking differently, outside of the box, shifting one's paradigms and all is good -- it is also very painful. Thinking against the norm, the media fed populace, the status quo often leaves one cold embittered and alone, (Faludi, 1999; Havel, 1986). Needless to say something of their service nature affected me.

"The world is not static, and the status quo is not sacred."
Harry S. Truman

Who or what have you sacrificed?

During my own personal search for America, (Berrigan, 1972), I found myself snowed in at a commune in the mountains east of San Bernardino. There a young leader of the group mentioned to me during a breakfast how she was fasting, or providing a service to the hungry by giving up some of her daily food. I remarked that she should not give up breakfast as this was the most important part of the meal for her personal survival. She replied, "... eating a meal because I need it and skipping the one I do not is not the essence of sacrifice. Sacrifice means giving of yourself." I questioned that statement then as I do now. I asked, "But how much do you sacrifice? And why should your sacrifice come as a cost to yourself? My father had this thing. He would give people a penny, tell them to put it into their pocket, to forget about it ... not to spend it. That way you could give people money if they needed it but you would always have some metal worth on you." She said, "It's not the same thing, to give means to sacrifice and sacrifice means it has to hurt." The debate may have continued but my mission at the time as a young adolescent male had more to do with my perceptions of what a California commune was all about, rather than the fundamental principles of why it existed.

But service for me would fall under the guise of activism. Even though my ethics may have been questionable. For example I was a strong voice in the Seattle area in the early 1980s as a supporter of the since defeated Equal Rights Amendment. Not so much that I believed in it but because this was where all the assertive, independent and liberated women were. From there I would begin to believe in the causes I was active about. We unsuccessfully tried to stop the "Death Trains." (These were the trains that carried the nuclear warheads across the country to the Bangor, Washington shipyard.) We did this, rather I did this, by driving my VW camper on the tracks of the oncoming trains. (People had tried to sit on the tracks and this worked for awhile until a Brian Wilson of California was run over, by the train conductor refusing to stop.) When the trains did not stop I joined with Fr. Berrigan's cause of breaking into the missile silos and pouring red paint on the missiles to protest their development.

'How do ye call ye a man if ye have no metal?'

Sacrifice v. service are they one and the same? John Locke is known to have inspired Thomas Jefferson in his idealism and ideology concerning the premise of free citizenry. Locke, (2004), claimed that freedom existed only in the complete rebellion and reformation of the next generation from the previous one. And this is where my personal dilemma of service v. sacrifice comes about. With my undoubted cynicism of the "fading away" of important issues, combined with my gathering of my own metal, of dividing my time with volunteer organizations, being part of a familial network, continuing my education, and doing things in order to provide a sustainable life: shelter, food, clothing, etcetera. I feel that what I would like to accomplish and what I will actually be able to do are, at times, diametrically opposed ideals.

The education 'fade away'

My work is concerned with education and primarily the education of our youth. I strongly believe in the concept that we are borrowing our earth from our children. And we need to assist in the preparation of our children to fix the mess we have left them. But is it appropriate for me to call what I do for a living as a service? Like my father, I am in conflict about the "profit" of working a job which I work in order to service others. I question though what is it I can do that I am not already doing? Besides more? I am concerned because I believe that our society is losing the importance of making sure that our youth become successful in their own right – and not as little clones. I fear, historically, that we lose this "clone war." My concern is that our schools which are supposed to provide a safe environment often provide this at the expense of our children.

Somebody should do something! I am somebody but what can I do? I am unsure of what I can do. I learned at a young age that leadership is not necessarily the first one out of the gate leading the charge as it were. But rather, to borrow from another metaphor, it is leaving no brother behind. It is making sure needs are met, wishes are made and that there exists a hope that these wishes even may come true. The problem here lies in that the activism we tried to do faded away, I am reminded of that Neil Young song, "It's better to burn out, than to fade away ... my my, hey hey." I think I was caught up in the fervor of what the 1960s had wrought only to be standing there at the end of the day wondering where the charge was. This is when I moved my activism inward, spiritually. Gandhi stated "You must first become the change you seek in others." With this I realized I need to live my life as a model of what I thought was important and how I thought we all should live. I realized I could not change the world but I could touch the lives of others. How they interpret that touch would be up to them. And I realized I would need to start in my own back yard.

References

Ambrose, S. E. (2001). E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy

to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Berrigan, SJ, D. (1972). America is Hard to Find: Notes from the underground and

letters from Danbury Prison. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company.

Faludi, S. (1999). Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. New York, NY: Perennial.

Havel, V. (1986). Living in Truth. Bungay, Suffolk: Richard Clay, LTD.

Lester, R. P. (1876). Lester’s look to the East. New York: Fitzgerald Publishing Corporation.

Locke, J. (July 7th, 2004). The second treatise of civil government. (Online).

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/locke/locke2/2nd-contents.html

Was Not Was. (1988). Somewhere in America there’s a street named after my dad.

What Up, Dog?. [Audio Recording] Los Angeles: Capitol.

Webber, A. L. & Rice, T. (1970). Superstar. Jesus Christ Superstar. [Audio Recording]

London: MCA.

Young, N. (July, 1979). My my hey hey (out of the blue). Rust Never Sleeps.

Nashville: Warner Brothers.

What is this thing called leadership?" Dimensions of Leading a Learning Organization

2004-06-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

"It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life that ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is firm."
Fred Rogers (Television's Mr. Rogers)

Leadership is an attitude, a "presence" of mind, leadership is a divining of spirituality (Palmer, 1999). We have tried to capture the essence of what leadership is in succinct definable terms such as: "the office or position of a leader" or "the capacity to lead" or "the act or an instance of leading." But these are terms trying to capture the spirit of an ideal. This is leadership as an act, a position, an embrace that incorporates and defines limits. Recently I came across an item, a thought if you will, that suggested that it is not leaders who define leadership, rather it is the people, the zeitgeist, the time that defines what leadership is. Leaders can be put in place, situated, assigned, etcetera but this is not necessarily leadership. Leadership comes from without (Chaleff, 1995), that sense of involvement, that is purchased by demonstration, by example, by the bartering of needs, desires and wants (Freire, 1994).

Sports metaphors often come to mind when defining good leaders, as a high school wrestling coach I recall one of my wrestlers complaining about the hypocrisy of coaches who demand that their athletes do things that they themselves were unable to do. I had tried to explain that coaches were not being hypocritical but rather they were there to instruct and guide the athletes into being the best possible asset to the team. But this notion stays with me for a misconception on leadership is that people in "the office or position of a leader" often bear the brunt of all responsibility without realizing that a leader can only lead with a team (Lencioni, 2002). To do so otherwise is not leading but rather doing (Gardner, Csikszentmihalyi, & Damon, 2001). A good leader surrounds themselves with competent team members, members whose input is congregated into a single desired outcome (Huffman & Hipp, 2003). In discussion it is ridiculous to assume that a leader has to be the best at everything, but in practice this often not the case. We perpetuate mythological stories about heroes and warriors without seeing the whole picture. Alexander the Great is considered one of the greatest leaders of western civilization. But his actions were through guidance, assimilation, adaptation and change. And we would be remiss to speak of Alexander without speaking of Aristotle, Hephaestion, or for that matter the generals and soldiers who campaigned for him.

Modeling is perhaps the best type of leadership: simply the act of doing. Often a leader will arise because they stood out from the crowd, stayed true to their principles, (Covey, 1991) and offered themselves as the catalyst for change (Gardner, et al, 2001). More often than not, the leader is chosen by the team, by the crowd, and just as often the leader becomes such reluctantly (Osho, 2001). I am reminded of the argument by Buzz Aldrin who believed that since he had a more spiritual, religious background that he deserved to be the first human being to step foot on the moon. (Wolfe, 1979). For, to him, the arrival of mankind to the moon was a significant spiritual event. Aldrin believed that Neil Armstrong viewed the experience almost in a divorced scientific exercise. Buzz believed that he was the quintessential leader. The zeitgeist incorrectly remembers a Neil Armstrong defining the age with "One small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." (The [a] was inadvertently lost in a glitch in the transmission – a simple word, a meaningless article that changes the meaning, that changes the definition of the moment – and a leader is chosen). We have many temptations to influence us, we are motivated by money, fame, or desire and often a combination of all of these (Covey, 1991). This is an unfortunate happenstance of our capitalist society Good leaders are principle led, they set examples for the good of the cause, they understand the sum of all the parts and understand the strength imbibed within the individuals.

The Change Process has been described as a "bell curve" with Futurists on one edge and Luddites on the other. I realize that I am a "bell-ringer" for change, often seeing or understanding the processes before others can. In many respects I am considered a "visionary" and have discovered that in the realm of education a visionary has the same respect level as telephone psychics (Cottam, 2003). I am aware of this but also understand that time is my best ally (Tzu, 2002). Often these "crazy", "new" methods, such as constructivism (Papert, 1996), bears out under research: over time. This is one tool which I utilize, patience via research. The greatest facilitator towards change however is demonstrating to others how this change will benefit them and their work (Covey, 1991), (Sperling, 2000). As more and more people become aware of the benefits of the change, these people then become your agents for change (Covey, 1991). Given the catalyst, once the spark is ignited the change becomes imminent. As agents of change, we must acquire leadership positions within our organizations and most important, we must build a community of leaders within and between our organizations, to share strategies and offer encouragement. Finally, we must realize that we are the primary advocates who help others to become more skilled in their roles as leaders. This is how a leader changes the process. This is leadership.

But what is moral leadership?

It is easy to blame the depravation of our world on leaders or entities gone bad (Freire, 1994). The popular perception of leadership is one that leads. Therefore, we create an image of someone who should be the epitome of all things for us individually. This perception becomes harder to maintain as more and more individuals throw their hat into the ring in support of their leader. The leader has to maintain their image to all people at all times. This is folly in its simplicity and arrogance in its complexity.

Our dilemma with "moral Leadership" is that we are not moral followers (Chaleff, 1995). We expect our leaders to stand to an ideal that we often scoff at in its purity. I think of the constraints we put on our leaders: we want leaders who are well rounded in their education; leaders who can bring experiential concepts to their leadership; leaders who are caring, wondrous, and wise. Yet! We want these same leaders to not drink, smoke, 'cuss'; to think only the way we want them to think in accordance with our religious, cultural, traditional beliefs (Gonthier, 2002). We want leaders who have never done anything wrong, illegal, unscrupulous, or upsetting. In short: we want experienced, autonomous educated leaders who have experienced nothing, will do exactly as we say, and lead us only by what we think they should lead us to.

We are whitewashing our ideology and our morality. As followers we want our leaders to be representative of our group think and to be accountable for our mistakes and misinformation (Chaleff, 1995). This is what we want as followers. And when we get leaders who do as we, as a collective, instruct – why is it we then scream that what we really want is a moral leader? What we need is moral followership. We have moral leaders, these are the leaders who stand for what they believe in (Covey, 1991), who question the status quo (Sperling, 2000), these are the people who have experienced life and are willing to sacrifice their livelihoods for what they believe to be true and right (Palmer, 1999). We decry these individuals as something foul and seek those familiar who purport our ideals of "morality." Instead we should follow and seek guidance from those who demonstrate truth goodness and beauty in their everyday existence.

What is the nature of human capacity for learning and achievement?

Human beings, much like other species, succumb to authority, whether this authority is illusionary or not is irrelevant. Granted there will always be those outside this influence but for the most part we want a guarantee of authority. It is a difficult and unfair irony, for we will hold people in contempt for being "book learned" and then again we condemn those who are "self-educated" (Cottam, 2003). It is a ‘damned if you do or damned if you don't proposition. I often have to explain to people that I am a self-educated computer expert and have been building, programming, and developing computers for nearly 15 years. These people are in awe of my expertise but these same people will then seek the guidance of someone who is "certified" regardless of their experience. As an educator I am often condemned for pursuing academic degrees for I am told that "the best knowledge is through life experiences." These are the "Catch-22s" of our social makeup.

We are social creatures we survive, play and war in a social strata that bears witness to our individual talents (Gurian, 2003). I am reminded of the question I often ask when I speak at critical thinking seminars: Which came first: the teacher or the student? The dilemma which occurs from this simple question, this simple act of critical defiance, (Brookfield, 1987), is that in order to have a teacher a student needs to exist, and of course the inverse is just as true in order to have a student a teacher must exist. Can these be one and the same? Yes, obviously, which is the fun in the irony: both must exist at a singular moment in time: a quantum equation of existence (Gross, 1999). It is our propensity to learn, our appetite for knowledge that provides us with the motivation to pursue other outlets (Wadsworth, 1995). This same propensity however stimulates us to share this knowledge. Socialization, (Dickmann & Stanford-Blair, 2002). Anton Chekhov once wrote an interesting story investigating this premise. In The Bet two would-be entrepreneurs discuss the validity and necessity of social environments. One of them claims that there is no need for social enterprise while the other wages that an individual would wither away without the social accruements. Hence a "bet" is made where one of them goes into seclusion. The outcome is that we do need to share out talents, we do feel the desire to measure our worth against others. This is the friendly and healthy concepts of competition (Lencioni, 2002). The unhealthy measure of competitiveness is of course aggression and war against those social beings we need to measure ourselves against (Gurian, 2003).

What are the attributes of a learning organization?

Learning organizations exist on a common trust, an agreed upon code of ethics. Lencioni states that there exists five dysfunctions of a team (2002):

Absence of Trust
Fear of Conflict
Lack of Commitment
Avoidance of accountability
Inattention to Results

These concepts propel the need for a proclamation of ethical civility: respect, understanding/agreement of differences, voicing opinions, teammanship, desire, engagement, and a shared vision is needed to be established and agreed upon in order to provide an environment of safety (Bolman, & Deal, 1997), (Gonthier, 2002), (Huffman & Hipp, 2003), (IMHOTEP, 2004), (Lencioni, 2002), (Zmuda, Kuklis & Kline, 2004). For, without safety learning cannot take place within an organization. That is not to say that there will not be those outriders who learn and challenge in unhealthy environments, rather for an organization to develop as a whole; there needs to be a measure of understanding that all participants will help or assure each other in their development. Assurances in differing opinions, in giving all a voice (Patterson, Grenny, McMillan, & Switzler, 2002), in making sure that there exists a learning environment as opposed to the dictatorship of a few loud individuals.

There needs to exist a bond of trust and respect. These are not mere platitudes – as we have often discovered, professionalism is an overused and undervalued term (Bolman, & Deal, 1997). The relationship needs to be professional but based on a personal understanding and acceptance of others’ identities. In order to create these bonds it is necessary to be personal (Lencioni, 2002) – in a sense; we can utilize a nautical analogy for this: the captain of a ship cannot effectively sail his ship without a capable crew; but it is possible for a capable crew to sail without a captain. The learning organization needs to be invested or engaged in the processes of the organization and the developments of the learning system (Huffman & Hipp, 2003). There exists a need for communication, effective communication (Gonthier, 2002), which bolsters the individual’s needs as well as the social atmosphere. The members of a learning organization need to feel safe in the challenges that will be pressured against them. I find it remarkable that in our school systems, both in the K-12 system as well as the post-secondary educational environments, we do not foster this propensity for safety (Cottam, 2003), (Sperling, 2000). This concept that it is safe to make mistakes while learning: we learn from our mistakes! Instead we propose unachievable perfection which leaves us floundering.

Again I return to the critical thinking seminars I facilitate for clarification. Mahatma Gandhi is known for saying: "you must become the change you seek in others." What is implied here is an emotional wage guaranteed against (Kirby & Goodpaster, 2002). I remind people that while we need to "think" by removing emotion from the equation – emotion cannot be removed. It is a permanent baggage that influences our vision, our morality and our values. But understanding that this emotional tie exists allows us to further this phenomenon by understanding that within our learning organization emotion-ality exists and will influence our decisions.

As a Principal of Exemplary Systems, Inc. School

There is an old stratagem used to help students remember the different spellings of "principle" and "principal." It states that your school principal is both a "Prince" and your "pal." What is meant by the term "Prince" are the qualities that we perceive a "Prince" to have: truth, integrity, dignity, justice, and accountability. By "Pal" we suggest someone who is approachable, someone you can count on, someone who is friendly and safe. Above all a principal needs to be a good communicator – not just in expressing ideas but being someone who listens. A principal is the cornerstone of the school. They need to be someone that all members of the educational community; teachers, students, and families believe they can trust. The principal needs to establish credibility in their knowledge, integrity in their leadership and overall professionalism in their daily routines inside and outside of school. The principal represents the entire education community.

The principal needs to be multi-modal in the delivery and expression of ideas, they need to communicate effectively and often. And not always in formal discourse. The principal is the negotiator, the authority – the captain of the educational community. Therefore the principal needs to be accountable for their actions – but in order to be able to be so they need to demonstrate respect and civility towards their crew. A principal is only as good as the crew working with them. This symbiotic relationship then needs to be developed, nursed and encouraged.

… it is easy to say that the Principal represents the organization – but that is exactly what the Principal is. A representation of the values, truth, justice, dignity, integrity and accountability of the organization they lead. The Principal needs to be someone that others can rely upon, count on hence the term accountability. The Principal needs to be a great communicator – not just in expressing ideas but by being someone that all members of the learning organization believe they can trust. The Principal needs to establish credibility in their knowledge, integrity, in their leadership and overall professionalism in their daily routines inside and outside of the office. The Principal is the representation of the school. They presents an image of what the organization stands for. While we can argue the fundamental constructs of just exactly what this is – we are an institution of social mores, not one that merely proclaims to be so.

Leadership strategies and practices for achieving meaningful purpose.

What is the role of the moral and mindful leader? Dickmann & Stanford-Blair in their Connecting Leadership to the Brain (2002) suggest that shifting through the existing paradigms: through our perceptions, performances and desire for persistence will lead us into a context of mindful leadership. Leaders must find the balance between nature (how the physical brain functions) and nurture (how the mind has developed) (Dickman & Stanford-Blair, 2004), (Gurian, 2003), (Wadsworth, 1995). According to Bolman and Deal in their Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership (1997): those stories and relationships that are felt or understood without clarification within the organization suggest the ensuing culture. It is the unwritten or unspoken rules, the “culture” within the organization, that governs the every day. In the change process, it is assigning meaning that is the most difficult and the most significant concept. Too often vision becomes unfocused or blurry because the "true" existing culture is not understood. Perceptions were not given thought during the visionary implementation. Each symbol within the organization means something different depending upon the perspective of someone. The core assumptions (the defining meaning) then of the culture are often overlooked.

Nurture/Nature Stratagems

To be a moral and mindful leader we need to understand the culture that we will be leading. To understand is not enough, however, there needs to be a connection between the leader and the team members. This is a connection not only of leadership and "authority" but one of nurturing, and of growth. Dickmann, Stanford-Blair and Rosati-Bojar (2004) suggest these concepts when aligning leadership with the team:

Knowing what matters
Consciously being connected to that which matters to all involved (Dickmann & Stanford-Blair, 2002).

Lencioni furthers this ideal by stating that this is a function of two things: "clarity and buy-in." Lively meaningful debate will lead to an ultimate decision that has the input and buy-in of the entire team. There is danger in seeking consensus because it is too challenging to find a solution that everyone agrees with. Great teams understand that people do not need to get their way. The key is making sure that everyone feels that their input was heard and considered. Even without consensus on the solution every team member should back the final decision. "Get every team member to have ownership into the decisions that are made and then review these expectations often and make adjustments where necessary" (Lencioni, 2002).
Knowing what it takes

Leaders need to understand their purpose and the purpose at hand (Dickmann & Stanford-Blair, 2002), and they need to be able to compile the necessary means to accomplish these purposes.

Participation is a spectrum. On one end the leader makes all the decisions without any consultation – on the other end the leader delegates all decision making to the team participants (Thompson, Aranda, & Robbins, 2000). Few leaders utilize a singular approach – most leaders will fall somewhere in between this continuum. And this then is the understanding that a Principal needs to understand. The strengths in the individuals of the team participants. There are times when it would be necessary to make a "command decision" and other times when the role of Principal is mainly the person who sets up the meeting room. (Refreshments and materials should not be optional.)

Doing something about it

Leaders need to take action realizing the need for a connection which encourages or nurtures the team (Dickmann & Stanford-Blair, 2002); Parker Palmer (1999) suggests that words are many but it is through modeling our actions, by letting our lives speak demonstrating through our daily actions as opposed to our clever rhetoric.

We as people, as humans, as learners need to nurture our capacity for meaningful exchange. Parker Palmer (1999) states, "the great failure is not that of leading full and vital active life, with all the mistakes and suffering such a life will bring… Instead, the failure is to withdraw fearfully from the place to which one is called, to squander the … experience of aliveness itself." As Principals we need to be that active leader, to move forward in the development of the organization, we need to be the commander and the nurturer (Gurian, 2003): the king and the goddess (Brown, 1999) – without delving into a narcissistic semblance of self.

With these concepts in mind we must realize that the organization's culture is itself a child of its universe. It exists as an entity all of its own. Within this child is a complex system of understanding, meaning, recognization and deliverance. The culture will need to grow – sometimes this growth is a transformation from what was to something that was hereforeto unexpected or unplanned. The child culture with all of its physical endearments then translates or synthesizes these experiences with the nurturing aspect of the organization.

The Mother & Child Reunion And the course of a lifetime runs Over and over again
Paul Simon (Mother and Child Reunion)

Between a Principal (leader) and school staff (organization) there needs to exist a bond of trust and respect (Lencioni, 2002). These are not mere platitudes – as we have often discovered, professionalism is an overused and undervalued term. The relationship needs to be professional but based on a personal understanding and acceptance of others’ identities. In order to create these bonds it is necessary to be personal – still personal ideas need to be eliminated in the decision making processes. This is a delicate balance for the principal, and again the utilization of a nautical analogy benefits my discussion: for it is possible for a capable crew to sail without a captain.

This again demonstrates how powerful the need for effective communication is (Patterson, et al, 2002). Teachers need to acquiesce to the methodology of their principal and the principal needs to encompass the combined intellectual professionalism of the teachers (Zmuda, et al, 2004). The teachers need to be incorporated into the decision making processes as well as the curriculum development. Everyone within the educational community needs to be invested in the vision (Huffman & Hipp, 2003). The essence then is to create a leadership bond that is a servant in nature but retains the authority to maintain vision.

Sharing Visions

Change is not always for the better however it is always inevitable. I like the statement from Star Trek’s the Borg: “resistance is futile.” What we need to do is realize that “plans” are not “dones” but rather guides to where we would like to get to. Many times we do not reach our proposed destinations and this is not necessarily a bad thing. (Think of the innovators of history who had gotten “off track” of their intended goals; and where would we be today without them?) I understand all too well that change is a difficult thing, there are those who negate any type of change and then there exists those who embrace change without thinking through the resultant possibilities.

The main difficulty with change is fear. People are fearful of those things new and of which they are not comfortable with. There is an adage which speaks to this: if you name your fear – give it an impressionable identity – you no longer will be afraid of that particular concept – because now it is known to you by you. We need to give name to our changes, explain the process and the desired results we hope to attain through the change. That we are not changing merely because we can or even should. We need to explain the processes, the rationale, we need to define the change so that it becomes something familiar as opposed to something that was uncomfortably different or new.

The existing culture of the school will measure me by my few and immediate actions – not necessarily my words or ideas – therefore, I want to be visible, engaged and demonstrative. To walk into a culture and exclaim that “there’s a new sheriff in town” usually is met with negativity and resistance (Gonthier, 2002). I would speak with people, informally – I like to walk through the school and have these interviews this allows a neutral atmosphere while emphasizing the reason we are all here: the school. I need to find out who those unspoken leaders are (Bolman & Deal, 1997), those individuals that others look to for guidance. We need to discuss what works, what does not, what are the interests of the teachers, the students, the other staff members. What does the community desire for the school? Are there things that work well? Things that do not? What changes would they like to incorporate? What are their visions for our school? (Zmuda, et al, 2004)

With this in mind, the first “change” I would make would be to revise the mission of the school (Covey, 1991). This is not to say that the current mission is bad or wrong. Not at all, but this change allows for all involved to redefine the mission of the school. It also incorporates the principal as an integral part of the vision while maintaining the vision and integrity of all those involved in the educational community (Huffman & Hipp, 2003). I would also like to implement a universal school-wide educational philosophy to help reestablish our learning and working community. My desire is to make learning fun, the students are already in a “war zone” (Freire, 1994) a place they do not want to be for reasons of discipline or otherwise. We are in a business where our clients are children – we need to share and exult their presence, their work and their ideals: without the students we would not exist as teachers!

There does exist moments when “command” decisions need to be made. Perhaps, because the recurring indecision or argumentative discussion is going nowhere. These times exist. This is when the principal needs to be that authoritative-negotiator. (Thompson, et al, 2000). But, these are moments, not every decision. If we do noteengage others into the decision-making process then those affected by the decisions will not necessarily find grounding, or meaning inside the process. We learn by constructing meaning out of our experiences (Papert, 1996), (Wadsworth, 1995). To incorporate the decision prowess of others in significant decision-making processes is to bolster the communal enterprise of an educational community.
Everyone who will be affected by the decision needs to have a say or a representative say in the final outcome. But there needs to be guidelines or norms (Thompson, et al, 2000) present that state whether a majority vote, or a veto or an authoritarian decision will be followed. If we do not include the voices of our teachers, our students, our families and other staff members who will be affected by the process we are eliminating intelligent or insightful resources that we could all learn from (Huffman & Hipp, 2003). We tend to forget this, that we are the experts. In many ways we are but often we do not need expert executive decisions but rather communal acceptance of ideas.

So We Can Sing

I became a teacher after many years of conflict because I hated school. I did not believe that the teachers (not all) wanted to teach me. Rather they seemingly just wanted a paycheck. Whether this was true or not; their fault or the fault of a system that is more interested in numbers than people is up for argument (Cottam, 2003). I believe the only way you can effectively change something is by working within it. I therefore, became a teacher to change the pedagogy into one that resembled a more accessible and meaningful experience for students (Papert, 1996). My beliefs are less radical than they were when I began, but nonetheless, I want to make a difference in the lives I touch. I believe I do this, I believe that I am a good leader, ethically bound to an ideal of learning, fueled by an integrity that was and still can be representative by educational professionalism. I enjoy working with staff who, regardless of intent, have flocked towards this type of vocation. It is said it takes a special kind of person to teach (Palmer, 1999). I agree. Not that all vocations are not special in their own way, but those of us who do teach do this by choice, we want to be here – for whatever reasons, or demons that propel us, we choose these kids, we choose these schools. In this sense we are all “like minded,” we all share a vision. We bring our special talents, our desire to make a difference in our children’s lives, we bring our accomplishments and our failures and we demonstrate that we, too, learn from mistakes and otherwise.

I would like the honor of being a leader of such teachers who regard their mission of educating children as one of the most important aspects of their lives.

References.

Bolman, L. & Deal, T. (1997). Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Brookfield, S. D. (1987). Developing critical thinkers: challenging adults to explore alternative

ways of thinking and acting. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Brown, W. P. (1999). The Ethos of the Cosmos: the genesis of moral imagination in the bible.

Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

Chaleff, I. (1995). The courageous follower: standing up, to, and for our leaders.

San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Cottam, D. (2003). Why education is useless. Philadelphia, PE:

University of Pennsylvania Press.

Covey, S. (1991). Principle centered leadership. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Dickmann, M. H., & Stanford-Blair, N. (2002). Connecting leadership to the brain.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Dickmann, M. H., Stanford-Blair, N., Rosati-Bojar, A. (2004). Leading with the brain in mind:

101 brain-compatible practices for leaders.. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Freire, P. (1994). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY:

The Continuum Publishing Co.

Gardner, H., Csikszentmihalyi, M. & Damon, W. (2001). Good work: when excellence and

ethics meet. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Gonthier, G. (2002). Rude awakenings: overcoming the civility crisis in the workplace.

Chicago, IL: Dearborn Trade Publishing.

Gross, R. (1999). Peak learning: how to create your own lifelong education program for

personal enlightenment and professional success. New York, NY:

Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

Gurian, M. (2003). What could he be thinking? How a man’s mind really works.

New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press.

Heller, J. (1996). Catch 22. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Huffman, J. B. & Hipp, K. K. (2003). Reculturing schools as professional learning

communities.Lanham, MD: ScarecrowEducation.

IMHOTEP. (2004). [Retrieved from the world wide web]. Leadership development.

http://www.doctorstrategy.co.uk/leadership_dev.htm

Kirby, G. P., & Goodpaster, J. R. (2002). Thinking. 3rd Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ:

Pearson Education.

Lencioni, P. M. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: a leadership fable.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Osho. (2001). Awareness: the key to living in balance – insights for a new way of living.

New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Palmer, P. J. (1999). Let your life speak: listening for the voice of vocation.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Papert, S. (1996). The connected family: bridging the digital generation gap.

Atlanta, GA: Longstreet Press.

Patterson, K., Grenny, J., McMillan, R., & Switzler, A. (2002). Crucial conversations:

tools for talking when stakes are high. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Rogers, F. (2003). The world according to Mister Rogers: important things to remember.

New York, NY: Hyperion Books.

Sperling, J. (2000). Rebel with a cause: the entrepreneur who created the

University of Phoenix and the for-profit revolution in higher education.

New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Thompson, L., Aranda, E., Robbins, S. R. (2000). Tools for Teams: building effective

teams in the workplace. Boston MA: Pearson Custom Publishing.

Tzu, S. (2002). The Art of War. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

Wadsworth, B. (1995). Piaget's Theory of Cognitive and Affective Development/Foundations

of Constructivism. 5th Ed. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub Co.

Wolfe, T. (1979). The Right Stuff. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux.

Zmuda, A., Kuklis, R., & Kline, E. (2004). Transforming schools: creating a culture

of continuous improvement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and

Development.

Vision/Action Challenge:Defining Ours

2004-04-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Visioning

Gerry has been the principal at Thomas More High School (TMHS) in the metropolitan Milwaukee area, for the last eight years. Gerry had also been a Special Education teacher certified in the area of Learning Disabilities for the previous 10 years. This legacy has allowed him to become entrenched in the school district both professionally and personally. The vision challenge for Gerry at TMHS was to develop a collaborative effort in how services were provided to all students: thereby creating a combined “full inclusion” model with the understanding that “best practices” will also some “pull out” or unique classroom designs. The vision was to incorporate the Special Education teachers into a combined “cross-categorical” performance description. Thereby eliminating the pre-conceived exemptions of placing the students with Learning Disabilities, (LD) only with those Special Educators who were licensed as Learning Disability certified teachers. This was also to allow for the Special Education staff to become more utilized throughout the student population as well as throughout the school. (The “pigeon hole” effect of only having the Emotionally/Behaviorally Disturbed, (E/BD) certified teacher working with those students identified as having E/BD needs; this would then continue throughout all of the specialized areas.) The plan would then have “case managers” of students for each Special Educator, but services for these students would be provided by all of the Special Educators in a combined collaborative effort.

As in all plans there are pros and cons. Gerry mentioned these in his development of his full inclusion vision. Pros: as dictated by the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) the students need to have specific services provided, this becomes difficult when a specific teacher has to meet with these students at the required hours of the day when the students are spread out among the classrooms. By utilizing “cross-categorical” staff these services can then be provided by any of the special educators at any time of the day thereby sharing the load of the students’ case loads. This allows for the students also to develop a positive self-esteem as they are included in all of the activities of the “regular” education classroom. The students get to have more people involved with their education and do not become singled out as working with the “special ed” teacher. (Indeed under this practice often the students do not even know what our title is and think of us as aides in the classroom as opposed to what they call the “retard” teacher.) The “case management” of these students then also becomes easier as the case loads are spread out amongst all of the teachers. Previously the LD teacher would have had 45 students, the E/BD teacher would then have 35, the Speech and Language specialist had 3, and so forth. This new model would divide the students equally so that everyone would be doing the same amount of extra work. Other pros associated with this vision would be that there would not be a need for individual “special ed” classrooms as the students would then be in the “Regular ed” classrooms. And more importantly a “shared” Learning Resource room would be established that would be utilized by all students in order to continue to remove the stigma of the “special ed” label.

The cons of course fall into the fact that the Special Educators would now be working with students who were not necessarily in their background strengths; because of the “case manager” style of IEP development the Special Education staff would not necessarily be experts on their case load and would then be at a perceived disadvantage in the IEP meetings. Also, time to collaborate would be needed in order for these educators to effectively pursue and meet the needs of all these students. The teachers would have to become transient in nature and can no longer have a classroom they can “call port” – this removes some of the identity and practicality of teaching away from the educators. A past insistence on the concept of “my students” or “my classroom” would have to be refuted, and a “team” approach to working with the regular education staff needs to be implemented. Which means that teachers who are used to doing things in their own fashion now have to collaborate. Also, the perceived notion that these “trouble” kids are now in their classrooms, and how they are not equipped to handle them would be an issue.

Who's sharing this Vision?

In order for this vision to work a the very least the special education staff needed to be involved in the shared belief of the collaborative model. The model is now in its third year of implementation. The questions/comments that continue to rise is prefaced “Gerry's vision of ‘full inclusion’ is …” the vision was not purchased by those who would be involved. Instead a “vision” a plan was developed and then implemented. Those involved in the implementation did not like the vision and from the very beginning tried to sabotage some of the implementation. Other factors, such as training or providing training for team teaching, collaborative settings, dealing with special needs students in the classroom etc were not provided. The belief was that the special educators would provided this service for the regular education staff. Simple feelings of “invasion” created unnecessary animosity between staff members as this party of special educators now came into the sanctuary of another’s’ room. Perceptions of “judging” or “evaluating” were born and teachers on both sides of the vision fence now became embroiled in carefully guarding their teaching styles and methods instead of sharing them. Indeed, my role – the umbrella under which I was hired – was to work with the “regular ed” teachers and teach them how to teach in a more constructivist, multiple-intelligences methodology that would not only support the special needs students in their classrooms but would also assist the “regular” students. Instead my “role” is perceived as the guy who Gerry sends into your room because you are not teaching up to par.

Analyzing the vision: symbolically

According to Bolman and Deal in their Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership: the Symbolic Frame represents those stories and relationships that are felt or understood without clarification within the organization. It is the unwritten or unspoken rules, the “culture” within the organization , that governs the every day. In the change process, it is assigning meaning that is the most difficult and the most significant concept. Too often vision becomes unfocused or blurry because the Symbolic Frame was not given thought during the visionary implementation. Each symbol within the organization means something different depending upon the perspective of someone. The core assumption of the symbolic frame are often overlooked. These are (Bolman & Deal, 1997):

What is most important about any event is not what happened but what it means.
Activity and meaning are loosely coupled: events have multiple meanings because people interpret experience differently.
Most of life is ambiguous or uncertain – what happened, why it happened, or what will happen next are all puzzles.
High levels of ambiguity and uncertainty undercut rational analysis, problem solving and decision making.
In the face of uncertainty and ambiguity, people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, provide direction and anchor hope and faith.
Many events and processes are more important for what is expressed than what is produced. They form a cultural tapestry of secular myths, rituals, ceremonies and stories that help people find meaning, purpose and passion.

What this means is that the reality is not what is but what is perceived. Truth then becomes how something wants to be remembered instead of exactly how it happened. Our overt symbolism reflects the care and understanding of the TMHS mission to our students. But what is not so overt is the myths, traditions, and stories held by our staff members as well as students. Too often change is seen as a method for erasing those stories and myths. It is important to understand what these stories are and how important these symbols become to the people who hold them in esteem. If you ignore the symbols referred you often anger people and even they may not know why. What is important is to acclimate new people to the histories, the heroes both regaled and fallen, who have gone before. Sometimes it is that quiet guy in classroom 102 who tends to shy away from everyone that you realize was the mythical hero of a change in gone by era. Bolman and Deal suggest , (1997) “Symbols embody and express an organization’s culture… it embodies accumulated wisdom from those who came before us. The strength is in the details, we are only as strong as our weakest link.

Missing strawberries

Gerry does not understand what has gone wrong, indeed he chooses not to believe anything is wrong. When pressed on the issues Gerry will often say ‘the shared vision’, or that ‘the collaborative process’ etc. When told that the collaborative process is not in fact in place he dismisses this and talks of his vision. Gerry believed he had a good vision and implemented it, believing that the goodness of the vision would speak for itself. And that since the goodness of the vision was inherent everyone would fall behind it and support it. Where we have fallen down is the understanding of what the vision is. And whose. It is important to understand the symbolism that has been neglected within our school. Without putting it into so many words in one swift symbolic fell Gerry told his teachers that he did not believe that they were competent, capable, experts in their fields and so forth. As I often tell my teachers: just because you enjoyed the lesson does not mean that the students learned anything from it. Ultimately it is the students who we need to be concerned about but if we cannot get the teachers involved in this vision, then what we are doing is a detriment to our students. We need to address each others’ concerns, find those things we can identify with, have a discussion concerning our fears and desires and how we can best move forward towards that goal.

Drastic measures are usually called into play in times of conflict. What has happened is a mutiny of sorts. That is not to say that the vision has been derailed. But in the last three years, and more significantly the previous, a group of teachers have taken to the vision and evolved it into their own. This has not come through in easy nor non-temperamental discourse. Feelings, egos, motives and ideologies have not only been called into question but have been irrevocably damaged in this process. But as history has played out (most notably in the epistemology of Sun Tzu “the enemy of my enemy is also my friend”.) While to say alliances were formed is a bit drastic this is somewhat what has indeed happened. It took some of the people who did embrace or at least understand the vision to begin to work with others, to demonstrate the prowess, the need and the effectiveness of the vision. Often this has led to duplicity, extra hours of working and healthy conflicts.

I have located those leaders that are symbolic in their existence at TMHS both in experience and those qualities that we cannot define. These symbolic leaders are the ones that people have respect for. Undefined, and often unknowingly – but everyone knows who they are. In demonstrating to them the benefits of the vision, in understanding their roles and how the extra work upfront will save them effort in the end. This is sometimes extremely easy yet often difficult: plan ahead, being proactive etc. While we exclaim these platitudes it is mind boggling how often we choose to react instead of plan. I recall an incident where a colleague had a lot of difficulty with me, to the point where she would not even acknowledge my presence and we worked in the same room together. This behavior this discord was so noticeable that the students would comment on it to others. Somehow I had offended this colleague – in a move of sheer brilliance one of the symbolic leaders I had spoken of earlier suggested an intervention. After hearing this colleague in an informal “court” of her peers it was recommended to me that a possible “fix” would be for me to apologize even though it was unclear what I was apologizing for. This is simple civility, simple humility, I therefore apologized at our next meeting (of course I also brandished chocolate delicacies) and viola! Whatever animosity existed no longer existed! In other situations the humility approach worked, when I first began at TMHS Gerry went about introducing me as “Dr. Kay” much to my chagrin. This left me with much needed patchwork, some of which have not yet and probably never will be mended.

Currently since there is a devastating division amongst our staff , I have been able to gain alliances via allying myself with these symbolic leaders. This is the bell ringer effect, now more people are on board with Gerry's vision and it no longer is being referred to as his. It is our mutinous vision (even though they remain one and the same) this new collected vision, our own defining allegory, has been able to move forward. Now we are beginning to find purchase. Perhaps this could have happened a lot sooner, perhaps not. Perhaps the buy-in is because of our attitudes, our humility, perhaps not. But I bought some ice cream, some chocolates, and I stole the strawberries sharing them all.

References

Bolman, L. & Deal, T. (1997). Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.

Fair, G. (2002). Personal interviews.

Tzu, S. (2002). The Art of War. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

Wouk, H. (1987). The Caine Mutiny: a novel of World War II. Bethesda, MD:
United States Naval Institution.

Mission Impossible: a review of the vision of a K-12 School

2004-02-08T01:33:00.000-08:00

Introduction

… this mission will self destruct …

Our mission “... (to) educate by meeting the diverse needs of all students in an environment which fosters high expectations and mutual respect for diversity through learning experiences that can be applied throughout life.” is a contrived happenstance of evolutionary practices put forth by a delegation of committees. Does this mean they were not altruistic in their endeavors? No, I answer, but perhaps their altruism was manufactured by their desire to compete and comply. For when we break the mission or vision down into its particulars we get a broad stroke of ideals without focus, without definition without meaning.

In order to fully understand this mission we need to look at the belief statements suggested by this document:

We believe that education should...

...foster a successful transition from childhood into young adulthood by guiding the development of ethical character,
...develop responsibility and accountability for self,
...recognize and practice respect,
...provide experiences that attain and apply knowledge,
...engage students in a variety of activities, and
...build upon social, physical and mental health.

and:

The "Vision" for students is that they become...

...responsible life-long learners who demonstrate personal integrity in all aspects of life.

But what does this mean as a community of workers toiling towards these goals? In order to facilitate these themes we have also included the “Love & Logic” (Fay & Funk, 2003) premise of school discipline as well as the “FISH” (Lundin, blah & blah, 2003), philosophy in order to promote a more positive attitude in developing these goals.

And finally do we include those proven and demonstrated strategies and theories of childhood learning and development as promoted by Howard Gardner or Eric Jensen?

90% of what we know about the brain …

Michael Gurian has presented the concept and statistical analysis regarding how boys and girls learn and the need to understand that these differences are located in the hard wiring of the brain, (Gurian, 1996, 2001). This concept seems trivial to present since most educators readily accept this notion, however what we accept and what we do are two very different things. It is unfortunate that will all of the training we as educators have, regarding brain based learning, about discipline with dignity, about the differences in intelligences educators tend to dismiss these concepts in practice.

My role at our school is to entreat upon the classroom teachers and assist them in delivering, material in a brain friendly, multiple intelligences method. This is to be done through proactive planning and collaboration. Our school prides itself as a model of collaborative efforts, (Johnson, Johnson, & Johnson-Holubec, 1993). A unique side effect of my position is that I get to see all of the teachers at all grade levels all stations within their collaborative houses. Because of this I become that analogous ‘fly on the wall’ and am privy to much discussion. These discussions often are not in parallel with our school initiatives nor our mission.

"What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s happening…"

The initiatives in our school are put forth by committees. Unfortunately it seems that the same core people are on these committees. The committees are developed by democratic vote (someone has to be nominated) or by people not wanting to give up their seat. Unfortunately for the employees at our school we need to be on committees in order to get an "exemplary" grade on our yearly portfolios – which reflect whether we are good teachers or not. But too often these initiatives are non-command decisions "command decisions." Our principal has found a way to politicize the process by placing those people key and in agreement with him on the committees where his decisions can be implemented under the guise of democratic selection. I have found myself in the often single position of supporting our principal when trying to lay to rest the innuendos and rumors.

Too often the "buzz" is not supportive nor collaborative. Our principal believes that these initiatives and collaboration are going on to a great extent and voices this continuously, but then is dumbfounded when he hears or sees that this is not the case. Too often he finds himself in a bitter entanglement between the “teachers” and the “school board” because of the fact that these initiatives are not taking place. (Historically when the teachers are upset or in disapproval information is somehow leaked to the local press – here the school board and the community get a hold of it and our principal is caught in the middle.)

Children learn from what they see

Our mission is to foster respect and integrity… it is foolish to believe that our students are not aware of the in-house fighting that is taking place. Often they are aware of disagreements before our coworkers are. If we are modeling these type of behaviors what do we expect our children to learn? They “see” how adults are acting – this then must be the way to act. It is ironic the politics we demonstrate. Our principal is oblivious to the fact that in his highly collaborative school few collaborative efforts are being investigated. In our “respectful” environment our associate principals are building their war cadres in order to make they coup against the current regime. This is often represented in their command decisions which are not cohesive to the principals. Meanwhile our teachers work in a stalag mentality hording their lessons, strategies and insight as if it were the only semblance of their outward sanity.

Our philosophy of “Love & Logic” has mutated from a sense of accountability to a regimen of punitive assessments. The FISH philosophy incorporates the four elements of (Lundin, Paul, & Christensen, 2000):

Make Their Day
Choose Your Attitude
Be There
Play

These elements have become mandated almost under the punitive guise of surrender or die! The difficulty in getting the staff members behind these command decisions is that they believe new initiatives will be promoted next year – as this is the pattern. New initiatives are instituted but before they can become instilled they are tossed aside for newer ones. This lack of consistency has left the staff very wary and fearful and has increased the animosity reflected onto the mission of our school.

Go FISH!

What stands out the most to me is this quote from Elliott Eisner, "we are engaged in the mind building business." I emphasize the mind building business because of another statement made by Eisner "Curriculum gets changed by the way we assess – not by what we teach." As a K-12 teacher who fully believes in the educating of minds, who believes that we learn through discovery we construct our learning through the experiences and explorations we take. Entropy exists because we become sedentary in one aspect of our existence our balance. We focus on living, on dying or our own selfish interests. If our focus is out of balance we dismiss the world around us, the people, the nature around us. We are too busy swatting at the mosquitoes or covering our bodies to distance ourselves from the lessons, the intimacy of the world about us. We hide in our environmentally controlled boxes walled up from the world about us. We control the light and then think we control the day. Instead of balance we seek control. There was an old drunk, a friend of mine, who lived inside his bottle who advised me that I would never win an argument with him no matter how hard I tried, "because you can't rationalize with an irrational person."

Regardless of what we know about how people, students, organizations learn we are in a constant battle with those who believe that the best education is one driven by a curriculum of standardized testing, (Sykes, 2003). American’s do not value education, (Cottam, 2003). And unfortunately, there is a large subtext of teachers making up those demographics of American. This is one of the problems we see when schools fight for funding, books, infrastructure and teachers. We claim that there is a teacher shortage but qualified teachers cannot find schools that will hire them because they cost too much. The truth is that we have a shortage of cheap teachers. Therefore, if Americans do not want to support the education of minds but rather a clear methodology for training bodies – then why am I in this business?

REFERENCES

Apple, M. (2003, June). Educating the “right” way. Symposium Conducted at the

Cardinal Stritch Summer Institute 2003, Milwaukee, WI.

Cottam, D. (2003). Why Education is Useless. University of Pennsylvania Press:

Pennsylvania, PA.

Dickmann, M. H. & Stanford-Blair, N. (2002). Connecting Leadership to the Brain.

Corwin Press, Inc: Thousand Oaks, CA.

Eisner, E. (2003, June). Arts and the creation of the mind. Symposium Conducted at the

Cardinal Stritch Summer Institute 2003, Milwaukee, WI.

Fay, J., & Funk, D. (1998). Teaching With Love and Logic: Taking Control of the Classroom.

Love & Logic Press: New York, NY. USA.

Gardner, H. (1991). The Unschooled Mind: How children think and how schools should teach.

Basic Books: New York, NY. USA.

Gladwell, M. (2002). The Tipping Point: How little things can make a difference.

Back Bay Books: USA .

Gurian, M. (1996). The Wonder of Boys: what parents, mentors, and educators can do

to shape boys into exceptional men. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam: New York, NY. USA.

Gurian, M., & Henley, P. (2001). Boys and Girls Learn Differently: a guide for teachers

and parents. Jossey Bass: San Francisco, CA. USA.

Gurian, M. (2002). The Wonder of Girls: understanding the hidden nature of our daughters.

Atria Books: New York, NY. USA .

Jensen, E. (2000). Brain-Based Learning: The New Science of teaching & Training.

The Brain Store: San Diego, CA.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., & Johnson-Holubec, E. (1993). Circles of Learning:

cooperation in the classroom. Interaction Book Company: Edina, MN. USA.

LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life.

Touchstone: New York, NY. USA.

Lundin, S. C., Paul, H. & Christensen, J. (2000). Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale

and Improve Results. Hyperion Press: New York, NY. USA.

Sykes, C. (2003, June). Insight with Charlie Sykes. Symposium Conducted at the

Cardinal Stritch Summer Institute 2003, Milwaukee, WI.

Walk in Balance: Book of Leadership Values

2003-05-21T13:45:00.000-07:00

Preface:
Moral Leadership Defined

Purpose:
That which one strives for, an aim - a goal - result, an intention or resolve, determination.
Leadership:
The capacity or ability to lead, to guide direct or gather about.
Service:
The employment in duties or work for another and the performance of this work or duties as an act of assistance or benefit or favor:
Values:
Principles, standards, or qualities considered worthwhile or desirable:
Moral:
Arising from conscience or the sense of right and wrong, ideals based on strong likelihood or firm conviction, rather than on the actual evidence. Concerned with the judgment of the goodness or badness of human action and character, teaching or exhibiting goodness or correctness of character and behavior.
Ethical:
Being in accordance with the accepted principles of right and wrongthat govern one’s conduct .
Virtue:
Moral excellence and righteousness; goodness - courage and valor.

Moral leadership is developing followershipthrough a shared vision or code of ethics or morality.

Acknowledgements:

I am humbled by those who have paved the way for me to be standing here now and awed by those who will blaze the paths beyond my comprehension.

Chapter One:
The Need for Moral Leadership

It is easy to blame the depravation of our world on leaders or entities gone bad. In the world of 2003 we can point out the fact that large billion dollar corporations have “fudged” their records to display non existent profits, or that charismatic religious zealots have misused their authority to steal from their follower, or that public representatives of our nation either display incompetence, ineptitude, or infidelity. After all, this country was founded on the separation ideology that we would not assume these immoral deeds.
To focus on America for this exercise, historically this country has always been in one moral upheaval after another. Our ENRON and WorldComm is no different than the Payola, or Game Show scandals, the railroad monopolies, land distribution, range wars over cattle and sheep, the territorial fights over animal pelts and farm lands. To pinpoint one president for infidelity is ludicrous in its assumption when we look at our national leaders historically. Then, why, do we have outrage at the decline of morality or the ascension of immoral leaders in today’s world?

The popular perception of leadership is one that leads. Therefore, we create an image of someone who should be the epitome of all things for us individually. This perception becomes harder to maintain as more and more individuals throw their hat into the ring in support of their leader. The leader has to maintain their image to all people at all times. This is folly in its simplicity and arrogance in its complexity.
Our dilemma with “moral Leadership” is that we are not moral followers. We expect our leaders to stand to an ideal that we often scoff at in its purity. I think of the constraints we put on teachers: we want teachers who are well rounded in their education; teachers who can bring experiential concepts tot heir instruction; teachers who are caring, wondrous, and wise. Yet! We want these same teachers to not drink, smoke, cuss, to think only the way we want them to think in accordance with our religious, cultural, traditional beliefs, we want teachers who have never done anything wrong, illegal, unscrupulous, or upsetting. In short: we want experienced, autonomous educated teachers who have experienced nothing, will do exactly as we say, and teach only what we think.

We are whitewashing our ideology or morality. As followers we want our leaders to be representative of our group think and to be accountable for our mistakes and misinformation. This is what we want as followers. And when we get leaders who do as we as a collective instruct – why is it we then scream that what we really want is a moral leader? What we need is moral followership. We have moral leaders, these are the leaders who stand for what they believe in, who question the status quo, these are the people who have experienced life and are willing to sacrifice their livelihoods for what they believe to be true and right. We decry these individuals as something foul and seek those familiar surrounding who purport our ideals of “morality.” Instead we should follow and seek guidance from those who demonstrate truth goodness and beauty in their everyday existence.

Chapter Two:
Literature Review

Sergiovanni, T. J. (1992). Moral leadership: Getting to the heart of school improvement.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Thomas Sergiovanni shows the reader how leadership with a moral center can transform schools from institutions to virtuous communities of learning. Moral leadership is a dimension which includes a moral purpose, values, and beliefs that are generated through the hearts, minds, and souls of those who serve in the community. The intention of leading with a moral core is to do things right, rather than doing the right things. Connecting with others by finding what the basic values of each person within that organization are, will lead to a natural interdependence of those people.

Sergiovanni takes a look at six modes at which people arrive at knowledge. The are: authority (sacred & secular), sense experience, deductive logic, emotion, intuition, and science. Each mode determines our personal values, as well as assisting in our sense of truth. These modes also influence the choices a person makes and their behavior. Each mode has a unique characteristic and varies in acceptance from society. The six modes balance one another and contribute to a person’s process of gathering knowledge.

What motivates people to take action? Previous theories made assumptions that people act purely on personal pleasure, self-interest and from the individual choices they make for themselves. The author disputes this and looks at several theories that dig deeper to see a person’s true motivation. Several thoughts were shared form the Utilitarian view to a study of teacher motivation. These examples stressed a desire for people to assist others and the chance to reach their potential. Leaders taking time to find out people’s true motivation will help start transforming schools from ordinary organizations into learning communities.

Who, what, and why should one follow? Sergiovannni outlines several sources from which authority can be derived. Bureaucratic authority tends to follow a set hierarchy, or rules and regulations. We need to comply or face consequences. Psychological authority involves human relations or social compliance. Peer pressure makes us want to comply. Technical-rational authority is defined by logic and scientific inquiry. We comply because of what is considered to be the truth. Professional authority utilizes, knowledge and expertise. We respond to professional values, or accepted tenets of practice and expertise. Moral authority is derived from obligation and duty or shared community values, ideas and ideals. We respond to these shared commitments.

To have leadership you need to have a person who will lead and others who will follow. Leadership has to do with the leader’s ability to not only get others to do something but to get them to enjoy doing it. Sergiovanni expresses that Direct Leadership can be substituted with two distinct concepts: Community norms: communities are defined by their values and their beliefs which bond people together for a common cause. The Professional Ideal: is further delineated by competence and virtues. Commitment to exemplary practice means practicing at the edge of teaching or accepting one’s responsibility for one’s own professional development. To do so we need to develop and follow a “code of ethics: which define the duties and moral responsibilities of teachers.

Citing Hackman and Oldham (p. 60), research has shown that workers experience greater job satisfaction with intrinsic motivation when three psychological states are present: meaningfulness, or the extent to which a person perceives work as being worthwhile, responsibility, or the extent to which a person believes he or she is accountable for the outcome, and results, that is, determining whether the outcome of effort is satisfactory. “When these feelings are experienced, people do not have to depend on someone else to lead them” (p.61).
“Flow” involves being so intrinsically motivated in a task or activity that concentration is intense and passage of time is lost. A feeling of harmony and absorption in the task is experienced. To experience this flow the person must be convinced that he or she has the skills to cope with the challenges at hand. Having the right amount of control over a task, matched by the available skills, can lead to job satisfaction and further intrinsic motivation. When flow is experienced in a classroom or workplace, it can be a substitute for leadership as it leads to higher levels of performance and effectiveness.

Professionalism, according to Sergiovanni, encourages teachers and principals to be self-managers. Self-managers can work without close supervision, and are able to make decisions on their own. They have learned to be followers in that they are committed to a purpose outside themselves. Thus leaders and followers are joined in a transforming leadership of ideas, values, and commitment.

School cultures have evolved into what often can be described as a lonely, isolative culture. Teachers, according to Sergiovanni, have to take responsibility for their collegiality or lack thereof. Sergiovanni suggests leaders avoid forcing collegiality through direct supervision, standardized work, and standardized outputs. Instead, he advocates for shared values, professional socialization, and natural interdependence.

Sergiovanni focuses on the concept of the “Virtuous School”, or a school guided by a moral imperative shared by stakeholders. He uses the principles of justice and beneficence as moral principles leaders can use as driving forces. The “covenant” forged between those involved in a school, is according to the author, of prime importance in the creation of a virtuous school.

The final chapter of Moral Leadership is a classic overview of servant leadership. Early on it references Herman Hesse’s book Journey to the East. The chapter describes using several real world and philosophical examples why there is a need for a leader to be a servant and benefits of this style of leadership. It contrasts the differences in styles between “power over” and “power to.” The “power to” style was also describe as the female style. Lastly, it described how servant leadership is tightly tied to moral authority as they both use persuasion. Servant leaders use their moral authority to practice stewardship over their charges.

A new era of leadership is emerging because of our need to work with a purpose. The ability for a leader to connect to the values and emotions of the people within that organization will assist in transforming the organization. The focus no longer is in action for the sake of action, but action with meaning and purpose. This strengthens everyone’s desire to do what is right to build that community. The Moral Leadership Model is a way to make connections with others, while bonding values with purpose. This book provides a thoughtful and inspiring message for the reader to re-think their sense of purpose in transforming organizations.

Chapter Three:
Humanities Exhibit

Cash, J. (2000). The Mercy Seat. Solitary Man: American Recordings III.
Nashville: American Label.

Leadership is by doing, by modeling, by being that “thing” you expect to see in others. I picked this piece of music not because of the song a non benign look at the death penalty from inside the mind of someone sitting upon the electric chair. Nor because of the artist performing the song. It is the combination of those two elements along with how the recording was produced. Johnny Cash sounds like he is giving a deathbed recitation rather than singing a song, but the man's aura and mystique carry the words to a place inside of us that we seldom want to look at.

The song itself is eerie and revealing its own agenda in a particular perspective. But it is the inclusion of the bass timbre of the piano keys as the song build upon a crescendo slowly and deliberately. The piano presents a kicking, a metaphor of a body being jolted with fifty thousand volts of electricity, its rattle as the chair vibrates, the body convulses: all of these can be felt within this song as if we the listener are being jolted to death. This feeling and Johnny Cash’s use of repetition within the song, over and over emphasizing the fear and protestations, the truths or lies and the perceptions of each: what is truth? Is it an eye for an eye? Or a truth for a truth? ultimately impress upon us our own fears.

The Mercy Seat

by Nick Cave

(as performed by Johnny Cash)

It began when they took me from my home

And put me on Death Row,

Of which I am totally innocent, you know.

I began to warm and chill

To objects and their fields,

A ragged cup, a twisted mop

The face of Jesus in my soup

Those sinister dinner deals

The meal trolley's wicked wheels

A hooked bone rising from my food

All things either good or ungood.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth.

An eye for an eye

A tooth for a tooth

And anyway I told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die.

I hear stories from the chamber

How Christ was born into a manger

And like some ragged stranger

Died upon the cross

And might I say it seems so fitting in its way

He was a carpenter by trade

Or at least that's what I'm told

Like my good hand I tattooed E.V.I.L. across it's brother's fist

That filthy five! They did nothing to challenge or resist.

In Heaven His throne is made of gold

The ark of his Testament is stowed

A throne from which I'm told

All history does unfold.

Down here it's made of wood and wire

And my body is on fire

And God is never far away.

Into the mercy seat I climb

My head is shaved, my head is wired

And like a moth that tries

To enter the bright eye

I go shuffling out of life

Just to hide in death awhile

And anyway I never lied.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth.

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway I told the truth

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is burning

And I think my head is glowing

And in a way I'm hoping

To be done with all this weighing up of truth.

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And I've got nothing left to lose

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is glowing

And I think my head is smoking

And in a way I'm hoping

To be done with all these looks of disbelief.

An eye for an eye

And a tooth for a tooth

And anyway there was no proof

And I’m not afraid to die

And the mercy seat is smoking

And I think my head is melting

And in a way its helping

To be done with all this twisting of the truth.

A lie for a lie

And a truth for a truth

And I've got nothing left to lose

And I'm not afraid to die.

And the mercy seat is waiting

And I think my head is burning

And in a way I'm yearning

To be done with all this measuring of truth.

An eye for an eye

And a truth for a truth

And anyway I told the truth

But I'm afraid I told a lie.

Chapter Four:
Historical Case Study

Remember me

I am free at large

untamable not nearly as hard

to find as America

Fr. Daniel Berrigan

Perhaps the most influential person on my leadership, and albeit my entire Te of existence has to be Father Daniel Berrigan. This notion of a Catholic Priest being one of my "heroes" as it were is irony within itself. For the teachings of any prescribed organized religion, much less the epitome of such - the Catholic church, is contrary to all of my spiritual endeavors. Yet, Father Berrigan stands out as the pure iconoclastic emblem of the concept of spirituality. As a necessary aside I find it important to stress that I have been in admiration of such Christian sects as the "Jesuits" and "Franciscans", not because of the spiritual and religious affiliations but because of their spirituality. I admire the Jesuits, not because they came to different lands and imposed their religion on others, but because of the courage of these individuals who felt it necessary to encourage their faith on foreign and often hostile lands, and who moved through their lives guided only by their faith. I admire the Franciscan order, again regardless of religiosity, but because of their idea of balance, that we all exist in harmony with each other, our world about us, and the living things that make this planet our home.

It is this doctrine of religion that brings me back to Father Berrigan. Daniel Berrigan was a young Jesuit priest, he was knowledgeable, creative, had a flair for words which has led to volumes of poetic works. He was a young, American priest; enigmatic, charismatic, he was gracious, humble, passionate, devoted, and energized by his faith, his spirituality, and his raison de etre: the Church: the embodiment of all that was spiritual sacred to Father Berrigan. Father Berrigan was a remarkable priest, as was his younger brother Phillip. And through them the diocese saw a powerful, and political team, (this was concurrent with the Kennedy regime in America, during the mid- to late-nineteen fifties, where the Kennedy's as Catholics had taken power in the senate, the Catholic Church also sought the empowerment of the Berrigans. In a sense then, establishing the Church as a very powerful political force in American society.) This previous information is important, as one of the leadership tenets we see is self-sacrifice and Father Daniel Berrigan knew he and his brother were being groomed for higher offices. Father Berrigan loved God, his faith, the church, and all that it represented. He had written several volumes of poetry and was creating a name for himself as well as the Jesuit faith a poetic-theologian. He was much admired by the his peers, who did not see him as an upstart but rather saw him a passionate priest overcome with the spirit of God.

Historically crises beget leaders, Father Berrigan and the Catholic church were to become embroiled in a war - most notable it was America's entrance into the "police action" of Vietnam. Father Berrigan believed that his faith and the church needed to make a stand against the atrocities of war, and that it was the church's right to protect lives and become involved in the stopping of war, any war. In a very political and fearful time in America, Father Berrigan stood for what he believed to be "right", for what he believed his faith and religion deemed necessary and proper.

As the Catholic church distanced itself from the war in Vietnam, and also decried the war on American soil by those protesting the war effort; Father Berrigan became more concerned and more forthright in his ideology that the church needed to create a safe-haven for all. Father Daniel Berrigan, along with his brother Father Philip Berrigan, began to house draft resistors, they were instrumental in developing a nation-wide "underground railroad" of homes, churches, and businesses that would assist draft resistors by housing them or providing a means to escape into Canada. Father Daniel Berrigan also took his war to the media, he made public displays of burning draft cards and other draft credentials, of peacefully protesting the war, of peaceful demonstrations, and very visible criticisms of the Church.

The more Father Berrigan fought for the preservation of life the more the church distanced themselves from their once promising protégé; with this distancing, Father Berrigan found himself more embroiled in the movement to end the war in Vietnam. Of this demonstrative epoch the culmination came when Father Berrigan and several others broke into a draft registration office in Catonsville, Maryland and removed and subsequently destroyed all of the draft files they could find. As the draft office was a "federal" office, this resulted in Father Berrigan being arrested for many different crimes, including treason. Father Berrigan was an idealist and an optimist. He believed that when the public heard of the atrocities of the war, the imbalance of those being drafted to fight it, (specifically poor, minority boys), that they would rally to his defense. Unfortunately, the public viewpoint of the war in Vietnam and the war at home involving the protestors, would not change for several more years. Father Berrigan found himself guilty as charged and facing a lifetime in prison. Father Berrigan did what many political extremists do and went "underground" to avoid prison. This resulted in his having to give everything up - especially his identity.

Too often, when people make the choice for self-preservation at the cost of their identity they feel that they have lost everything; especially their meaning or their mission. When faced with this decision Father Berrigan came out of hiding and was subsequently re-arrested, (Berrigan & Coles, 1971). While in prison, Father Berrigan was able to continue his fight against the Vietnam war, he continued his prolific sense of writing - albeit now his writings were more radically charged and poignant, many times raising accusations against the American government, people, and the Catholic Church in their continued support of genocide, (Berrigan, 1971). With this the American public were more willing to hear what the "radical" priest had to say, and after subsequent appeals a new trial was awarded Father Berrigan and the "Catonsville 9" and in a turning point in the war protest movement a jury of peers found them not guilty of all crimes, including the articles of treason.

Father Berrigan true to his ideology had taken on the military and the development of nuclear weapons and other means of mass destruction as his mantle. Throughout the ensuing decades Father Berrigan would once again try to change the ways of death. He would spend many more years in prison for various endeavors that supported the well-being of all mankind. Father Berrigan, even to this day, leads "raids" on missile silos where they spill red paint on the warheads, hit them with hammers to demonstrate the ridiculousness of trying to "hide" weapons of mass destruction. And even though the church has excommunicated Father Berrigan he still wholeheartedly believes in his faith, and that it is the desire of all to prevent mass destruction and genocide.

Chapter Five:
Practitioner Case Study

Promises Made and Promises Kept

When first running for U.S. Senate in 1992, Russ Feingold made a contract with the people of the state, which he painted on his garage doors in Middleton, (Russ Feingold: United States Senator, 2003):

Contract Between RUSS FEINGOLD and the PEOPLE of WISCONSIN
1. I will rely on Wisconsin citizens for most of my contributions.
2. I will live in Middleton, Wisconsin. My children will go to school here and I will spend most of my time here in Wisconsin.
3. I will accept no pay raise during my six-year term in office.
Russell D. FeingoldNovember 3, 1991
Russ later made two additional promises:
4. I will hold a "Listening Session" in each of Wisconsin's 72 counties each year of my six-year term in office.
5. I will hire the majority of my Senate staff from individuals who are from Wisconsin or have Wisconsin backgrounds.

Senator Russ Feingold was the only Senator to oppose the USA Patriot Act. Making this choice may have resulted in a career suicide. And yet Senator Feingold followed his conscience in his decision making. “Ultimately, the responsibility to make the decision, and to accept the consequences, rests with me. Someone will disagree with every vote, every action I take in public life… In the end, I face criticism knowing I have voted my conscience, and to the best of my ability, I have done the job the people have entrusted me to do” (Kay, 2003).

An effective leader needs to be a good listener, and must be able to acknowledge there are valid positions other than their own. When faced with decisions on divisive or emotionally charged issues Senator Feingold offers the following thoughts”

Don’t be too certain that you’re right

If you disagree with someone about an argument, do so with humility

When disagreeing, acknowledge as much of the other side’s position as possible to let them know you care and respect their opinion, and to balance the argument.

Give the person disagreeing with you a chance to see where you’re coming from
Be patient. Don’t be deterred by initial opposition, and be prepared to explain your position over and over again if necessary.

Don’t become too attached to your political position – “You don’t own it.”

Russ Feingold, (Kay, 2003).

Wisconsin traditions and Wisconsin politics have been central to Senator Russ Feingold's life. In 1917, his family settled in Janesville, Wisconsin, where Feingold was born to parents Leon and Sylvia on March 2, 1953. Growing up in Janesville, Feingold's political views were shaped by discussions at the family dinner table and his father's early involvement in the Progressive Movement.

In his first try for an elective position at age 29, Feingold defeated a longtime incumbent to take the seat in the Wisconsin State Senate. Feingold was re-elected in 1986, and in 1990 faced no opponent for re-election to a four-year term. When Feingold first ran for the U.S. Senate in 1992, he won a tough three-way primary with 70 percent of the vote, and went on to defeat two-term incumbent Robert Kasten. In 1998, after keeping his historic pledge to limit his campaign spending to $1 per voter, and disallowing party soft money from being spent on his behalf, Feingold defeated Congressman Mark Neumann to win a second term. Feingold looks to Wisconsin's values to guide his work in the U.S. Senate-the state's tradition of progressive politics and civility in government, and its history of respect for the public dollar.

Russ Feingold works to carry forward the legacy of Wisconsin leaders like Bob La Follette and Gaylord Nelson by fighting for better wages, protecting Social Security and Medicare, supporting Wisconsin's farmers, safeguarding the environment and striving for the best in public education and quality health care.
Senator Feingold has been recognized repeatedly by both the Concord Coalition and Taxpayers for Common Sense for his efforts to cut wasteful spending. His campaign to reign in government waste goes hand-in-hand with his work to clean up the federal campaign finance system, a bipartisan effort he leads with Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.

In an effort to ensure the civil rights of all Americans, Feingold has introduced legislation to study the problem of racial profiling on U.S. roadways, and he has authored a bill to enact a moratorium on the death penalty so that a commission can examine, among other potential problems, the role of racial discrimination in the application of capital punishment.

As a member of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Feingold works to make human rights concerns a higher priority in U.S. foreign policy. He also serves on the Senate Budget Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and the Senate's Special Committee on Aging.

Russ Feingold has two daughters, Jessica and Ellen, and his wife, Mary Feingold, has two sons, Sam and Ted Speerschneider. The Feingolds live in Middleton, Wisconsin, (Russ Feingold: United States Senator, 2003):

Chapter Six:
Moral Leadership Platform

What is Moral Leadership?

It is dangerous to be right in matters of which
the established authorities are wrong.

Voltaire

Cowboys & Indians

I believe stories are how we learn from one another , this one happened when I was quite young and was a fluctuation of the flow, (Brigs & Peat, 1999). I must have been five years of age because this story concerns my mother and she was dead by the time I was seven. My sixth year encompassed in her slowly passing away. My mother was a vibrant woman, liberal in her ideals and philosophy. I remember this one occasion as I came bolting through the front porch door. My mother was in the living room doing the ironing in front of the black and white Philco. The television set sat on that 1960's semblance of innovatedness and elegance of living room furniture that was comprised of simple brass tubes and wires. Mom was ironing in front of the TV as was the method of women in her day, and on the television was one of the serial westerns that were inundating the broadcast airwaves in the 1960's. I glanced at the television and watched as an "Indian" was shot down by a cowboy. See, this fit my perception, my white American media "Ovaltine" lens: everything I knew. Cowboys shoot Indians –that is what they do. And Indians get shot by Cowboys: that is what Indians do. Being the swaggering all American cowboy that I was I cheered the shooting. But even before I could relish in my mind what it must have felt like to be the daring cowpoke slinging a six-shooter from the holster, before I could even digest the imaginary gunpowder shot mixed with the dry breeze of the prairie west, before I could even squint down the site on my right hand thumb and forefinger and squeeze off that wondrous shot… my mother stopped my cold, dead, admonishing. Her eyes welled with tears in the anger, fear, hatred, remorse that swelled into her as she saw her son her baby perversed in the world of media fed racism. She looked hard at my and my gun hand felt limp her words penetrated deeply "The Indian was the good guy, the cowboy killed them and took their land, the Indians were the good guys…" 'The Indians were the good guys?' I looked up at my mother, "but…" 'The Indians? Were the good guys?' 'But the cowboy wore a white hat. And we all know that the cowboy in white was the good guy, bad guys wore black. How could the white hat cowboy be the bad guy? And we all know the Indians are bad so bad in fact that we called them 'injuns' - they weren't even real people…'

At that moment I realized I had done something wrong, something monumental, and for the first time in my short life my brain started to trigger differently - things are not always the way they seem. This lesson in many ways haunts me throughout my life. I say haunt, because while thinking differently, outside of the box, shifting one's paradigms and all is good it is also very painful. Thinking against the norm, the media fed populace, the status quo often leaves one cold embittered and alone, (Faludi, 1999; Havel, 1986).

The world is not static, and the status quo is not sacred.

Harry S. Truman

The Altruistic Tightrope

Why do we do what it is that we do? We help others because we get a “good” feeling in doing so. We battle with ourselves over altruistic behavior & our personal desires. We battle constantly this altruistic dichotomy – the good v. evil. The Yin and Yang. Of course doing the right thing can be pleasurable. Does this mean we should not do it? Out of some bizarre tradition of denial? Finding our balance this is the key, our balance between desire and deed. We then become the Heroes and Villains who define morality and continually pose the question whose morality is just?

It is not that I am dark, rather I am indignant by my fellow human beings. It is our moral imperative by being cognizant entities to point out those things that we know to be “wrong.” Instead we bleat the status quo and refrain from ownership by blaming destiny or some other.

Moral Leadership

Every night as I lay down to sleep I ask myself this question “What have I done today to make the world a better place?” This is the platform that I stand upon.

References:

Berrigan, SJ, D. (1971). No Bars to Manhood. New York, NY: Bantam Books.
Berrigan, SJ, D. (1972). America is Hard to Find: Notes from the underground and
letters from Danbury Prison. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company.
Berrigan, SJ, D. (1987). To Dwell in Peace: an Autobiography. New York, NY: Harper
& Row, Publishers Inc.
Berrigan, D. & Coles, R. (1971). The Geography of Faith. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
Briggs, J. & Peat. F. D. (1999). Seven Lessons of Chaos: Timeless Wisdom from the
Science of Change. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Cash, J. (2000). The Mercy Seat. Solitary Man: American Recordings III.
Nashville: American Label
Faludi, S. (1999). Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man. New York, NY: Perennial.
Havel, V. (1986). Living in Truth. Bungay, Suffolk: Richard Clay, LTD.

Kay, K.E. (2003). Personal conversation with Senator Russ Feingold.
Russ Feingold: United States Senator.(2003). http://feingold.senate.gov/
Sergiovanni, T. J. (1992). Moral leadership: Getting to the heart of school improvement.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

We Are the Champions

2003-04-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

Do Teachers Have the Freedom of Speech?

2003-04-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

What is the mission of the teacher? What duties are we to perform in the name of education? What policies and curricular activities are correct for us to teach? When do we stop being a teacher? When are we able to voice our own ideas? These are a few of the questions we hear when discussing the law and teaching. As teachers it is our moral obligation to educate people. How we go about educating them has always been a tenet of contention. But what has been surfacing even more is what it is we are allowed to teach them, and how our voices or ideas cannot be utilized to influence the education of our students. The scope of this paper is threefold: one look will be at what is it a teacher can or should say in regards to their “freedom of speech;” secondly, when can a teacher stop being a teacher? For example: can a teacher pose their personal views in an open forum such as the internet and still be held accountable under the school district’s policies? Thirdly, what is then immoral concerning a teacher’s behavior?

We explain to our students that the best way to learn is through practical experience, through research of topics and perspectives, to examine all facets of an argument and make our own decisions. Critical thinking skills have resurfaced in the last decade as a tantamount methodology for educating students. A form of education that was not heavily utilized in the previous decades. But as we stand on the precipice of differing ideologies we now tell our teachers to not use practical knowledge, inference or experience in their practice. Rick Theisen a social studies consultant in Maple Grove Minnesota and a former president of the National Council for the Social Studies explained, “You want to avoid indoctrinating your students, if you do that you’ve betrayed your mission as a teacher.” While education experts agree that students should be exposed to a variety of information and points of view there is less consensus on where a classroom teacher should draw the line in maintaining objectivity, sharing an opinion or advocating a particular stance. If a teacher has to suppress what they believe in does the then remove the authority that a teacher has in their classroom? Some experts advise that teachers leave their own beliefs outside of discussions of a contentious issue, be it abortion, affirmative action or war. “Ultimately you want the students opinions to be arrived at on evidence that’s supportable and reflects their values,” Mr. Theisen has said.

For many educators their role in guiding classroom discussion is not so neutral, Mr. Hellwig, the chairman of the social studies department at Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale, NJ believes that teachers have a responsibility to exercise their rights to free speech. “When a teacher holds back on their view the student may not be so interested in expressing their own. The teacher has a right to an opinion and to sit there and be mute is not going to serve the students well,” (Manzo, 2003).

Some districts have formulated policies over the past few years for addressing disputed topics in the classroom, the guidelines generally instruct teachers to present different points of view and to promote an environment that fosters a respect for all of the students’ opinions. Others have promoted a policy that stipulates that teachers should not reveal their own opinions about certain topics. While others suggest that teachers refrain from voicing their opinions at all.
Teachers have criticized such policies as infringing on their right to freedom of expression, and some teachers have run afoul of school policy. A Colorado middle school teacher drew complaints after she wore a pin that read: “Not My President, Not My War.” In Maine the state’s Army National Guard complained to state officials that children of military personnel had felt harassed by anti-war comments expressed by teachers and students. In Michigan a student was forced to remove his t-shirt which pictured President Bush with the slogan “International Terrorist.” In New Mexico two teachers were dismissed after refusing to remove anti-war signs from their classrooms. What is similar in all of these cases is that the right to free speech is only apparent when the free speech matches the status quo or policies of that district. This then becomes an issue of how much freedom does a teacher have in speaking? And what is the obligation of the teacher to speak freely?

Teachers can face an ethical quandary when their strong feelings overtake them. Educational experts caution not to take lightly the powerful influence they have over students beliefs at a malleable stage in their intellectual development. Yet these same experts claim that school is intended to prepare students to be active citizens, (Manzo, 2003): a role requiring them to weigh information on an issue and then make their own decisions about where they stand.
But while speaking about our freedom of speech can be debated on whether the importance falls on the rights of the individual or the rights of the many the law has established some interesting signposts. In Pickering v. BOE Supreme Court of the United States, 1968. 391 U.S. 563, 88 S.Ct. 1731. The Supreme Court held that freedom of speech while not absolute in all circumstances is nevertheless sufficiently strong to require that the state show a “compelling state interest” in order to overcome a teacher’s right to speak out on issues of public importance. The Court equated teacher’s right of speech with that of other members of the general public to criticize and comment on public policies and issues. In Ware v. Unified District No. 492, Butler County, State of Kansas, 881 F.2d 906 (10th Cir.1989); & Rankin v. McPherson, 483 U.S. 378, 107 S.Ct. 2891, 2899, 97 L.Ed.2d 315 (1987). The First amendment issue can be restricted if there is demonstration that the use will interfere with the efficient functioning or performance of one’s duties.

Under the Pickering test an employee’s First Amendment rights are protected “unless the employer shows that some restriction is necessary to prevent the disruption of official functions or to insure effective performance by the employee,” The employer’s burden to justify its restriction on speech increases in proportion to the value of that speech in the public debate. In focusing on the effective functioning of the employer’s enterprise a court shall consider “whether the statement impairs discipline by superiors or harmony among co-workers, has a detrimental impact on close working relationships for which personal loyalty and confidence are necessary, or impedes the performance of the speaker’s duties or interferes with the regular operation of the enterprise.” (Alexander et al, 2001).

While seemingly unrelated as this case pertains to immorality it is important to be noted here in this discourse: in Gaylord v. Tacoma School District No. 10 88 Wash.2d 286, 559 P.2d 1340 . James Gaylord, who held a teaching certificate, was discharged from employment as a high school teacher on the grounds of “immorality” because Gaylord was an admitted homosexual. Gaylord knew of his homosexuality for 20 years and engaged in homosexual company. He also knew his status if known would jeopardize his employment, damage his reputation, and hurt his parents. The school district first became aware of his homosexuality when a student mentioned that Mr. Gaylord was an admitted homosexual, when confronted Gaylord admitted to his being a homosexual. The Court looked at 2 pertinent facts: Was Gaylord guilty of immorality? Was there substantial evidence to demonstrate that his homosexuality impaired his teaching efficacy? The Courts decided that since the defendant claims that homosexuality is immoral and that Gaylord by admitting that he is homosexual is therefore immoral.

What does all of this mean to the classroom teacher? As teachers we are certified and licenses to educate students based on our skills learned as teachers, our knowledge base developed through our education, and our ability to be critical thinkers and analysts. And yet we are stifled by policies set forth by our governing school boards or officials. The Constitution guarantees the certain inalienable rights. But as we have seen through the reading and interpretation of the law these rights are not necessarily true for educators. The underlying concept is if our views will be disruptive to the functioning or performance of our school. This responsibility or interpretation falls upon the govern9ing body of the school. Therefore, a school board or official could claim that anyone wearing orange shirts on a particular day would cause a disruption in the functioning of the school. Thereby the rights guaranteeing freedom of speech would not apply. This of course sound ridiculous an absurdity by utilizing the law in the context of an orange shirt. But would this not be the actual circumstance in a setting of perhaps a strong Irish Catholic school district and the day in question was a St. Patrick’s Day celebration? As a teacher we need to know what our mission in our life is, we also have to realize that being a teacher is a lifelong everyday experience. At a recent school state competition gathering it was observed that parents and teachers alike did not smoke. This is not to say that these people did not smoke, but they did not smoke during the gathering. There were no signs stating that smoking was prohibited but rather it was assumed or known that since students were near by that smoking should not be done. How is this relevant? It is the same as screaming fire in a crowded movie theater. While we have the freedom of speech there are certain times and places we do not say certain things. This is understood by most Americans. What is not understood however is that teachers fall into this category of appropriateness of time and character as for every aspect of their lives for as long as they are teachers.

Further this discussion opens an array of difficulties for administrators. It becomes their job to instruct and direct their staff and their students on what is appropriate and what is not. A teacher was disciplined in the Wisconsin school system for telling students that while in school it was wrong and inappropriate to swear and use otherwise offensive language. But if those students went off of school grounds this teacher stated that they would not only support their offensive language but also defend their right to use it. While the off-school swearing activity never took place the teacher was reprimanded for suggesting to the students that this was an appropriate activity. The teacher tries to explain that they were discussing the practical applications of the First Amendment.

The difficulty lies within when does the language become disruptive or interfering with the day-to-day operations of the school? Too often we will see that administrators and school officials will measure the inappropriateness by their own ideals. As an administrator this cannot be done. It may well have to be done by the district’s and the governing board’s policies but a neutrality does exist here at this level. It must be stated that the importance of a well discussed and open dialogue be administered to both the students and the teachers. Concerns then on appropriateness, acceptance of other’s ideals and critical thinking skills will be eliminated when everyone realizes that their voice does matter. There was a case in Arizona where two teachers were put on suspension for having open debates in front of the school body. These two teachers were not only showing how to run a debate but also how to express opinions without resorting to violence or other inappropriate tactics. These teachers each represented one position on the encroaching war with Iraq. Originally only the anti-war teacher was suspended but the other argued that they had engaged in this activity together in order to express points of view in a critical analysis for the students.

The Gaylord case is also a powerful statement of what it is to be a teacher. Through this case, the Pickering case, the Hazelwood (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier Supreme Court of the U.S. 484 U.S. 260, 108 S.Ct. 562) cases we see that to be a teacher can be regulated by any different amount of opinion. That anything that is said in or outside of the class can be utilized as a means to measure one’s morality. Teachers do not have to agree with their supervisors or even their districts but as observed through these law cases they must follow through with their district’s ideologies or at the very least remain neutral. Teachers are not protected by the First Amendment. This seems to be the base summation of all these cases. And this does not only mean in school but in their everyday lives as well. Can teachers be reprimanded for unsolicited emails with objectionable content? What if people within the school district parents perhaps, email a teacher a humorous story with objectionable content. Since email is now considered public record, (Archer, 2002), can and will teachers be subjected to the context of these emails? It is disturbing how far we have gone to remove the right of Freedom of Speech from teachers, the people who exert the most influence on our students have been gagged from speaking their moral imperatives.

References:

Alexander, K. & Alexander, M. D. (2001). American Public School Law, 5th Ed. West/Thompson Learning: Belmont, CA.
Archer, J. (February 26th, 2003). E-Mail is Public Record, Districts Learn. Education Week vol 22 no 24. Educational Projects in Education: Bethesda, MD.
Manzo, K. K. (March 26th, 2003). War Lessons Call for Delicate Balance: Experts Advise Teachers to Set Own Views Aside. Education Week vol 22 no 28. Educational Projects in Education: Bethesda, MD.
Taylor, K. R. (November 2001). Remembering the Constitution: During stressful times it is important to recall the priceless rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. Principal Leadership.

Becoming the Change

2003-03-27T23:53:00.000-08:00

As recently as the school year of 2000-2001Thomas More High School (TMHS) was still struggling with the concept of “full inclusion” of their Special Educational needs students. In an interesting development our current administrative staff were at one time special education teachers at TMHS. With the last Associate Principal being placed the administrative team decided to implement a new platform of education at TMHS. This development did not go without resistance. The change was to not only to proceed with full inclusion as its premise but to also develop a schedule that would allow for full inclusion into “coordinated arts” classes, or as some are to refer it to as “non-academics,” (at TMHS these include Family and Consumer Education, Band and Chorus, music theory, technical applications, art, computer, Health Applications and physical education). This division between academics and non-academics would prove detrimental in ensuing months.

Part of the discussion of resistance came from how would the existing special education structure support the students in the new platform. Concerns were expressed: how would students be “case managed,” or who would be in charge of who; who would provide the modifications and/or instruction to these students; how would the special education needs teachers coincide or assist with the teachings of the regular education staff; how would the inclusion of these students take away the educational processes from the regular education students; and ultimately who is responsible for who and what.

The platform developed in a sense was designed to cover all of these questions. The changes implemented were not entirely discussed with the existing staff, rather a vision was implemented by a team of administrators who had worked closely with each other for many years. Their vision envisioned a middle school design that incorporated “houses” into each grade level. These houses then would provide a time, a structure and place for staff team development. Each house would be responsible for a specific amount of students each year. Within each house would be a team leader, whom the house was named after, the house would then have a teacher representing each content area: language arts, mathematics, social studies, etc. Also included in the house are two cross categorical special education teachers and special education aides as determined by the house special needs population. This design would then provide teachers, services, and support for all of the students within the house. Each grade level is then divided up by these houses. The houses then coordinate with each other in grade levels to work on common curricular activities so that the grade levels are not entirely segmented but rather special teams within a larger team.

The first year this change was implemented there arrived a lot of strife and resistance by teachers who had been used to the previous methods. Part of the difficulties discovered was that now that the academic houses were separated out there existed a need for combining the house’s individuality with the existing coordinated arts. This then led to the coordinated arts instructors becoming a “house,” the difference in that this house now taught all of the students in the school regardless of house or grade level. What happened was that the academic houses disassociated themselves from the coordinated arts house. The regular education teachers decided that full inclusion would only be successful if the special education teachers were in the classroom with them at all times. This left the teachers in coordinated arts without access to assistance in modification, instruction, or planning.

To accommodate this need the administrative team decided to develop a position where a special education teacher would be hired to work with the coordinated arts house. This teacher would not only work with the individual houses in deciding where the aides would be appropriately placed but would also work with all of the teachers in providing modifications and other necessary support. This position was originally developed as a Limited Term Employment to determine if the position was even necessary, as the special education teachers in each house should also be providing services for each house and the coordinated arts house, as these were their students. The original LTE position ended up being a person who would walk into a classroom and play “disciplinarian” to students who were not behaving well. Support was not forthcoming from the individual houses nor from the other special education staff. It would seem that the entire full inclusion plan was deemed for failure.

“You must become the change that you seek in others”
Mahatma Gandhi

This is the setting in which I would enter. I can speak with clarity through hindsight on the change process from where I was brought aboard the TMHS platform. When it comes to the change process, I label myself as not only a trailblazer but one of those bell ringers so far out there that sometimes when people follow the trail I have blazed, they are considered innovative trailblazers themselves. My whole purpose for becoming an educator was to change a system that I did not believe had the best interest of the student at heart. I was approached by TMHS because they had heard of some of my blazing through networking within the education network.

The importance of this description of myself is that the administrative staff at TMHS were trailblazers themselves in their incorporation of their education platform through the Milwaukee School District. (They seem to have put the emphasis on the idea that if they could get the school board to follow along, that the teachers would be readily and eagerly to do so.) The other important note is that these trailblazers did not pay attention to the change process within their own school. Believing as it were that the their staff were trailblazers right along with them, at the very least pioneers. As it was discovered, not only were some of these people not pioneers but most were settlers, and the next majority would have to be the stay at homes. (There are always saboteurs but these will discussed later as they become integral in stopping this change process.)

When the administrative team and I originally sat down we discussed a plan. I was hesitant as I was becoming one of those trailblazers who kept getting burned. With my clarity of hindsight I believe that our principal is truly unaware that his school is not engaged in the change as he is, he describes a school that is working in absolute harmony where the vision is shared by all and everyone participates in the development of the vision. (Honestly, this seemed too good a school to pass up!) I agreed to join the staff and we proceeded to lay out a design for my position. The old LTE position was now agreed to be a permanent position but with a few changes. The role would be more of a peer coach who would go into the coordinated arts classrooms and instruct the teachers on how to modify, or instruct all students in a more constructivist, multiple-intelligence modality. The position would also be one that would bridge the two entities of “academics” and “non-academics” while assisting in the development and cooperation of the special education staff across the houses.

Either my principal lied or he truly does not see that his school does not share his vision. As a trailblazer I am used to and even indeed welcome the struggle to getting others moving in the shared direction. This is perhaps my underlying desire and motivation for becoming a teacher: to see that growth and change in others as they experience it. What I was to discover was the setting I have already outlined. This coupled with rather unfortunate occurrences, for example, Ms. Block, the woman who had originally had my position as an LTE had been rehired full time but not for that position, she did not seem to work out in that capacity but she carried with her experience and education that could be utilized in the school. She is an affable and well connected individual in her house and grade level and she is decidedly and outspoken about her having a different vision from our principal. This is unfortunate because she would become the biggest saboteur of this program, and has been very successful in tearing the system apart.

Ms. Block, for whatever reasons, has been on a personal vendetta against who I am or how my vision does not correlate with the school’s which does not correlate with the principal’s. This is a bit of irony for Ms. Block does not support our principal, but she restates that I do not, and therefore by her despairing about me demonstrates that she is indeed in support of the principal's vision without ever having to say that she is or demonstrating this. Her sabotage has been things such as she “saw Mr. Kay searching jobs on the internet” which led to rumors that I was “A). Quitting or B). Being Fired” this led to two things: some staff getting mad that I was not willing to put in time to support them, or that I did something wrong and to disassociate from me. Another example happened when during an Individualized Education Planning session it was determined that a student carry about an academic/behavior report that would be signed by all teachers and not just those in the academic house. This piece of information then spread about the schools as “Mr. Kay wants all teachers to fill out hourly reports on all students every day every hour.” This then concluded in an emergency meeting held by the house to figure out what to do with me since I was making their lives so difficult and troublesome. The other difficulty associated with Ms. Block is that when she was in the position I am in she would remove the special education students from the class and teach them an alternative lesson at an alternative setting. This is not what the full inclusion platform meant and was detrimental to the process. However, the remarks I get are “last year the person in your role used to take the kids out…”, or “the other person in your position did this…”

What I have discovered is that we have staff members who are “wannabe” pioneers. They believe in the concepts, they have knowledge of theories and best practices, and truly are engaged in how their children learn but are afraid of making that step outwards away from what they feel to be comfortable. Too often they are afraid of associating with me because of the flare-ups that we have had regarding our saboteur and myself. After all, ‘the principal and I are seen in his office engaged in discussion quite a lot, no telling how much longer I have.’

Perhaps the largest part of this problem was myself. When I was brought on I believed it was clear what my role was to be, it had been explained to me that the school worked in tandem towards this shared vision and in essence on the road from “A to Z” we were somewhere around “M” or otherwise in the middle. Because of this I came aboard believing that we were already at “M”, I discovered quite quickly that my role had not only not been shared but that this shared vision did not exist. Quite a bit of my instruction, assistance and discussion conflicted with how the houses were established or against their settling in principles. Discussion fell apart so poorly that at one moment I was talking with our reading specialist who had been in some classes with a friend of mine, an affable beginning, I mentioned that I had some “really cool” software that allowed you to develop “cloze” assignments pertaining to things that the student might be interested in. Her response was “I know what I am doing, I am working on my masters.” How ironic perhaps, we educators are eager to tell people that we are working on our degrees, and how important that is but then when we get them no one gives us credit for getting them.

The biggest problem has been defining what the shared vision is. We have a few trailblazers who are in denial, we have many staff members who are settlers because they are scared pioneers, we also have a powerful contingent of stay at homes who will sabotage at a moments notice as long as they can keep there piece of the educational pie. The first thing I have done is realized that often change happens a lot slower than we desire. I have realized that I need allies and have worked within my house in establishing this specifically by asking what needs or desires my house had that I could assist in. Secondly, since there has been a lack of support both from my peers and my supervisors we have established scheduled weekly meetings during our shared prep hour. Originally I met with these teachers on a needs basis, but by incorporating a scheduled time I can help them to focus on their own strengths rather than relying on me to come in to their classroom and fix things. I continue to provide support materials, articles, resources etc that I have or discover and present this in the time that we meet, (as our in-service schedules are already planned and full for the next year). Through these weekly meetings I have also been able to meet with the principal on a weekly basis and go over the weekly planning sessions. This has demonstrated to him that things are not always as he has envisioned it and it helps him to know where our needs are.

For our change to be successful we need more open dialogue, we need to remove the blinders and go out and mend the bridges damaged by the previous mistakes. I have asked one of our peer mentoring coaches to intervene on my behalf with my relationship with Ms. Block, I believe that by not having her or including her in the process of her removal from her position may be part of the reason that she wants to see me fail. Or perhaps she just does not believe in what we are doing, either way we need to connect and I know it begins with me. I would be beneficial for “teams” of teachers to work together outside of the house situation. The house format while wonderful often instills an “us vs. them” mentality.

The most obvious factor is that there was no discussion of the vision. We sometimes get caught up in what we believe in and cannot understand how others cannot see it and then we are dumbfounded when others do not share this vision. What this entails is clearer definitions, courageous communication, a needs assessment by the staff that is evaluated and processed as well as can be, alleviation of fear for fear is the most devastating element in change, an understanding that the change will not make your work harder, or obsolete, just different an understanding that things can change and will often. Humor helps, I am reminded of statement by Dennis Miller, “life is like riding a bus – it requires change.”

A Model of Supervision

2003-02-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

A Community of Learners:
The traditional education environment has been modeled after a "factory" model of design. Bring in the raw material (the students), process this material throughout the machinery (classrooms and the school), by trained and skilled laborers (teachers), and output a completed product (the graduate). This model is further delineated by defining the supervisory role of management (the administrator), and the subjected role of the subordinate (the teacher). This is the traditional role of our education system. What is nonexistent in this equation is the role of the learner. I like to propose a logic argument that is similar in concept to the “Which came first? The chicken or the egg?” This argument is a circular logic argument which incorporates scientific knowledge, philosophy, spirituality and critical thinking. I apply this same argument to the roles of the educator ‘Which came first? The teacher or the student?’ It is with the assumption of definition that there cannot exist a teacher without a student and again a student cannot exist without a teacher. The underlying belief is that we develop our schools as an establishment where learning takes place. But more so than not our educational institutions exist as a function of a super and subordinate caste system. This caste system exists in several tiers: student to teacher, teacher to principal, principal to a governing type of school board. And this seems to be where the problems lie.

It is understood that in order to teach or educate students that a sense of appropriateness in behavior on the students’ part must be in place and enforced. It also assumed that each student has differing needs and abilities and that the educator needs to reach out to these abilities in order fort he student to develop completely. But while new forms of educational deliver and procedures exist for our students the “factory” model of management still exists as we move up the caste tiers. An “ideal” classroom exists with several delivery methods incorporated into the lessons, it has authentic outcomes and assessment processes, the instruction is designed to incorporate several types of intelligences and has a standard by which it follows. We also encourage teachers to “model” or practice behaviors they wish to teach or instill into their students, and yet, these accepted and agreed upon practices do not exist in our “instruction” of our teachers.

Proactive vís a vís Reactive:

In order to head off the problems inherent within our system we need to be proactive instead of reacting to the problems. We need to move away from the “traditional” business or “factory” standards processes of supervision and evaluation and further develop our community of learners. We need to provide our teachers with educational development, personal and professional growth opportunities as well as a formalized understanding of authentic outcomes. It is strange that our current educational system pursues “specialization” in specific areas of education, and then does not allow for promotion or advancement. An English teacher for example will always be an English teacher perhaps they will be a “chair” of a department but nonetheless they will still be an “English Teacher”. If this teacher were to pursue a personal development in history our current educational system would frown upon this “new development” and discourage this teacher from changing roles. (This is demonstrated in the rigorous and repetitive processes which teachers need to become certified for each individual license. Some of these licenses require the same coursework but they cannot be shared between licenses.) We exist in a system which often frowns upon personal development and yet, we require this not only to become a teacher but to remain a teacher. A good and encouraging model of supervision needs then to encourage an authentic sense of personal and professional development – both success in the classroom and outside of it.

Owning our Classrooms:

To promote an authentic learning community for all teachers by providing direction and mentoring for the new service teacher through ownership and empowerment of their practices as well as the continuing growth of excellent teachers. There are many unique and diverse objectives concerning teaching. Often we can use the analogy of a triage when prioritizing these objectives. The maxim we encounter most however is that if we can influence the positive behavioral objectives the academics will follow. Are we suggesting one is more important than the other? No. We are suggesting that children who understand what is expected of them socially, will accept academic training more readily than a student who is oppositional.
With this philosophy in the forefront we educate our children through activity based instruction. The premise is simple: if the children are having fun being involved in the learning process they are less likely to act out. If the children do not perceive their academics in this light they tend to rebel, shut down or worse. We define activity based instruction as project based learning. At St. Aemilian's we follow a school wide behavioral theme or objective. This way we develop a sense of community within the school. As most of our children come from broken, adoptive or foster families it is imperative that we provide them with a safe structured environment: it is our mission to provide these children with a sense of belonging. We accomplish this partly through our united themes, our hands-on activities and projects. Through this we wish to provide experiential learning: making the experience meaningful and real. In order to do this the teacher needs to be involved in the learning activities rather than an authoritative observer. The teachers' roles are developed along with the class structure: a family within a larger education community. Building trust is the singular most difficult aspect of our work. Because of this we need to invest time, one-on-one instruction and collaboration. Once we develop that trust factor we need to nurture it throughout our daily lessons.

Working with children is often time consuming, energy consuming, and taxing on resources. As educators we strive to provide a social team atmosphere of education. Within our social community we have experienced teachers, specialists, therapists and more to assist in planning the students' daily activities. This “plan” is designed to facilitate our teacher’s in developing lessons that correspond to the pedagogy of education within that wonderful world of education we call home.

St. Aemilian follows the “Pod” model of school wide management and design. These pods are aligned by similar academic abilities and ideally with a seasoned or master level teacher and a new service or novice teacher. Although this is not always the case. We further encourage this pod collaboration through the development of an “electronic lesson plan template”, (see Appendix A). The idea here is to develop a library of lessons, (see Appendix B). that all of us utilize here at St. Aemilian. At anytime if we find a lesson not working for us there will be many others at our fingertips. This also allows for other teachers who work with these students to understand what they are doing as a class as well as how, why, etc. This also allows for a substitute or administrator to load up the lesson and be able to teach in the case of a classroom emergency.

Collaborating in our Classrooms:

The most important and relevant method we utilize of insuring collaboration is through our weekly lesson plan meetings. These consists of the pod lead teachers, teaching assistants, our reading, art, physical education, therapy and technology specialists and our assistant principal. These meetings generally last between 5 to 10 minutes. The impetus is on the teacher to develop or introduce the other members of her team her idea for a lesson plan. It then becomes a collaborative effort as each team member discusses how they can assist the teacher in meeting these goals. Once this development is completed the information is then inputted into the electronic lesson plan template. This then provides a collaborative map, a sharing of ideas between all of our staff.

What is different and encouraging about these “lesson plan meetings” is that all levels of teaching and experience come together and design the lesson. It is no longer a solitary effort for a teacher to redefine a wheel in order to teach. This not only “forces” the reluctant teacher to participate but more importantly encourages them in a positive and open setting. (Our meetings are currently in the morning and someone usually brings donuts and coffee – the collaborative effort is a relaxing and charged atmosphere instead of the more usual groggy, punch the clock and begin concept.) Our teachers share ideas and not all ideas are brought forth to fruition. This is a positive development as teachers are engaged in positive and constructive feedback immediately as they design their lesson.

Specifically on a supervisory level, this peer coaching or conferencing also borrows from an action research design. While throughout the course of these “lesson plan” meetings the collaborative team involved discusses problem areas, themes or ideas that were well planned but were unsuccessful, it further promotes discussion on authentic assessment and how to do so, it provides input and experienced information from those educators who are experts in their field for those who are not. This design also allows for the new service teacher who happens to be a rather excellent teacher to impress his ideas onto more seasoned and sometimes reluctant teachers.

Supervising our Classrooms:

This model also allows for the assistant principal who has been delegated the supervisory position of all the educators to observe, interact, collaborate and otherwise direct their teachers in an informal setting. This encourages the supervisor to discuss that a particular lesson sounds exciting or interesting and then allows for that supervisor to observe that lesson. This incorporates the “pre-conference” design in a peer collaboration: which allows for the removal of the negative aspects of supervision: those beliefs of being singled out, or non-existent observations, of mystery evaluations.

This process or supervisory plan allows for:
· analysis of one’s own teaching and providing in-service for others
· identifying and articulating reasons for professional behaviors
· developing and demonstrating new curriculum
· supervising beginning teachers as well as encouraging more experienced teacher
· providing expertise and empowerment of the teacher
· collaboration and effective constructive critiques

PI-34, Authentic Assessment, FBAs and Evaluation:

The discussion then stems the tide from encouraging and assisting or facilitating the professional growth of our teachers to make them the most successful teacher that they desire to be to how do we authentically assess these teachers’ teaching abilities? What is foremost is the implementation of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s PI-34 which replaces the existing method for teacher certification. What this new law does in fact provide for the teacher is a strategic method for developing a “portfolio” of their professional development.

PI-34
The new rules give current educators two ways to renew their old license(s):

Successful completion of 6 semester credits directly related to a license held or to the Wisconsin Standards from an accredited institution.
OR, successful completion of a professional development plan.
The option of earning clock hours will not be available after May 30, 2004. Educators who are not working but who currently hold licenses may continue to renew their licenses by giving evidence of six credits earned. Those who earn a Professional Educator license after 2004 and leave the profession can use the six-credit option to renew their licenses. Opting to complete a professional development plan means:
A professional educator demonstrates increased proficiency in selected Wisconsin educator standards. Goals are identified as well as activities related to the goals with evidence of application to the classroom or learning community.
A timeline for achieving the goals with evidence of annual review of goals and activities
Evidence of collaboration with professional peers and others including the review panel required (peer selected by their peers).
An assessment plan that specifies indicators of growth and how meeting the goals improved the educator’s professional knowledge and affected student learning.

Currently licensed educators are also impacted through the initial educator license process within the role of mentors. A mentor is an educator who is trained to provide support and assistance to initial educators and who has input into the confidential formative assessment of the initial educator but is not part of the formal employment evaluation process. The mentor must volunteer for the assignment and receive training for the role. Should the educator/mentor decide to renew his or her license by developing a professional development plan, the mentoring activities could be incorporated into this plan and support the license renewal effort.

Finally, current educators will be needed and may volunteer to serve on an Initial Educator Team and on the teams of currently licensed educators who opt for the new system of re-licensure. Educators will design professional development goals and their successes on reaching these goals will be verified by a three-person team. Experienced educators will be needed to serve on the initial educator teams. Although it seems that the current rules are far off in the future, their impact will be felt throughout our systems, as we become "performance based:”

Understand. Familiarize themselves with the 10 Wisconsin Teacher Standards and the 7 Pupil Services Standards and the 7 Administrator Standards.
Reflect on their own professional practice in regard to these standards.
Plan. Plan professional development experiences, choose those that will offer training toward these standards as they fulfill local district requirements.
Document. Keep records of their professional development experiences in a portfolio that is organized according to the 10 Wisconsin teacher standards. Keep documents that provide evidence of professional growth.
Mentor. Think about mentoring as a positive professional experience.
Seek Mentor training through your local district.
Serve. Serve on local district’s professional development committee and assist them in aligning their process to the new standards.
Stay Informed. Log on to the DPI licensure Website: http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlsis/tel/newrules.html

Functional Behavior Assessment

Is an assessment tool which allows educators to develop a “plan of attack” this is known as an action research.
Is proactive in that it show educators where problem areas are allowing them to predict or head off future problems.
Is simple, easy to do, and more importantly we are already doing it!

School by Time of Day (YTD)

This graph shows us the positive behavior scores for the entire school by Time of Day. We can see how the school functions as a whole per time of day. We can see a “trend” line that shows that we are experiencing our worst behaviors during our 3rd period. 1st period starts well, overall, and then positive behaviors decline through 3rd period. Our 3rd period also falls below the “error bars” suggesting that this is a significant “difference” in positive behaviors and we should look into other avenues of positive behavior incentives.

Positive Behaviors by (TOD) - School

Positive Behaviors by (DOW) - School

This graph shows us the positive behavior scores for the entire school by Day of Week. We can see how the school functions as a whole per day of week. We can see a “trend” line that shows that we are experiencing our worst behaviors Mondays. With a trend that levels out during the middle of the week and a significant increase in positive behaviors by Friday.

Positive Behaviors (YTD) - Classrooms

This next graph shows us the positive behavior scores for the entire school by Classrooms. We can then compare different classrooms to see how effective their therapeutic/academic interventions are over time (YTD).

While all classrooms fall within the “error bars” what is significant to note is that those classrooms who have embraced the “activity based” instruction model have higher positive behavior scores. (Classrooms 6, & 10 are the classrooms we utilize for all of our pilot projects as the teaching staff are more experienced and are agents of change.)

Positive Behaviors School - Average (YTD)

Positive Behaviors (DOW) - Classrooms

This graph shows us the positive behavior scores for the individual classrooms by Day of Week. We can then compare different classrooms to see how effective their therapeutic academic interventions are throughout the week.
With this information we can pinpoint trouble areas, times and days for the individual classrooms. We can predict with a degree of validity how each classroom will “behave” for any given day. This then allows us to implement different intervention strategies.

By utilizing a Functional Behavior Assessment tool not only can we observe and evaluate how well our students are progressing but it also allows us to see what areas teachers may need assistance in. This tool is not an end all and should only be used to assist in the development of needs assessment as presented by the individual teacher and their lesson planning teams with the assistance of the principal.

Evaluation:
Re-reinventing the Wheel

Currently we have evaluation tools for our educational staff. These tools are again based on a “factory” or business mentality that do not allow for the differentiational needs of our teachers’ abilities, strengths, weaknesses, nor growth, (see Appendices C, D, and E). Because of the encroaching developments of PI-34 teachers will have a “built in” evaluation process ready to implement. A process based on peer coaching, mentoring, action research, and professional observation. The problem lies in having the school district re-align themselves from the checklist concept to the more authentic assessment through portfolio construction. To further encourage this growth and development we have implemented our Functional Behavior Assessment tool which allows us to review the entire school, the classroom, time of day, day of week, and how the individual students are progressing. The evaluation process should emulate our current supervisory model of the peer coaching and lesson plan teams. The needs assessment would be developed by the teacher with the input and assistance of their mentor and administrator. This process would then exist as a more formalized observation based on the needs presented during a team meeting. This process can also be formulated individually with the teacher in order for the teacher to further develop their own personal growth.

The question lies in what outcomes are we looking for? Since this question is partially answered by both the Wisconsin Teacher Standards and PI-34 we need to reinvent our evaluation process to match these: this can be done through our existing lesson plan teams which we can refer to as our peer coaching process. We need to look beyond the standardized test scores and integrate the effective learning principles in order too make our teaching, our development, our learning constructive and authentic.

Reframing Suburbantown K-12

2003-02-05T05:29:00.000-08:00

Description of Organization

Kitsap Middle School is a unique school, during its development designers were able to plan for the future and build a school which can grow as the local population grows. KMS is located in the Suburbantown School District in a large, growing community in Kitsap County. The district is comprised of four elementary schools, a middle school and a high school which serves a student population of just under 3,700. Each school has a building leadership team and a PTA to help promote learning for all. Students are actively encouraged to participate in a variety of extra-curricular activities including music, sports and academic programs. KMS currently serves 1,100 of these students housed in a single facility. The building itself is divided into two “wings” with offices in each: the Blue office representing the 6th and 7th grades while the Gold office represents the 8th grade. (Blue and Gold happen to be representative of the school’s colors.) The school is located between an industrial park and farmlands, is maintained in a prairie grasslands format, and is across a field from the local Fireman’s Baseball Park. This setting attributes the concept of being a small town school in a growing metropolis. KMS was restructured during 1993-1998 because of an increasing continuation of population. KMS is unique in that it has a new wing that is designed to be able to be expanded further by going up instead of spreading out. The foundation is in place with a future vision that KMS may actually become two schools housed in one building. In 1995 the classrooms were restructured within the houses to incorporate the “house” policy that has demonstrated effective in other middle school settings. Each grade level is partitioned off by its place in the school. The 7th grade consists of a “U” shaped hall that circumscribes the building holding the 6th grade. The 6th grade is comprised of two connected corridors. And the 8th grade is located in the new “Gold” wing which are rooms located on both sides of a large oval. It is joked, but accurate, that the distance from the last classroom in the Gold wing to the front office is over 1/8th of a mile.
KMS is the only middle school in the district and is fed by the four elementary schools as well as the local parochial schools. The majority of students come from middle or upper-middle class families, although a good portion of these students come from a rural or farming background. There are approximately 400 students at each grade level. These students make up the three houses in both 6th and 7th grade while the 8th grade is designed in two houses, (as part of the method to introduce students to the high school format the class sizes in the 8th grade are larger.) Being a middle school in Suburbantown the student population is mostly white with the most significant area of diversity being students’ with special educational needs. Approximately 23% of the student population are students identified with need special educational services, there is another 11% of the population which has demonstrated some time of supplemental need without being identified with specific learning disabilities.

The staff is not diverse either, with all members being able to be categorized as white. The administrative members consist of a principal and two associate principals, all white males. The teaching staff consists of 88 teachers, 11 cross categorical special education teachers, and 9 paraprofessionals. The diversity gets even less here whereas the entire 6th grade teaching staff is comprised of woman, there are 2 male teachers in the 7th grade, and 5 male teachers in the 8th grade. The special education staff including the aides has only 2 male teachers. The KMS staff is a young staff, with only 10% being teachers with over 5 years experience. Traditionally the turnover rate has been low with the exception of a lot of changes in the last two years. Approximately 12% of the current staff hold masters degrees in their fields while an additional 17% are pursuing advanced degrees.

Kitsap Middle School is rich in technology. The school has two Information Media Centers, (IMC) both of which house computer labs for research. The Blue IMC is the more traditional book laded IMC, whereas the Gold IMC house more of the electronic media components. Each grade level has their own Macintosh based computer lab with network and internet access, there exists a networked PC based lab in the Gold wing as well as the technical applications department having two computer labs, (a Macintosh and a PC lab). There are also two mobile labs of 15 Macintosh laptops each that are on a wireless network which can also be networked to the existing wired network. All teachers have at least one computer in their classroom, and the Learning Center also has a small banks of Macintosh computers for doing writing assignments or other lab work.

Frame by Frame Organizational Analysis

The four organizational frames as outlined by Bolman and Deal (1997) in their work Reframing Organizations were utilized to bring perspective to Kitsap Middle School. For each of the frames both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. The qualitative takes the form of school records, schedules, handbooks etc the quantitative data however was inconclusive. The data was gathered utilizing a survey (Appendix A) that was distributed to the staff members via their in school mailboxes. Out of the one hundred plus survey sent out only six were returned. Perhaps this is a demonstration of what Bolman and Deal (1997) view as “Uncertainty and turbulence” in the development of hierarchal forms of cooperation and coordination.

Structural Frame Analysis

The Structural Frame identifies how a school is organized through its physical sense as well as philosophical underpinnings. It addresses the goals, hierarchy, specialization and delegation of responsibility within the organization. The importance lies inn not only understanding the established linear chain of command within the organization but also the unspoken chain of command, the lateral exchange of information, (Bolman & Deal, 1997). The Structural Frame involves allocation of work to be performed, and the establishing of roles and responsibilities.
There are a variety of artifacts gathered to support the Structural Frame concepts. The Staff Handbook, Student Handbook, union contracts, and the school calendar were the most readily available. These artifacts outline policy, expected procedures, code of conducts etc. Within the structured governing body of KMS we have our Professional Resource Team, (PRT). This team holds representatives from each house as well as parents and is the decision making body for changes or new implementations concerning the teachers as a whole. This committee was formed after our current principal took office in response to ambiguities concerning the shared vision of the KMS mission. The overarching motto is “Reaching for Excellence Together” and the KMS Mission Statement “educate by meeting the diverse needs of all students in an environment which fosters high expectations and mutual respect for diversity through learning experiences that can be applied throughout life.” These philosophies are what drive the educational practices at KMS. Teacher assignments and duties are other qualitative artifacts. At KMS the teachers are divided by house assignments (academic) and Coordinated Arts (non-academic). The Coordinated Arts teachers include those teaching Family and Consumer Education, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Band and Chorus, music theory, technical applications, art, computer, Health Applications and physical education. Each house teacher is assigned to their grade specific house. Members of the house share common planning time. (The planning times coincide with the Coordinated Arts house classes: therefore 6th grade has 7th and 8th hour as their planning time, this then is when Coordinated Arts has the 6th grade students with 7th grade having 4th and 5th, and 8th grade having 1st and 2nd hours. This is more confused by whether it is a Blue or a Gold day in which the students would have different classes. For example 7th hour on a Blue day a student may have health in Coordinated Arts. Whereas, on Gold days that child may have Multimedia Art Concepts.) Minutes from all house meetings are published and provided to all the other houses to be shared during their individual team meetings. Theoretically, this would allow all the houses to further bind into a stronger more integrated larger team. While we do share student concerns and successes, it is the exchanging of ideas or planning outside of the house that is detrimental to the process of team building at KMS.

Because Coordinated Arts planning time does not coincide with any planning time from any of the houses. This means that information published and shared does not readily get to the Coordinated Arts staff in an efficient manner. Furthermore, often the Coordinated Arts teachers are left out of student concerns because of confidentiality, and yet these Coordinated Arts teachers deal with these students on a daily and hourly basis. This leaves the Coordinated Arts team out of the loop as it were for brainstorming, developing cross-content lessons or modifications.

Unfortunately, for all the teamwork that is taking place the proposed quantitative data is inconclusive as it represents approximately only 6% of the staff surveyed.
The theoretical precepts behind the Structural Frame indicate that KMS is on a positive track as they do attempt to meet the needs of their students through their missions and belief statements. The concern is that as some frames were developed others were allowed to rot. This being the division between perceived academics and non-academics and the difficulty in bridging the two. Currently KMS has sought to resolve this issue by including a position that works directly at bridging these two educational elements. However the position has not seen a favorable light perhaps because the mission is to integrate or bridge the two. These are areas that the PRT and other KMS committees have taken a glance at, further communication, team building exercises and collegiality need to be present to keep this division from becoming a distressing influence on the KMS mission.

Human Resource Frame Analysis

The Human Resource Frame deals with the hiring and training of staff members, preparing and supporting employees, and other aspects concerning the well being of the people within the organization. The needs of the individual and the needs of the organization should be inextricably intertwined. When individuals are able to find work that is satisfying and meaningful organizations then have the talent that they find necessary to be successful. Too often, however, these two do not work together. Conventional wisdom suggests that social needs and interpersonal styles arte substantially influenced by experiences early in life, (Bolman & Deal, 1997). “Those patterns do not change quickly or easily” (p143). Often the talent is hired by someone else located in the district office that is seeking to fulfill a need with a body. This body then does not find the meaningful or satisfying work and then the dance of retention and retraining and rehiring etc takes place. To break this cycle is the ultimate goal of a good leader, (Pellicer, 1999). The leader needs to undergo this challenge, to perceive the needs of the individual as well as the organization and to find that balance.

For the 2001-2002 school year KMS undertook the challenge to make sure that the students’ needs came first. This was done through surveys to the district, parents, families of upcoming and ex-students. What was discovered was a need for a safe place which provided the students’ educational, emotional and physical needs while supporting their character development, (Appendix B). This has further been implemented in the KMS vision: We believe that middle level education should …

foster a successful transition from childhood into young adulthood by guiding the development of ethical character,
develop responsibility and accountability for self,
recognize and practice respect,
provide experiences that attain and apply knowledge,
engage students in a variety of activities,
build upon social, physical and mental health.

Qualitatively, samples of the KMS student and staff newsletters contain examples of how employees, students and parents are perceived. This information, while previously used, also contains information concerning the Human Resource Frame. Part of this structure is the Study Skills program which is held on Tuesdays and Thursdays directly after school. Here students can receive assistance regarding homework and other study opportunities under the direct supervision of certified teachers who have volunteered to assist. Peer mediation is often utilized at both the student and staff level concerning crises which occur in the volatile atmosphere that is the emotionally charged field of working with or as adolescents. Guidance counselors, and teachers are available as counselors for the students, KMS has a unique charter which has teachers who have formed relationships with students to more or less a mentor in making sure that the student meets his or her requirements throughout the school year, again this is a voluntary position. KMS has a plethora of after school activities, clubs and social gatherings, where even this year they have incorporated a “social” that included a dance instead of the singular dance.

Parents are valued as important resources as they too volunteer to work in the classrooms, some have come to provide the staff members with cookies, cakes, etc to demonstrate their support. The relationship between parents and teachers is very strong, awards are presented back and forth at almost a humorous pace. Parents take an active role within the PTA, and are often volunteering to assist in after school activities as well as in school activities. KMS offers classes and in-services for parents to attend and welcome them to the regular scheduled staff development days.

Unfortunately, as stated earlier the proposed quantitative data is inconclusive as it represents approximately only 6% of the staff surveyed.

Our principal is often heard stating that we must look for the good, that kernel of goodness that must exist in all things. This ideal parallels Pellicer’s sentiments when he addresses what a good leader should be “it is critical for leaders to believe there is a world of good to be found in every one.” While one could argue what and how some of these elements are indeed good for the organization the school has been successful in its endeavors, mistakes will always be made but it is to the stature of the organization when these mistakes are corrected instead of fretting about and bringing the whole works to a braking stop. Perhaps more development in staff understanding, correlation of visions, and support will stem the tide of turnover currently in effect at KMS.

Political Frame Analysis

The Political Frame is concerned with securing resources to accomplish the objectives of the organization. Leaders must become savvy about how to get resources for the programs they support, they must learn the language of compromise, shared resources, and alliances. Often conflict begets change and change is necessary for any type of growth. Conflict management becomes the major leadership responsibility within the Political Frame. It is the politics an organization must deal within, and not necessarily those political concepts within the structure, (Bolman and Deal, 1997).

The Suburbantown School District utilizes site-based management, this gives the political power to the building principal who has to compete with all the other district principals in front of the school board. Often the school board will have it’s own agenda which makes the principal’s plan difficult at best. Sometimes the political arena is purely based on how a school member perceives or “likes” an individual proposing.

The biggest barrier to the change process at KMS exists in not the political atmosphere within the district and school board but rather in how the union perceives any change. While it is imperative for an individual to have questions and solutions at hand these concepts are often not welcomed by the union. As a political force the union is the one stabilizing mechanization that can stop the change process at KMS. An interestingly enough the union is strongly supported by the KMS staff. This may be a call in response to the fears of change that must take place in any growing organization. Regardless, this fear factor often is the “no” negotiation.

Symbolic Frame Analysis

The Symbolic Frame represents those stories and relationships that are felt or understood without clarification within the organization. It is the unwritten or unspoken rules, the “culture” within the organization , that governs the every day. In the change process, it is assigning meaning that is the most difficult and the most significant concept, (Bolman and Deal, 1997). Too often vision becomes unfocused or blurry because the Symbolic Frame was not given thought during the visionary implementation. Each symbol within the organization means something different depending upon the perspective of someone. The core assumption of the symbolic frame are often overlooked. These are (Bolman & Deal, 1997):

What is most important about any event is not what happened but what it means.
Activity and meaning are loosely coupled: events have multiple meanings because people interpret experience differently.
Most of life is ambiguous or uncertain – what happened, why it happened, or what will happen next are all puzzles.
High levels of ambiguity and uncertainty undercut rational analysis, problem solving and decision making.
In the face of uncertainty and ambiguity, people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, provide direction and anchor hope and faith.
Many events and processes are more important for what is expressed than what is produced. They fiorm a cultural tapestry of secular myths, rituals, ceremonies and stories that help people find meaning, purpose and passion.

What this means is that the reality is not what is but what is perceived. Truth then becomes how something wants to be remembered instead of exactly how it happened. This is too often the case when teachers will get together and discuss “the legends” from their teaching experiences. The Legends are how that particular teacher remembers the student. This also happens from the students’ point of view. Often the students remember a teacher, class, situation in the highlight that they focused it on. Two students can have very different views from the same experiences. For example, at KMS there exists many different computer labs with vying operational software platforms. When the PRT decided to buy new PC based computers they forgot that it was the vision of others who had brought in the Macintoshes. And by there dismissing the symbolism of the Macintoshes they dismissed the intellectual, emotional, and professional understanding of those who could relate to that symbol of technology advancement. KMS puts a high emphasis on spirit day going so far to incorporate the school colors into everyday activities. The fact that every other day is either a Blue or Gold day as a way of discerning what the school schedule is reflects upon this notion of symbolism. Our principal finishes the daily announcements with a “Saying for the day” and those students who can remember or recite it for him are given rewards. The fact that houses represent themselves with artistry and imagination and playful competitions are held across houses also is infused with that symbolism.

Our overt symbolism reflects the care and understanding of the KMS mission to our students. But what is not so overt is the myths, traditions, and stories held by our staff members as well as students. Too often change is seen as a method for erasing those stories and myths. It is important to understand what these stories are and how important these symbols become to the people who hold them in esteem. If you ignore the symbols referred you often anger people and even they may not know why. What is important is to acclimate new people to the histories, the heroes both regaled and fallen, who have gone before. Sometimes it is that quiet guy in classroom 102 who tends to shy away from everyone that you realize was the mythical hero of a change gone by. Bolman and Deal suggest , (1997) “Symbols embody and express an organization’s culture… it embodies accumulated wisdom from those who came before us.” (p217). The strength is in the details, we are only as strong as our weakest link. Pellicer (1997) states that the successful school is the one that focuses on the details.

There is a saying that states that the people who really control the school atmosphere are the secretaries within the offices. These are the details we forget, the symbolism we must latch onto, those minute details that determine who and what we are. We forget that when we believe we do not have time for “spirit day” or that it is too silly, we forget that this is the school and experiences of our students and by not observing this rituals we are saying that our students are not important. Everyone is important and we must remember as the leaders within the organization, and teachers are the leaders within the school structure, that many eyes, many identities, many future philosophies hinge and what we say and do.

An Integrated View of Kitsap Middle School

KMS stands as a model for other schools to follow. As we reach across the Structural, Human Resource, and Political frames we can see our school is currently in a flux state of “settlement”. This is to say that those teachers who have been with our school for ten or more years, are not looking forward to change. The interesting and most perturbing issue concerning this change is that these teachers have metamorphosed into an autonomous stage of education. KMS has as an entity moved into a corner where finger pointing and blame are the common occurrences. Things do not work well, or as assumed or planned because of the fault of others. We often have clashes between departments as to who is responsible or who is in control. It is an ironic state of affairs since our school is one with the behavior and emotional development of children in mind.
The KMS collective pedagogy is to establish comforting and rewarding relationships with our students in an intellectually rich and social environment. And yet, our school itself is divided by cliques and relationships and departments all vying for the control of this act or that emphasis. As with our students who we try to teach to not be manipulative or exploitive we tend to manipulate and exploit our causes inside our own educational department, again the trouble between “coordination and quality control” (Bolman & Deal, 1997 p66). We delve into the teacher-center, or school centric as this case may be, and focus our attentions on what we as an agent of the school can get out of the course of the day’s work. To cynically paraphrase John F. Kennedy, ‘ask now what you can do for your school but ask what your school can do for you.’ This paraphrase is not all that far fetched nor is it “wrong” when it is applied through the student and their needs as a student, through the direction that the student’s school is going. This then could be what Bolman and Deal (1997) call “academic skepticism” (p103) within the school. This type of philosophy breaches when an entity or autonomous relationships exist and denies the concept of “A good fit benefits both.” (Bolman & Deal).

Where we have fallen down is the understanding of what vision is. And whose. It is important to understand the symbolism that has been neglected within our school. As I often tell my teachers: just because you enjoyed the lesson does not mean that the students learned anything from it. Ultimately it is the students who we need to be concerned about but if we can not get the teachers involved in this vision, then what we are doing is a detriment to our students. We need to address each others’ concerns, find those things we can identify with, have a discussion concerning our fears and desires and how ewe can best move forward towards that goal of: educate by meeting the diverse needs of all students in an environment which fosters high expectations and mutual respect for diversity through learning experiences that can be applied throughout life.

References

Bolman, L. & Deal, T. (1997). Reframing organizations: artistry, choice, and leadership.

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc.

KMS Beliefs, Vision and Mission. (2002). [Retrieved from the world wide web].

http://www.suburbantown.k12.wi.us/kitsap/mission.html

Pellicer, L. (1999). Caring enough to lead: schools and the sacred trust.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.

Suburbantown School District Staff Handbook. (2002). Suburbantown, WI:

Suburbantown School District.

Meddling Parents & Norman Bates

2003-01-03T09:50:00.000-08:00

Early on in the beginning of one of my graduate courses we were put through
the exercise of "choosing" or creating our perfect schools. We were given
unlimited funds and were asked to express our complete imagination holding
nothing back. I was found to be a little shunned as it were when we presented
our schools to one another, and within my school the number one article was
"no" parent involvement. This ran contrary to everyone else's opinions where
"parent involvement" was uppermost in their concepts.

Now I do not claim that parent's should not support the education of their
children, no by all means they should wholly support education both academically
and financially. It is just that parents should keep their meddlesome ways
out of the classroom. This may sound harsh but please do keep in mind that
I also am a "parent". My three boys have found me meddlesome, embarrassing,
and in their eyes (as well as the school's) completely incompetent!

Let me begin with a digression that is a topic for a future missive: as a
parent of children with learning difficulties, (albeit I have them also),
I was found to be in front of that trigger happy firing squad we call an
"M-Team" or "IEP Team" or whatever iconoclastic Alphabet soup you may call
your special education team. Keep in mind that I am by profession a Special
Educator, that I participate in these team meetings for students everyday.
I am so inclined that I went forth and obtained a Master's Degree in this
subject. But across the table in my role as parent - I am treated with the
same distain, abhorrence, abomination and loathing. But again I am
digressing…

I also teach at the university. And it has come to light, not necessarily
where I teach, but nationwide
this dilemma of "parents" who are meddling in their children's lives. It
seems a whole generation of parents who had to be completely involved in
their children's education since pre-school through high-school have not
been able to release their control over their children. College professors,
deans, and advisors all over the country are now dealing with this phenomenon
of parent. (Something us K-12'ers have been dealing with for too long a
time…) These parents are calling and complaining about Johnny's treatment
in class, his apparent lack of respect from his teachers, his poor performance,
which isn't Johnny's fault since Johnny never got less than an "A" before:
Etc, etc and etcetera! Parents meddle.

I have a student I shall call "Norman". While Norman is not necessarily a
choice name for a young woman it does have literate allusions. For example:
it could be a reference to the calf in the film "City Slickers" that is saved
by Billy Crystal's character. While my Norman is not a cow, she is like Billy's
calf an orphan trapped in a system that does not so much care for her needs,
but more so calculates her worth by placement in a financial system. And
both Norman's desperately needed, but not necessarily sought some type of
adult or mentoring relationship.

Or I am also reminded of the play by Ron Scott "Norman, is that you?" a
frolicking treatise on parent child relationships as wells as burgeoning
sexuality and acceptance. My Norman too, is parentless but yet has parents,
she also is involved in her own identity crisis as is the wont of a 12 year
old child. Or, perhaps I can re-circle back to the beginning of this missive
and the concept of meddling parents and utilize the allusion inherent in
Robert Bloch's Psycho. For my Norman is much like Norman Bates, haunted by
a disassociated mother, uncanny in her personality shifts, both tender and
endearing like Norman's desire for grilled cheese sandwiches and shrift of
violence.

6th grade was a turning point for my own identity and development. It was
the fashion for young boys to wear sweaters over their button down shirts.
But we would not dare tuck our shirt tails in our pants, that was too nerdy.
I also did not yet understand the hygiene or social acceptance of clean and
trimmed nails. My wife is prone to say that we should never underestimate
the power of the opposite sex. It was in the 6th grade that girls would comment
on my untucked shirt tails, "how my skirt was longer than theirs" and my
dirty and broken nails, "you nails are like a girls! You should paint them!"
Needless to this day my nails are trimmed short, almost painfully short,
and my shirts, well even in this day of the unkempt and baggy fashions I
still tuck my shirttails in.

As I said my Norma is a 12 year old 6th grader. By all outward appearances
she looks like the archetypical 6th grade student. She is still infused with
baby fat, unkempt clothes which map out her daily eating habits, that nearly
trademark Kool Aid smile …But what differs about my Norman from the
typical 6th grader is that mentally Norman is an adult. I do not mean the
"street smart" Traci Lords adult we too often associate with mentally mature
girls. Norman is more a Doogie Howser, a child prodigy. Norman has high order
thinking, reasoning but not necessarily all the weaponry needed for high
order debates. Norman is rather an untapped child prodigy.

However, the main difference between Doogie and Norman is that she runs the
gamut of a Borderline Personality Disorder. Jeckyl and Hyde: Shannon Dougherty:
Norman Bates.

What this all lathers up to is a concept that is spinning about out there
in research land, a "new" development in the raising and teaching of our
students. It falls under many names and can be currently seen in "Love and
Logic", "Merchant of Hope", "Reclaiming our Youth" and many many more. What
this new development is is "relationship". A garnering of mutual respect
for each other, making a connection with your students. This development
is anything but "new" and yet is missing, removed from, disemboweled from
educational practices.

I remember when I started in my new school and was first asked to meet with
Norman. She and I spoke briefly, but I hope honestly. The next day one of
the referring teachers was shocked when they saw Norman come running down
the hall and throw a big hug around me. I had made a connection although
very tentative and extremely fragile. Norman was prone to walk the halls
with me instead of being in her assigned classroom, she would reach up and
grab my hand and skip through the halls. Unless of course a peer saw her
and then she would very typically admonish me and yank her hand away. "Mr.
K! I can walk by myself!" Norman needs attention but in atypical 6th grade
fashion is unsure of what this attention is or should be. She is bored in
her classes because we are not attuning our teaching nor curriculum to her
individual needs; she is both frightened and entreated of her need for adult
interactions; she is both embraced and shunned by her peers; she reflects
that she has no need for friends and then desperately seeks them out.

Norman is in this holding pattern of conflict and mistrust, of denied respect
and undeniable intelligence. She is as consistent as a flickering fluorescent
light: she is on: off, on: off at breathtaking speeds. One moment she is
skipping down the hallway the other she is cursing you in venomous hatred.
She often "pushes the buttons" of adults, people of authority or "in control".
Escalating or perhaps declining them to a screaming tantrum fit. Norman wants
to be in control.

Norman shares a kinship with my own 6th grade self. Schools make a distressing
habit of telling children that they are smart. And as children we are unable
to cope with the complexity of intelligence and aptitude, or as my wife likes
to put it "potential". Like Norman I too had a high intelligence quotient
which I translated in my inexperienced 12 year old mind to be "I am too smart
for you." There are things we know how to do, things we think we know how
to do, and things we don't have a clue about but will never attest to. My
downward spiral began in 6th grade being arrested for stealing cars because
"I am too smart for you."

But this is about Norman, her potential, her wherewithal, and her need to
be accepted while at the same time shunning the world about her. It took
me 3 months to crack open that door of Norman. Of understanding her. Just
a crack mind you, a glimpse into that doorway of Norman.

For the last three months my name has been synonymous with Norman's. I would
be paged, called, "found" because Norman was, well being Norman. We developed
a relationship, a connection. We formed an understanding, albeit not always
in the way an orderly "school" climate is professed to be. But there were
moments, and these moments were nurtured by our team of Special Educators.
We looked to the positives of Norman's abilities, desires. We tried to refocus
her on her strengths, and often trying contest of wills. We created plans,
revamped them, threw away many. Progress was being made. Norman has bounced
about from school to school, usually by the third quarter everyone had given
up on her. I had for almost 2. I was just beginning. Her parents decided
that she would do better at a different school. Chalk it up to control,
incompetence, desire for normalcy. I chalk it up to fear, both from our school
and Norman's parents.

"We can't fix 'em all!" "Do what we can for those we can." "some simply fall
through the cracks." Homilies are that: little sermons we appease ourselves
with. The truth is we failed Norman. We failed her parents. We failed as
educators. We can blame the "system" but that is only justification for our
positioning. We came back from our winter break and Norman was gone, off
to a different school. New teachers, a new quarter, a new slough of fresh
clean teachers. All day people have come by and told me how happy I must
be now that Norman is gone, I must be relieved not to be paged every hour,
how Norman was too much trouble to contend with.

I think of Billy Crystal's Norman, an orphaned calf needing direction; Ron
Scott's Norman whose struggle for identity can be deconstructed into a sit-com
one liner; and then there's Robert Bloch's Norman who had his own meddling
parents.

I miss my Norman.

Happy Xmas Y'All!

2002-12-25T01:05:00.000-08:00

Please click on the following link for our Xmas Web card: http://mrkay.org/thekays/xmas/

A Catalyst of Change

2002-11-17T04:46:00.000-08:00

To paraphrase the eclectic songwriter Tom Waits "every leader I know is
either dead or in prison"; it is thus that I have culled a philosophy
of leadership. A popular axiom of the day is to "begin with the end in
mind" (Covey, 1991). This is a good
practice not only because it is a succinct sound bite but it also expresses
the Zen-like nuance of not necessarily knowing but understanding where our
destination lies. It then becomes the path towards this destination which
is the true mettle of our journey. To my end, as a leader, (and by definition)
I hope that I will have made a difference enough that others may want to
follow me. And this then is the most difficult concept for beginning a treatise
on a "philosophy of leadership".

"It's hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way"

Mac Davis

In the term itself leadership implies that there has to be someone following.
Yet, by cultural definition a leader needs to be humble, full of integrity
and humility - hence negating their existence as a leader - for to follow
someone we want (culturally) an enigmatic, charismatic, powerful individual
to blaze our path, (Gardner, et al, 1995).
This passage is jumbled and full of contradictions which is why I chose it
as an introduction into this discourse on leadership philosophies. For, it
is within these contradictions, this conflict
(Suzuki, 1956), this disheveled and seemingly
undisciplined voice which defines my concept of leadership. This chaos. In
essence 'am I worthy to lead?' and yet by merely asking this question I am
not. 'Am I humble enough to be a good leader?' But by staking claim to leadership
itself I no longer can be humble - 'am I knowledgeable and forthright enough
to be a leader?' for does not this thinking of leadership equate power which
is necessary for charismatic identity but then negates humility which is
essential for integrity … and so forth … and so on …

The Undeniable 15 Minutes

This duel with duality has been an incessant integral manipulation of my
personal leadership, whether mythological, spiritual, or philosophical. While
it would appear that the use of popular media is not in alignment with the
steadfastness of a formal dissertation, popular media is often the reflection
of who we are as a society (McLuhan, 1967).
Having arrived at adulthood in an age of informational glut amassed via the
storm of popular media it is not therefore out of order that philosophies
have been interred by the messages of popular media. This propagation of
philosophy is most apparent in the concept of leadership. What we, as a culture,
determine to be acceptable or unacceptable roles of leadership, often is
fueled by our popular media.

The leadership tenets which I have latched onto over the years are the ones
often portrayed in the popular culture of our time, (the irony of course
is that these characteristics of humanity are deemed 'American' and yet were
borrowed or stolen directly from Eastern teachings,
(Kurosawa, 1954;
Sturges, 1960)):

develop a personal code of ethics, a mission; · be principle driven;
leave the past behind learn from mistakes and move forward;
live life to the fullest, be self sacrificing and risk taking;
be child-like in your wonder, experiment and experience as much as you can;
encouraging others to excel in their determinations;
make a difference in the world you live in;
steadfast in their decision making and beliefs, yet tolerant and open to
others input;
a prevalence for being 'outside' the norms of society;
a direct individualized sense of determination;
purposeful, and often misconstrued action;
an individualistic leader yet significantly understands their role in the
'group';
intelligent or knowledgeable about all things good and bad;
a sense of integrity, especially when at peril of one's life;
be a teacher;
and an overarching sense that 'you do the right thing because it is the right
thing to do';

"I read all kinds of books about heroes and crooks"

Jimmy Buffet

Victor
Jara of Chile

One of my most influential heroes I discovered in the late nineteen seventies
in a song by Arlo Guthrie (1976). The song
"Victor Jara" was adapted by a poem by the English poet Adrian Mitchell.
When I first heard the song I was filled with admiration, and then skepticism.
I began a quest to discover if in fact Victor Jara had existed and if the
story within that song was indeed factual. What I was to discover was a subtle
foreshadowing of my future.

Victor Jara was a teacher from Chile. Not only was he a teacher but he was
one of those things I have always aspired to but was never able to master:
an accomplished musician and songwriter. Victor Jara was a poet, he was masterful
with his words and imagery, and Victor Jara was an activist. He believed
in not only upholding his values but he was also willing to die for his beliefs.
As social activist/poet/songwriter/teachers can, Victor Jara had a wonderful
life. He was acknowledged for his words and music, he taught at the university
and he was able to tour the world expounding his words onto a hungry world.

In the mid-nineteen seventies there was a military coup in Chile and the
"generals" took over the country. They told people like Victor Jara that
they could not "teach" their subversive views anymore and removed their licenses
to teach. Victor Jara continued to express his views in the clubs and within
the songs that he was singing. The "generals" then threatened Victor Jara
suggesting that he not sing his songs and they banned him from the clubs.
For awhile Victor Jara took his music to other countries and other arenas,
and with the ever growing tyranny of the generals Victor became more forthright
in his activism. Victor realized that his message was not getting through,
that the generals were able to thwart his ideology by his "escaping" from
his country. He knew that he would be arrested if he was to return to his
homeland but Victor thought that in his hiding his message would be lost.
Victor returned to Chile and subsequently was arrested, he was placed in
a football stadium with hundreds of other men but Victor Jara would not be
silenced. He played songs to his fellow prisoners and the generals broke
his hands, he spoke out about the injustices of the current regime and the
generals broke his jaw. They tortured Victor for several days before finally
executing him.

Victor Jara believed in a cause, understanding that his beliefs most probably
would see him killed. He stood up for what was right even when others would
flee from threat. Victor Jara epitomized integrity, stood outside of the
status quo, would not let fear rule his day and realized that a life lived
in hiding was not a life.

Following "the Boss"

As is wont to experience those greatest leaders are those seemingly unaware
of their greatness but not unaware of their potential. These leaders emerge
when needs or desperate measures arise and circumstances allow for exposure;
but too often, these emergent leaders go unnoticed - some not even leaving
a footnote in history. Sir Ernest Shackleton is one of these footnoted ironies.
His exploits happened nearly a century ago, his feats unfettered and unequaled
for his day and yet history has allowed him, nearly, to slide away into the
crevices of a vast historical wasteland. What perhaps is the most important
aspect of Shackleton's leadership endeavors is that it was through his failures
that he made his greatest accomplishments. Shackleton's leadership
characteristics can be read as a virtual template for all leaders:

Respectful and cooperative competition
Surround oneself with an experienced and knowledgeable crew
Lead by example: develop a spirit of camaraderie,
delegate & help each crew member reach their utmost potential
Demonstrate confidence and optimism; focus on the future or the goal; take
responsibility for the whole job: the good and bad aspects and realize that
risk taking, deviations from the plan, or utilizing others' input often realizes
the goal
Leave a legacy of others who not only follow in these footsteps but blaze
paths of their own

Respectful and cooperative competition

Sir Ernest Shackleton cultivated a sense of compassion and responsibility
for others. He realized that even the most minute details had an effect not
only on his crews but also those he worked for and against. Shackleton also
realized that while he may be in competition both financially and for accolades
with other explorers it would not benefit either of them if they did not
share their findings, knowledge, expertise or even time. Sir Ernest was often
doing "leg work" or "press junkets" for his competing peers in order for
them to cultivate their needed resources and supplies. By engaging in this
respectful competition what might have been considered an enemy became an
ally or a cooperative partner in the future. A century ago Shackleton realized
that the world was changing at an ever increasing speed. He surmised that
it was important to keep abreast with these changes, to accumulate knowledge
and resources to be utilized later, and that nuances like cultural and social
endeavors were just as important as the progress or success of one's established
career. Shackleton realized that setbacks and failures are lessons on a learning
curve that will provide valuable direction for future excursions. Most
importantly, Shackleton realized that reaching a goal is not necessarily
the "end-all" that safety and concern for all members of the crew need to
be considered at all times. Goals must be set and can be through bold and
careful planning but must not overshadow the crew nor their mission in life.

Shackleton's Antarctic excursions were noted for their formidable supplies
that were left for the explorers. His cache of supplies from the failed Endurance
expedition were actually utilized by his competitors in subsequent excursions.
Shackleton is often credited with providing these excursions with stores
whereas without these supplies the competing explorers would have perished.
Shackleton was an enigmatic leader who enjoyed the limelight and the glory
that would be ascertained through his exploration of Antarctica. But he also
realized this glory would be misspent if it was at the cost of life of any
of his crew members. Even in situations where he was a hyperbolic "stone's
throw" from his goal - he would rethink his plans if the objective presented
too much of a risk of life.

Surround oneself with an experienced and knowledgeable crew

Shackleton was able to develop his crews from a resource of workers he had
worked with previously or were recommended by trusted colleagues. He also
picked a "no. 2" person who complemented his style of management; this is
someone who is not afraid to follow nor stand up to "the Boss" when visions
become blurred. It was also surmount to hire people who were experts in their
field and then utilize them for such. To be threatened by other people's
expertise was to develop a sense of conspiracy and fear, and trust is an
opportune trait. Sir Ernest believed it was extremely important to hire those
who shared his vision realizing that those who clashed or whose vision was
other than his would be a detriment to the expedition.

Shackleton also took his interviewing process onto a different plane, one
which went deeper than the basic job experiences but which rather revealed
motive, personality, desire and underlying potential. Spell out the duties
that will be needed to be performed, outline what will be expected and how
they will be compensated. Be optimistic even in the drudgery of work and
remove traditional hierarchies of working environments. All members need
to work as a team and thus share in the daily duties. In doing so, Shackleton
wanted to keep his crew as optimistic and high-spirited as possible and realized
that people will work hard when understanding the situation, understanding
what is expected of them and by being provided the necessary tools to achieve
their objectives. Without these characteristics his crews would experience
unnecessary burdens that would hinder the objective of the expedition.

Lead by example: develop a spirit of camaraderie, delegate & help
each crew member reach their utmost potential

Shackleton knew that the travails of an Antarctic expedition, the long months
at sea, and ice would be strenuous. He knew that the key to a successful
venture would be providing a comfortable work environment and a sense of
personal ownership from his crews. Sir Ernest realized that healthy minds
and bodies produced more productive individuals and always set up his excursions
with means to keep his crews physically and mentally fit. Also key, was the
work entailed. All of Shackleton's crews had challenging and important work.
He stressed that what may have appeared unimportant tasks (such as keeping
the brass polished or the decks swabbed) was in fact important to the integral
structure of the ship: and everyone then needed to partake in the maintenance
and the everyday chores. Sir Ernest made sure that even the "lowest ranking"
crew members realized that their participation was invaluable to the expedition's
success.

Shackleton utilized constant feedback and an "open door" policy for voicing
grievances. This allowed him to create temporary teams of workers who would
take care of the chores and was able to mix up his crews into teams that
normally, (due to class structure, professional hierarchies, or official
designations) may not have ever thought of working together. In fact some
of the largest praise by his crews revolved around the friendships and partnering
of teams. Shackleton also understood the importance of public accolades.
He rewarded individuals for work well don as well as the groups and realized
that it is the little things: an anniversary, a birthday, a name of a favorite
animal or book that often bridged that gap between individuals. He memorized
the interests of his crew and utilized this information to have chats, working
parties with people of communal interests, and as a way to provide encouragement
when he thought his crew needed such.

Above all Shackleton realized that he needed to be tolerant. He utilized
his crew's strengths and accepted their weaknesses and with this in mind
set reasonable and attainable goals. He realized the importance of overindulging
his crew especially in high stress situations.

Demonstrate confidence and optimism; focus on the future or the goal,
take responsibility for the whole job: the good and bad aspects & realize
that risk taking, deviations from the plan, or utilizing others' input often
realizes the goal

Shackleton thrived in crisis situations, not necessarily out of choice but
out of circumstance. He participated in the mundane details of the maintenance
of the expedition and would often be a "worker" or participant in others'
experiments or projects. He disliked the idea of "middle management" and
streamlined the operations so that the mission would not be hindered. Shackleton
tried to think ahead of all possible scenarios and outcomes and continuously
had options at his avail. But always he kept the expedition's objectives
in sight. He continually asked his staff for advice and was not shy at accepting
their input nor at presenting them with the recognition of their insight.
Still, Shackleton would ultimately make the decisions based on his judgment
of the situation and the facts. This allowed him not only to give recognition
for those who presented differing ideas but also it allowed him to take
responsibility for these action regardless of their outcome.

Shackleton also realized that his crew needed to know the true reality of
what was taking place so that his crew would not lose focus. He let all the
people know that their participation was invaluable to the success of the
expedition and realized that a crew who believed their work constructive
and meaningful would be less malcontent. Often Shackleton would "leak" unpopular
information about a forthcoming decision so that when he did finally voice
it the crew had already had their misgivings and were now thinking about
ways to be successful with the decision.

The best way to handle the biggest task is often to divide into teams, creating
units which are self-sufficient while understanding that they will not all
be equal. Shackleton organized his men into teams, some which he handpicked
and some which developed as natural relationships. Within this structure
he had "cracker jack" teams that formed and he utilized according to their
demonstrated or chosen expertise. Shackleton would give those tedious assignments
to those members who were natural work horses and seldom complained: realizing
that it was equally important to give them positive feedback, letting them
know that they were given these tasks because of their temperament and often
inferring that their exceptional fortitude was the reason for the assignment.
Shackleton focused his leadership on empowerment and the expertise of his
crews, he recognized their authority while maintaining an eye on the overall
picture.

Perhaps the most effective aptitude of Shackleton was his self-sacrifice
and patience. He was willing to change his mind when he saw a plan not working
instead of trying to hold fast to his authoritive right. While Shackleton
was willing to demonstrate that he was infallible and that he had weaknesses
he never pointed out the weakness of his crew publicly. He would often put
the burden of the weakness upon himself and express to the crew this downfall,
he then asked the crew for a remedy realizing that even his strongest members
could benefit from this information.

While Shackleton hand-picked his crew, often in the light of a "go for broke"
risk taking atmosphere, he also realized that his crew was made up of different
individuals who sought wisdom and spiritual reverence in many ways. He sought
to share these examples with everyone introducing them to different aspects
of faith and tolerance for individual belief. By doing this he did not force
any individual to prescribe to unwanted or forded (and thence false)
spirituality. Shackleton sought inspiration in the daily activates and histories
of his crew, often re-reciting their exploits for the others. Shackleton
realized that even in the most stressful situations no matter the environment
that all members are a part of a greater whole, than the world about them
exists no matter the isolation. He stressed that participating in community
and family activities often provides one with useful skills for nearly any
type of job. Shackleton also reminded his crew to focus on the whole job,
while the heavy lifting or the dirty grime work may be done there always
those little details that need to be completed before the day is done.

Leave a legacy for others who not only follow in these footsteps but blaze
paths of their own

Sir Ernest Shackleton is not endeared because he survived against incredible
odds but because he was successful in those important things we often forget
that matters. His expedition was by all records a failure, but it was extremely
successful in the recognition that his entire crew not only survived but
survived with an uplifted sense of spirituality, camaraderie and faith.
Shackleton had an incredible team that shared companionship even though
Shackleton was noted as saying, "Leadership is a fine thing, but it has
penalties. And the greatest penalty is loneliness." Shackleton was able to
recognize the faults and the potential of his crew, and most importantly
Shackleton lead by example, "If you are a leader, a fellow that other fellows
look to, you've got to keep going."

Shackleton never planted a flag at the South Pole, he never met many of his
goals, he did not receive the monies nor the acclaim that he had desired.
Yet, he did what he wanted to do and he did it well enough to be remembered
throughout the histories of not only exploration but within the texts of
civility, leadership, and spirituality. His "workplace" was a creative workshop,
instilling the desire and new found expertise in himself and his crew. His
crews were productive, enduring and enjoyable. Shakleton's respect for human
life over the public accolades of a successful enterprise is perhaps his
greatest leadership tribute, "The loyalty of your men is a sacred trust you
carry. It is something which must never be betrayed, something you must live
up to."

Sir Ernest was a risk taker, he thrived on the attention of being "one of
the greatest" in his chosen field, but he would not spend or diminish the
lives and spirits of his crews in order to do so. He chose "failure" instead
of expending these souls - this choice, ironically, provided him with the
greatest accolades of success, "There are a lot of good things in the world,
but I'm not sure that comradeship is not the best of them all - to know that
you can do something big for another chap."

A Cry in the Loveless Waste

Remember me
I am

free at large
untamable
not nearly

as hard to find as America

Fr. Daniel Berrigan

It is this doctrine of religion that brings me back to Father Berrigan. Daniel
Berrigan was a young Jesuit priest, he was knowledgeable, creative, had a
flair for words which has led to volumes of poetic works. He was a young,
American priest; enigmatic, charismatic, he was gracious, humble, passionate,
devoted, and energized by his faith, his spirituality, and his raison de
etre: the Church: the embodiment of all that was spiritual sacred to Father
Berrigan. Father Berrigan was a remarkable priest, as was his younger brother
Phillip. And through them the diocese saw a powerful, and political team,
(this was concurrent with the Kennedy regime in America, during the mid-
to late-nineteen fifties, where the Kennedy's as Catholics had taken power
in the senate, the Catholic Church also sought the empowerment of the Berrigans.
In a sense then, establishing the Church as a very powerful political force
in American society.) This previous information is important, as one of the
leadership tenets we see is self-sacrifice and Father Daniel Berrigan knew
he and his brother were being groomed for higher offices. Father Berrigan
loved God, his faith, the church, and all that it represented. He had written
several volumes of poetry and was creating a name for himself as well as
the Jesuit faith a poetic-theologian. He was much admired by the his peers,
who did not see him as an upstart but rather saw him a passionate priest
overcome with the spirit of God.

I see a procession of the
old;

Death shuns them on; pillar
to post;

Man and wife, hands
clasped;

A piteous nobility;

That word comes now

Through the mind's pain,
into truth.

Mercy, forgiveness, You
are my heart's ground.

(Berrigan, 1962)

But historically crises beget leaders, Father Berrigan and the Catholic church
were to become embroiled in a war - most notable it was America's entrance
into the "police action" of Vietnam. Father Berrigan believed that his faith
and the church needed to make a stand against the atrocities of war, and
that it was the church's right to protect lives and become involved in the
stopping of war, any war. In a very political and fearful time in America,
Father Berrigan stood for what he believed to be "right", for what he believed
his faith and religion deemed necessary and proper. This division of ideology
was but a mere seed in the tribulations, and trials, of Father Berrigan's
life.

a criminal for peace

The more Father Berrigan fought for the preservation of life the more the
church distanced themselves from their once promising protégé;
with this distancing, Father Berrigan found himself more embroiled in the
movement to end the war in Vietnam. Of this demonstrative epoch the culmination
came when Father Berrigan and several others broke into a draft registration
office in Catonsville, Maryland and removed and subsequently destroyed all
of the draft files they could find. As the draft office was a "federal" office,
this resulted in Father Berrigan being arrested for many different crimes,
including treason. Father Berrigan was an idealist and an optimist. He believed
that when the public heard of the atrocities of the war, the imbalance of
those being drafted to fight it, (specifically poor, minority boys), that
they would rally to his defense. Unfortunately, the public viewpoint of the
war in Vietnam and the war at home involving the protestors, would not change
for several more years. Father Berrigan found himself guilty as charged and
facing a lifetime in prison. Father Berrigan did what many political extremists
do and went "underground" to avoid prison. This resulted in his having to
give everything up - especially his identity.

Too often, when people make the choice for self-preservation at the cost
of their identity they feel that they have lost everything; especially their
meaning or their mission. When faced with this decision Father Berrigan came
out of hiding and was subsequently re-arrested,
(Berrigan & Coles, 1971). While
in prison, Father Berrigan was able to continue his fight against the Vietnam
war, he continued his prolific sense of writing - albeit now his writings
were more radically charged and poignant, many times raising accusations
against the American government, people, and the Catholic Church in their
continued support of genocide, (Berrigan,
1971). With this the American public were more willing to hear what the
"radical" priest had to say, and after subsequent appeals a new trial was
awarded Father Berrigan and the "Catonsville 9" and in a turning point in
the war protest movement a jury of peers found them not guilty of all crimes,
including the articles of treason.

Father Berrigan received some of the accolades he deserved becoming immortalized
in many caricatures throughout novels, movies and song, he became known as
that "Radical Priest" and as one musician noted he even got his "picture
on the cover of Newsweek", (Simon, 1972).
This much would be a footnote in the historical archives for anyone. But
Father Berrigan did not do what he did for the accolades, he believed in
his mission of faith, of spirituality, and of teaching.

I did not discover Father Berrigan until early in nineteen eighty when I
became disillusioned with my own role in subversive American military service.
There was a movement where I was stationed that was trying to stop the delivery
of nuclear warheads via trains through naïve American communities. While
I was still involved in the military I began attending these "gatherings"
and successfully keeping my two identities separate. Somewhere along the
way I was handed a book by a beautiful woman (I state this because many times
are motives are not at all altruistic), it was a copy of Father Berrigan's
"America is Hard to Find". She went on to mention that this particular poem
reminded her of myself and my writings. As accidental meanderings usually
happen I went with her to a poetry reading in Seattle where I read some of
my anti-war/establishment poems. Ezra Pound once said "there is no such thing
as coincidence" and coincidentally the guest speaker at this demonstration
happened to be Father Berrigan himself.

Father Berrigan true to his ideology had taken on the military and the
development of nuclear weapons and other means of mass destruction as his
mantle. Throughout the ensuing decades Father Berrigan would once again try
to change the ways of death. He would spend many more years in prison for
various endeavors that supported the well-being of all mankind. Father Berrigan,
even to this day, leads "raids" on missile silos where they spill red paint
on the warheads, hit them with hammers to demonstrate the ridiculousness
of trying to "hide" weapons of mass destruction. And even though the church
has excommunicated Father Berrigan he still wholeheartedly believes in his
faith, and that it is the desire of all to prevent mass destruction and genocide.

Father Berrigan has wrought forth his love and enchantment for his faith
having written the story for the movie "The Mission" a story of the Jesuit
order fighting for truth despite the teachings of the church. Currently Father
Berrigan is working in an AIDS hospice out of New York, continually ministering
to the terminally ill and speaking out all over the world on the atrocities
of AIDS, the denial of drugs and research for AIDS, and once again accusing
the church of genocide in their refusal to "educate" against sexually transmitted
diseases in America and other countries.

"Indifference of consequences
is no excuse before the law"

We are - Americans.We swim in the
common waters together …

Behold our Jesuit, then, among his
Jesuit kind, seeking now answers,

now something humbler - the right
questions.

He knew that he occupied a privileged
skin, could claim the perks of education,

tradition, family. Could he grow
thoughtful about such matters as his own humanity?

Or would he accept unquestioningly
the place in which, or on which, he had been set

from birth -dwelling as he did,
aloft, on a kind of sanctified pylon? And if he

stood there dumb, was he not reduced
to the status of an immobilized

icon of the culture? How then could
he presume to be even a gentle shaker

of the political and social (and
religious) scene?

He could not. The supposition was
ridiculous … it was morally offensive.

I came to know a few things, and
the knowledge has not since departed,

but stands me in good stead. I learned
a modest translation of the word sacrifice

and its image, the cross. I know
that in grandeur, the cross (which is to say,

the crucified One) invites the living
to the heart of reality, in an embrace as

guileless and self-giving as it
is indifferent of consequence.

Fr. Berrigan,
1987

"If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me"

Kris Kristofferson

A Lifetime of Lessons Learned

This was a most difficult treatise: a definition of what leadership is about
and how one is to accomplish this. We cannot be leaders without followers,
and it is through those that follow that our leaders can be defined,
(Chaleff, 1995). We have too many areas
of our lives that we can attribute to others' inspiring values. I realize
that many of my values stem from my parents: both good and bad. The world
I grew up in: the hostile revolutionary fever that was a rainbow bumper-shoot
of the 1960s; the hedonistic 1970s with grace derailed; the 1980s and the
gluttony of the self with others as something to tread upon; the iconoclastic
1990s that defined the hypocrisy of what is meant by 'truth justice and the
American way!'. Coupled with all of these inputs comes the realization that
life, value and spirituality have to be balanced in a perverse triad juggled
and fragile.

Well, it's Saturday night and the Jester's broke

But the lessons I have learned need to be summed up in a concise, scholarly
pedantry summary that can be quantified in a simple "High Pass, Pass, or
No Pass". And what I have learned is that I cannot do this. I see the chaos
of the world about me and in some surreal manner I can pick out threads of
existence, of thought, demeanor, and method. I can pull on these threads
not to unravel but to entwine them into perhaps another timeline - a different
string, a differing perspective of thought and action. Too often our society
becomes glued to a past a preference of some collective memory that most
likely has not even existed. This social consciousness can be a devastating
threat to the courageous mind. We often speak of reform
(Gardner, et al,1995), of change, but
systematically we tear down the wall of reason and blockade ourselves from
this change for the common good, the peace we desire
(Berrigan, 1987), and the working mindset
of the everyday (Himanen, 2001).

"There's something going on here and you don't know what it is. Do you
Mr. Jones?"

Bob Dylan

We try to lead a life pure and chaste and yet our desires overwhelm us: we
may, and often do call this temptation. We have different words for it in
all languages, all cultures, some evil, some derogatory and some a purging
sense of sanity. I am reminded of an event that has now become on of my lessons
learned, my teachings to the crew, where I get to play the "Jester" in a
fable for others. I had become disillusioned at where I worked, a misbalance
of ethics and values had become glaring as it seemed that this was a situation
where plans had to be changed in order for the expedition to be successful.
I no longer enjoyed what it was I was doing. I am a teacher, and one of my
licenses is in teaching English and literature. I happened upon an interview
with a suburban high school English department. In all my missives and dialogues
in applying for this position I lay out quite clearly my teaching methods,
my pedagogical ideology, my educational philosophies for I do not want to
waste time either for the interviewers nor myself. The question arose about
my being "a catalyst of change," and the moment the words slipped out of
the interviewer my "sarcasm" radar antennae perked up but I did not heed
the warnings. After all, why would they have asked me in for an interview
if our ideologies were not similar? Were our visions not clear?

It was an extremely hot August summer's day and the building where the interviews
were conducted was not air conditioned, I sat before a sweating committee
sweating and by the department head,
a balding,
squat, effeminate man asked how me I would go about teaching "The Great
Gatsby" to my students, and engaging them in the experience. After all, wasn't
I 'a catalyst of change.' Unfortunately, I believed I was in a desperate
situation. Did I really want this position? Was I selling out only because
I was scared of not finding work? Were these people ridiculing me? Was my
ideology somehow their jest? Even before I could speak I understood I was
here to entertain, I was their "Jester", I was not going to be considered
for this position - and yet I still tried, desperate, hopeful. I explained
how I would go about teaching a book that I honestly I found no value in
teaching, I was selling my integrity to the first bidder -- for the chance
of a job -- the fear of not being able to find work. I felt ill in how my
clothes, my "good" woolen suit, my non-threatening-yet-expressing-power tie
chafing my neck, my "interview" shoes polished and gleaming. All I could
think of was the Bob Dylan song "Ballad of a Thin Man" and I glanced over
at the smirking Mr. Jones and the words I wanted to say were held back by
a mouthful of fear. I left the interview feeling, degraded for my beliefs,
violated for my principles, dirty … I made a promise to myself that
I would not place monetary concerns over my integrity again. My life is a
life led though principles (Covey, 1991).

A Catalyst of Change

How do I accomplish this? I surround myself with people of similar vision
although not necessarily of similar values nor ethics. I encourage a progression
of knowledge, of history, of legacy. I delve into areas unfamiliar with a
"face to the wind" audacity - or risk. Often, I am put en garde due to my
disassociation with established methods or the status quo. I encourage others
with humor and entertainment and often bring brevity to situations by being
the "Jester" or by bringing the insult upon me. I am not afraid to make mistakes
and often acknowledge my mistakes for others to learn from. I am a teacher
regardless of my certification or licensure. I am determined, enigmatic,
thoughtful, and charismatic. I am also aware of situations even though I
appear as if I do not. I heed the warnings of Sun Tzu, and 'keep my enemies
near'. I have troubled myself with my identity and who I am. Two discrete
and separate ideologies. I have done misdeeds in order for self-preservation
and have regretted these decisions. But then again, I learn fast from my
mistakes. Life is for living. It is that once chance we have to experience
our existence and we need to utilize this time well. I build my leadership
style on this premise; the sound-bite reference attached the bumper of a
car 'Life is a trip - enjoy the ride'. Experiment and find out what it is
that makes you happy - and make this your life. Satchel Paige said it best,
"Work like you don't need the money," if you do what you enjoy the rest,
finances, routines, relationships, will all take care of themselves. Make
a difference, it does not matter for whom as long as you do not feel compromised.
Be childlike in your wonder: taste, touch, experience everything. Do not
dwell on the past or past mistakes, how history or others will perceive you
utilize the lessons taught and revel in the here and now. Develop a personal
code of ethics a mission and share it with everyone so that they are aware
of your vision. And then walk this path determined by your ethics, your morality,
your knowledge and what may appear as obstinate and arrogance are the
steadfastness of your vision.

I have mantras I run through my head at various times depending upon the
situation, but, to be as clear and concise, pithy if you will, there are
words expressed by Mahatma Gandhi that have become my own mantra: "be the
change you seek in others." And with this I have become the catalyst …

REFERENCES

Berrigan, SJ, D. (1962). The World for Wedding Ring.
New York, NY: The Macmillian Co.

Berrigan, SJ, D. (1971). No Bars to Manhood. New York,
NY: Bantam Books.

Berrigan, SJ, D. (1972). America is Hard to Find: Notes
from the underground and letters from Danbury Prison. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
& Company.

Berrigan, SJ, D. (1987). To Dwell in Peace: an
Autobiography. New York, NY: Harper & Row, Publishers Inc.

Berrigan, D. & Coles, R. (1971). The Geography
of Faith. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

Buffet, J. (1978). Son of a Son of a Sailor. Son of a Son
of a Sailor. [record]. USA: ABC.

Chaleff, I. (1995). The Courageous Follower: Standing Up
To and For Our Leaders. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Covey, S. R. (1991). Principle Centered Leadership. New
York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Davis, M. (1980). It's Hard to be Humble. It's Hard to be
Humble. [record]. USA: Casablanca Records.

Dylan, B. (1965). Ballad of a Thin Man. Highway 61 Revisited.
[record]. USA: Columbia Records.

Gardner, H. with Laskin, E.(1995). Leading Minds: An Anatomy
of Leadership. New York, NY: BasicBooks.

Guthrie, A. (1976). Victor Jara. [Adapted from a poem by
Adrian Mitchell]. Amigo [record]. USA: Koch Records.

Himanen, P. (2001). The Hacker Ethic: and the Spirit of
the Information Age. . New York, NY: Random House

Kristofferson, K. (1972). Jesus was a Capricorn.
[Adapted from John Prine's "Grandpa Was A Carpenter."]. Jesus Was a Capricorn.
[record]. USA: Monument.

Kurosawa, A. (1954). Shichinin no samurai, ("Seven Samurai").
[video]. Japan: Toho.

McLuhan, M., Fiore, Q. (1967). The Medium is the Massage:
An Inventory of Effects. New York: NY: Bantam Books.

Morrell, M. & Capparell, S. (2001). Shackleton's Way:
Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. New York, NY: Penguin
Books.

Simon, P. (1972). Me an Julio Down by the School Yard. Paul
Simon [record]. USA: Columbia Records.

Sturges, J. (1960). The Magnificent Seven. [video]. USA:
MGM/UA Video

Suzuki, D. T. (1956). Zen Buddhism. Garden City, NY: Doubleday
Anchor Book.

Victor Jara. (n.d.) Retrieved September 12th, 2002, from
http://www.msu.edu/~chapmanb/jara/eindex.html

In the real world ...

2002-09-07T06:43:00.000-07:00

I was attending a birthday party for my father in-law, a family dominated
by women. I do not mean this as a bad thing - but invariably the night's
topic ended up with the viewing of a three hour special showing of the "real
life" drama of the Sorority Sisters. I was not engaged in this activity as
I disengage from most activities which require sitting about a television
watching real life events. I found it more engaging to sit out by the fire
and watch my nieces and nephews play. But that is just me. I like to find
my real life viewing in real life.

But Americans are bewildered by "real life" scenarios. We have seen a
proliferation of them in the past few years. I am not taking this moment
to fire off the good or evil of real life watching - but I am intrigued by
this concept of real life as opposed to the life that I live and work in.

Let me be clearer: I work as an educator in the American educational system.
At times I can refine my definition as a special educator at other times
I am redefined as some of my students have labeled me: 'the computer teacher',
'the guitar teacher', 'that guy in Ms. Webb's class' and so forth.

What I am is an educator who came to education because I did not like what
I saw happening in the system. As a child (and curiously despite my education
also as an adult) I love to learn new things. I am a voracious information
junkie often with 7 or 8 books open at the same time. (No not in front of
me but strategically laid out about the house to my wife's consternation.)
I was a "life long learner" as a child and still continue to this day. (I
am that guy that thought we were supposed to read those book lists, all of
the books, by the time we entered a class.) I am one of those rare weird
birds who eats, breathes and sleeps education. I am not better than you,
far from it, in many ways this is a manifestation of some disorder culled
over from my school boy days. (My wife agrees on this as she thinks it is
indeed strange behavior that I have taken up the habit of only using wooden
hangers in my closet. Oh, and the fact that I hang up my shirts in accordance
with the light spectrum.)

This does not mean I do not watch television. By no means am I that altruistic.
Oh yes I watch. Being somewhat an insomniac I end up watching a lot of television
late at night or early in the morning depending on your point of view. I
am enamored with the Discovery Channel, A&E, the History Channel, "Red
Dwarf" and "Monk". We all must have vices to fulfill our desires. I am
disillusioned by those people who must have what they consider the "best"
at all times you know the ones, those people who say they only watch Public
Television - if this is true how come they can dish the dirt about Friends
with the rest of the lot? I probably would watch more primetime television
shows but I also teach at evening college and this really cuts into the prime
time viewing slot.

But enough digression and back to my point: why is it that children lose
their love for learning and end up hating school?

This question has plagued my entire education career. One which ironically
began in the arena of Special Education even though I was not at the time
a licensed special educator. And this is what this treatise is all about.
I came to special education as a 6-12 English teacher and somehow ended up
as a PK-12 special educator reformist. I add the reformist tag for a reason.
I came to education to change something: what it was I was not sure of, but
I knew I did not like what I saw and well, frankly I am tired of people saying:
"Someone should do something." OK, I am someone, so let's get to work.

What I am leading up to is this, whenever I mention what we do, or need to
do, or should try to think of; about; through etc I am told "well, that works
for you in your special situation… but in the real world…" Yes,
this "real world" that I am always being told about. About how ideas as old
as Komensky and Aristotle are "fads" and do not work in "the real world".

My problem as a professional is that I have always worked in places that
could be mis-aligned as not being in the "real world" of education. I have
worked in juvenile detention centers, (really a maximum security prison for
youths), in residential schools, but not according to many wonderful, open,
and caring teachers in the "real world".

And yes they are right. This discourse then kicks off my change into the
"real world" of public education. Because I want to be able to prove that
it can happen here, that the real world is what we live day to day and not
what has been edited for television.

I do this because it makes me feel good?

2002-07-14T03:40:00.000-07:00

The Journey Begins

Ho Ho Ho & All That Jazz

We are all destined for greatness. All of us. It is discovering what our
greatness is that is the difficult journey. I am reminded by a simple phrase
uttered by Fred Astaire in the children's film Santa Claus is Coming to Town
(Rankin & Bass, 1970): "be good to one another" this phrase is the answer
to all of life's problems world-wide and within. This phrase is the answer
to world war and turmoil. This simple phrase: Do you want to bring peace
to the middle east? "Be good to one another." Do you want the racial strife
to cease? "Be good to one another." Do you want terrorism to stop? Mass murderers
to desist? People to be less greedy? "Be good to one another." The difficulty
does not lie within the answer the answer is easy it is getting to the answer
which is difficult.

"Be good to one another." This is the most difficult thing for us humans
to do.

Rogue Linebackers, Greg Foglia, & Chaos in the Classroom

My journey began early, I do not mean to say that I am any more special than
the next person - actually this is what my journey has taught me: we are
all special we are all destined for greatness. I can pin point the moment
things turned for me my "paradigm shift" if you will, (Covey, 1990). I was
an athlete in high school and one sport I excelled in was football. I was
a rogue linebacker who many times pushed the boundaries of fair play. But
this brought our team to success. I was also a right flank guard on the offense
team. And in both positions I was a starter. I was a very determined and
powerful athlete, because of economics; (both my parents had to work), and
my "class stature" in school life; (I was unable to associate with my peers),
I was the kid who after football practice would run the fifteen miles to
get home.

I excelled at what I did, there was no pain nor punishment in my workouts
or athletic play. And I loved "being in the game" (Gurian, 1996). I loved
having the grass and mud stains in my uniform, the divot of earth clinging
to my face mask, I still hold an unofficial record for having to replace
my jersey as in nearly every game my jersey would literally get ripped or
torn off my body. There were times when the coaches would pull me from a
play or two in order to give me a "breather" to rest for a moment and then
get back in the game. I hated these moments, I would become agitated that
they pulled me out, that I was missing one moment of play at all. I was a
football player! Not a bench warmer. I was in my sophomore year, my second
year as a starting varsity linebacker when I was called out for a play, to
"catch my breath". On the bench was a football player Greg Foglia, in our
own insipid and juvenile meanness we called him "Faglia" which must have
been heart rendering to Greg. Greg came from a family of impressionable and
accomplished "jocks" all varsity all excellent, Greg was not. Greg was a
"bench warmer" and Greg was always ready to play, his uniform was crisp and
clean, his helmet was scratch less and he was always patting us on the back
and handing us water bottles telling us what a great job we were doing even
we insulted his name. I think perhaps for awhile at least Greg did not mind
being miscalled because that meant us "important" jocks acknowledged him
(Pollack, 1999), he was included in the huddle on and off the field even
if it was in meanness. This lends credence to a subject very dear to my own
personal investigation: this need for belonging even if it is a painful and
dysfunctional belonging, (Kay, 1997). Years later I would parallel Greg with
Herman Hesse's "Leo" - in many ways unbeknownst to Greg, unbeknownst to myself
Greg was a spiritual master for me an inspiration that focused my life beyond
that moment.

This was my moment. One day I came off the field pissed off that I was being
called out, it was near the end of a game and we were up by two touchdowns,
but that could easily change. And I wanted to be involved in this game it
was a home game and as I came off the field I saw all of these parents, calling
out my name telling me what a good job I did and I realized as I looked at
this sea of faces of friends, families of my teammates that I was being selfish
in wanting to play the entire game when people like Greg lived for the three
minutes he might get on the field in a single season of play. This moment
of epiphany is more profound than it may appear, for it is my epiphany and
epiphanies much like service itself is often in the little things those small
seemingly insignificant moments except for us, (Covey, 1990; Himanen, 2001;
Shore , 1999). For the first time that I can recall I understood life from
another's point of view - I looked at their needs, desires and began to see
that they contained the same thoughts, ideas, dreams as I did - just in their
own way. There were other moments prior to this experience of course, bits
and pieces of the chaos which I could see and understand briefly for the
moment of time I lived within it. But this moment brings the pattern to the
chaos, the final "aha!", (Briggs & Peat, 1999), which made me shift my
view on what and who I was to become.

And I speak of chaos often This seems a particular hard address for many
people. I have been fortunate in my own way to understand the "chaos theory"
of natural order, (Briggs & Peat, 1999; Wheatley, 1992). I am a visual
person and things make more sense to me in visual landscapes. I call these
"movies" these landscapes as I see them in my brain. This is how my brain
functions. Therefore I will cite an example, the best visual example of chaos
theory in effect. There exists a movie, a French film titled: La Cite des
Enfants Perdu, "The City of Lost Children" (Jeunet & Caro, 1995). This
film is based on a French children's fable much like our own "bogie man"
stories. There is a scene near the end of the film which has the heroine
a young girl of about ten who is about to be killed by the evil incarnate
in an adult man who literally and figuratively sucks the life source out
of children with a mosquito like needle. She is standing on a rocky cliff
and there is no hope for survival, there is no "older hero" or "adult" to
save her from the grips of fate. As she realizes what her circumstances are
to be she begins a small cry, a single tear forms and washes down her cheek.
The camera follows this tear as it drops slowly from her cheek and falls
on a leaf of a plant at her feet. On this plant was a bee feeding languidly
on the nectar of the plant. The bee becomes startled and then agitated, flies
off of the plant as the tear forces the leaf to sway. The camera follows
then, the bee. The bee angry, flies off seemingly directionless but gets
caught in a wind draft from a vehicle driving down the highway. The bee gets
sucked in by the draft and blows into the cab of the vehicle through an open
window. There the driver of the vehicle becomes frightened by the bee as
it seems he is afraid of getting stung. While trying to redirect the bee
out of the window he misjudges a turn in the road and careens off of the
highway and hits the evil man thus saving the girl from her death. This visual
is chaos theory: a butterfly in Peru flaps its wings and a hurricane hits
Texas… (Briggs & Peat, 1999). A little girl on the precipice of
adulthood is saved by a collection of seemingly unrelated events: a pattern
within the chaos.

Schrodinger's Kittens: What we choose to see

In hindsight I realize many things, those issues we pack along for our ride.
I realize now that I sought the adoration or acceptance of others and when
pulled from the game I believed I was being punished for not being good enough.
I realized that other parents were coming to see my team when my own would
not, did not or could not. I also realize that I had an instrumental teacher
at that time who introduced me to one of my favorite stories of all time.
A story, ironically, that I teach to my students, my children and any one
else that will listen, ironic because this is the same book which put Robert
Greenleaf onto his path of what he calls "servant leadership" (Shore, 1999;
Thibadeaux, 2002, June). My high school English teacher Diane "Doerf" Doerfler
introduced us to the book Siddartha by Herman Hesse, this was typical high
school literature that we read analyzed and wrote papers on, however I was
rather influenced and intrigued by this book. .Afterwards Doerf provided
me with her dog-eared copy of Hesse's Journey to the East. With hindsight
I realize that this book was a turning point in my life. (So I have Doerf
to blame!) I think now on what impression she had on me: she supplied me
with Siddartha, Journey to the East, and Kerouac's Dharma Bums and On the
Road. Within six months I dropped out of school and was hitchhiking around
the country. My own journey began.

What is service?

"We are who we pretend to be, therefore we must be careful who we pretend
to be. " Kurt Vonnegut.

Service is many things, inherent, extrinsic; fundamental, inferior; purposeful,
meaningless; desirable, sorrowful -- at the very least we assume or apply
our definitions to what we think service is. While going through this seminar
with the lens of service on, I came across an ideal that has always been
a difficult struggle for myself. I soon discovered that this struggle was
inherent in the design of service. This is the value of service or more
importantly so, what value we place on service.

Extrinsic Rewards

Service is an extrinsic concept: it is a thing we do for others, "Be good
to one another." We should do this because of who we are as a human race.
But as a race we do not value service, we seek the intrinsic motivator -
that feeling within, that warm glow we get from helping each other that 'it
makes me feel good inside when I help others.' This has been the moral dilemma
for myself. For service is doing unselfishly, (Hesse, 1956), -- and yet if
we derive pleasure from doing it we are doing it for selfish reasons. I am
reminded by a "bit" by the social satirist Lenny Bruce: "Thank you Mask Man."
(Bruce, 1965). The setting is the American West and the story line concerns
the famous "mask man" the Lone Ranger. Lenny Bruce goes on to explain why
the Lone Ranger never stayed about for a "thank you" after doing his good
deeds.

Mask Man (in the background): Hi Ho, Silver!

Dominic: What's with that putz? The schmuck didn't wait! Mamma made
coffee and cake and everything. What is with that guy? I got my hand out
like some jerk and he's already on his horse already!

Person 2: Yeah, yeah: "The Lone Ranger" -- so what does that make
him?

Dominic: What an @#$%@#!! Is he kidding, that guy? Schmuck! I'm standing
there like this with the Mayor and a plaque and everything. . . . I'm going
to punch the crap out of him if I ever see him again!

Dominic: Look at these kids here, they made cookies and wrote a song
called "Thank You, Mask Man." There's your hero! The man too good to accept
a "Thank You" from little children, little children in the crey-paper costumes.
Right now, buddy, you're going to explain or I'm going to whup the hell outta
you, you hear?

Little boy or girl: Thank you, Mask Man.

Mask Man: What's that?

Little boy or girl: Thank you, Mask Man.

Mask Man: "Thank you, Mask Man"? Who said that?

Little boy or girl: I said it. Thank you, Mask Man.

Voices (in background): Help! Help! Mask man! Mask man!

Mask Man: Just a moment, getting a few thank-yous here.

Voices (in background): Mask man! Mask man! Help! Help!

Mask Man: Don't break my balls, now! I've done you people a whole
lotta good and now I wanna get a few thank-yous in return.

Little boy or girl: Thank you, mask Man.

Mask Man: "Thank you, Mask Man." Is zis vot I've been running away
from all deese years? What a fool I've been to run away from a sound like
dis. It's beautiful! Let me hear it again!

Voices (in background): Help! Mask Man! Mask man! Help!

Mask Man: Not you, you miserable ingrates! I mean you, wit da babyface.

Little boy or girl: Thank you, mask Man.

Mask Man: "Thank you, Mask Man." Isn't that something? I'm going to
get a "Thank you, Mask man" every day! I'll put 'em all down in a book: It'll
say" Thank you, Mask Man." Hey, you see that? You see what it says right
there?

Everybody: Thank you, Mask Man!

Mask Man: -- It's signed "People of Syosset, Long Island." Izzn't
dot something? When I'm old, I can lean back on my book of "Thank You, Mask
Man"s. Yes, it's true I can't ride anymore, but would you like to see a little
something that I did? Look at that.

Woman formerly in distress: Thank you, mask Man.

Mask Man: Then one day, it's almost five o'clock. Where is the "Thank
You Mask Man" Man? Has the "Thank You Mask man" Man been here today? You
do have a "Thank You, Mask man" for me, don't you? I thought it would last
forever. I've led a very flamboyant existence: I've pissed all my "Thank
You's" away. You don't have have any, do you? Just gimme one, so I can make
it to the next town. One "Thank You, Mask man"?

Mask Man: Well, then, I'll make trouble. Because I'm geared for it.
And I must have a "Thank you, Mask Man," at all costs. . . . You see, this
way what I don't have, I don't miss -- that's why I always ride off without
waiting for a thank you.

He portrays the masked man as doing his good deed and then the "thank you
mask man" man arrives to say thank you. After awhile of this good deeds and
thank yous, the single "thank you" is not good enough. And soon the Lone
Ranger is questioning the populace "Where is the thank you mask man man?
Where is my thank you?" And soon Lenny Bruce has the Lone Ranger ruminating:
"Well, then, I'll make trouble. Because I'm geared for it. And I must have
a "Thank you, Mask Man," at all costs."

Yin Yang

My battle lies in are we doing this because it is the right thing to do or
are we waiting for the "thank you mask man" man? We are caught in the balance
then the battle between extrinsic and intrinsic value. (Lyons et al, 2002,
June) The eternal battle of will between good and evil yin or yang. I am
perturbed too often by people who claim that the next generation the younger
generation the "youth of today" need to learn intrinsic value as that they
are always seeking extrinsic rewards. These are the same people who voice
the utterance 'it makes me feel good when I do something for others.' These
people are placing their own reward system onto these children, their own
value system and then condemning these children for doing exactly what they
see their parents and grandparents do, (Himanen, 2001). This modeling is
important - we need to "walk the walk" as it was often said these last two
weeks.

I had previously mentioned a particular paradigm shift. I present another
for stories are how we learn from one another, (Blair, 2002, June; Campbell,
1972) , this one happened when I was quite younger and again was a fluctuation
of the flow, (Brigs & Peat, 1999). I must have been five years of age
because this story concerns my mother and she was dead by the time I was
seven. My sixth year encompassed in her slowly passing away. My mother was
a vibrant woman, liberal in her ideals and philosophy. I remember this one
occasion as I cam bolting through the front porch door. My mother was in
the living room doing the ironing in front of the black and white Philco.
The television set sat on that 1960's semblance of innovatedness and elegance
of living room furniture that was comprised of simple brass tubes and wires.
Mom was ironing in front of the TV as was the method of women in her day,
and on the television was one of the serial westerns that were inundating
the broadcast airwaves in the 1960's. I glanced at the television with my
white American media "Ovaltine" eyes and watched as an "Indian" was shot
down by a cowboy. Being the swaggering all American cowboy that I was I cheered
the shooting. But even before I could relish in my mind what it must have
felt like to be the daring cowpoke slinging a six-shooter from the holster,
before I could even digest the imaginary gunpowder shot mixed with the dry
breeze of the prairie west, before I could even squint down the site on my
right hand thumb and forefinger and squeeze off that wondrous shot…
my mother stopped my cold, dead, admonishing. Her eyes welled with tears
in the anger, fear, hatred, remorse that swelled into her as she saw her
son her baby perversed in the world of media fed racism. She looked hard
at my and my gun hand felt limp her words penetrated deeply "The Indian was
the good guy, the cowboy killed them and took their land, the Indians were
the good guys…" 'The Indians were the good guys?' I looked up at my
mother, "but…" 'The Indians? Were the good guys?' 'But the cowboy wore
a white hat. And we all know that the cowboy in white was the good guy, bad
guys wore black. How could the white hat cowboy be the bad guy? And we all
know the Indians are bad so bad in fact that we called them 'injuns' - they
weren't even real people…'

At that moment I realized I had done something wrong, something monumental,
and for the first time in my short life my brain started to trigger differently
- things are not always the way they seem. This lesson in many ways haunted
me throughout my life. I say haunted, because while thinking differently,
outside of the box, shifting one's paradigms and all is good it is also very
painful. Thinking against the norm, the media fed populace, the status quo
often leaves one cold embittered and alone, (Campbell, 1972, Covey, 1990;
Faludi, 1999; Havel, 1986; Ramirez, 2002, June; Singleton, 2002, June; Steiner,
1999; Westfall, 2002, June; Williams, 2002, June).

Spirituality

It is here that we need to find solace, a belief, an -ogy that makes sense
to us. I was buoyed by a sign on a local church which read "One God but many
paths to Him." This is in one sense difficult for me to express as I do not
have a theo-ogy that I believe in. What I do like about this statement however
is it does express to an openness of other beliefs or ideals. This -ogy then
is a spirituality which is not necessarily grounded in religion but rather
in thought, (Merton, 1968). I will It is with the lessons of living through
this existence of thought that has directed me through my life "plan". We
need direction in order to incorporate and define our own creed and value
system, (Ramirez, 2002, June). Yes, we borrow from our family and friends
and as Mohammed Rafik questioned "often the doctrine of where we were born"
develops our sense of value. I am an avid reader and my "fun" or pleasure
reading often falls into the world of science, most recently quantum physics
and electromagnetism. I have borrowed from the natural sciences often in
my development and philosophical pedagogy. I believe that my success as a
teacher of children with special educational needs stems from my analogizing
chaos theory as it pertains to emotional disturbances. The best way to explain
this is through a story about watching waves. Standing on the beach we can
assume a belief that we see a pattern a rhythm that is repetitive and defined
in the way the waters break over the shore. But we kid ourselves as we see
the change in the pattern of 3 to 5 to 4 to 2 as small waves and then larger
waves break and then suddenly the large one crashes through the beach burying
distant castles and sending us running to higher ground. In the microcosm
we as humans can see the change is daunting and miscalculating. But if were
by fate able to sit above the earth and observe the waves over time we would
see the patterns come to life and yes they may be in a rhythm 3 to 5 to 4
to 2 but these may be in millions of one, billions of others, and tens of
some. The pattern exist but we do not necessarily know how or where to look
for it.

Our Stories

We learn from each other through our stories our histories , (Blair, 2002,
June): too often we forget that history is just that a collection of stories
pertaining to an event or people or time. And sometimes we gather up those
books of stories and place them into larger volumes: bibliographic libraries
- bibles. And way too often we do not read the stories and learn from them
rather we snatch moments and withhold others. Our stories are what have created
us our values our ethos our pathos, they lead us to experience our "plan"
of life. We find direction in our stories, accomplishments and our stories
often stand out because they stood out against the status quo when we experienced
them. Our stories belong to a collective library of shared perspectives and
events (Campbell, 1972), they tell of our journey our "plans" they do not
speak to our "done" because we have not finished them. They are dynamic entities
about themselves ever changing ever growing ever evolving. Our stories are
our service to others it is the passion which binds us to one another often
in uncontrollable end miscalculated moments. We need only to walk barefoot
through the grass to realize that there is not a natural order to things
- especially if we lay among the reeds and explore the worlds hidden below
our feet. Service is thanking the grass for being there, and thanking the
earth for the lessons unfolded, (Heinlein, 1968). Our stories do so, they
reach out and state the obvious when no one wants to state the obvious, they
often rely on humor, (Jonas, 2002, June) to relieve some of the pain that
the stories have wrought.

Our stories our histories and our legacies become the service we bring. Whether
we are in constant battle with the intrinsic/extrinsic value of service is
for our own faith to decide. But service is not about winning, it is about
pain, and perseverance. Service is about passion and desire about setting
a compass and discovering the paths that lead you to your own greatness.
In his book "Illusions: the adventures of a reluctant messiah" Richard Bach
queries on how do we know when our work is done? "Here is the test to find
whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't."

"Be good to one another."

Teacher Shortage?

2002-05-30T04:38:00.000-07:00

We hear this buzz continuously that there exists this big teacher shortage.
I am reminded of an article in the Onion whose headline ran "Boomer Die Off
Happening Soon". This is satire of course but the belief is that with the
largest economic force enmass to move through American society ever is now
heading towards retirment.

This is theory it makes sense and some of it can be proven. But statstics
can be manipulated, case in point: 85 % of Americans cannot read nor write.
As a matter of fact a large portion of these in individuals do not even know
where they live. Therefore we need to fund reading literacy programs and
utilize those actions that actually teach our students. Ah, but here is the
rub as they say, those 85% are comprised mainly of children under the age
of 5. See? I manipulate your understanding here is an even simpler statement:
60% of our students are female and can read at the 5th grade level. Therefore
our reading program works.

Or…

30% of our students who are male cannot even read at the 5th grade level.
Therefore our reading program is not working. Now let me say this: I have
3 students 2 girls 1 boy and they are all in the 4th grade. Now what does
the data mean? See same information spun two different ways.

Now here is a good spin:

There exists in the nation a teacher shortage. Ah, yes this is what we are
told. There are many teachers who will be retiring in the next few years
and there are no teachers to replace them. Quantitatively this makes as much
sense as little green men from Mars - and I assist in the home SETI project!
The spin is this: if we claim that there is a teacher shortage then we can
hire none-certified teachers at a lower wage than maintaining the current
certified teachers at a higher (livable) wage.

Yes simple argument perhaps, but let us look at recent events currently MPS
is claiming some 3,000 teacher shortage for this year - but we are not told
is that many of t these "vacancies" are internal and will be filled through
cross transfer. Same amount of people just moving about. I went to a teacher
hiring fair put on by our local CESA organization. The fair was for 150 teaching
positions. There were over 500 applicants. Most of these applicants were
"older" more experienced teachers and more than once these teachers were
told point blank "We are only hiring recent graduates, w cannot afford to
hire you."

The teacher shortage takes on a different meaning under this guise - it is
not that we have a lack of good teachers it is that we lack cheap teachers.

Welcome to the Machine

2002-03-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Our school is currently in a flux state of
" TARGET="_blank">self-protectiveness". This is to say that all of our
core teachers, those teachers who have been with our school for ten or more
years, are looking to change their careers with St. Aemilian-Lakeside, Inc.
The interesting and most perturbing issue concerning this change is that
these teachers have metamorphosed into an autonomous stage of education.
This suggests that this model of
"Adult
Development" is indeed non-linear and is in practicality more web-based.

St. Aemilian-Lakeside, Inc
has as an entity moved into a corner where finger pointing and blame are
the common occurrences. Things do not work well, or as assumed or planned
because of the fault of others. We often have clashes between departments
as to who is responsible or who is in control. It is an ironic state of affairs
since our school is one with the behavior and emotional development of children
in mind. Our collective pedagogy is to establish comforting and rewarding
relationships with our students in an intellectually rich and social environment.
And yet, our school itself is divided by cliques and relationships and
departments all vying for the control of this act or that emphasis. As with
our students who we try to teach to not be manipulative or exploitive we
tend to manipulate and exploit our causes inside our own educational department.
We delve into the teacher-center, or school centric as this case may be,
and focus our attentions on what we as an agent of the school can get out
of the course of the day's work. To cynically paraphrase
John F.
Kennedy, 'ask now what you can do for your school but ask what your school
can do for you.' This paraphrase is not all that far fetched nor is it "wrong"
when it is applied through the student and their needs as a student, through
the direction that the student's school is going. This then would be a
student-centric school. This type of philosophy breaches when an entity or
autonomous relationships exist.

It is unfortunate for individuals involved when autonomous individuals fall
victim to the self-protective of the whole. Here
Steinbeck is both
correct and wrong in his assumption that
"the
whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts". For, what we
see when a "school", as a singular entity - or the "whole", enters into
self-protective then the sum of its parts - those autonomous individuals
became folded, scattered, manipulated and otherwise disillusioned and the
sum of their greatness is lost in the accumulation of the "whole".

For example we have "Jeanie" a core teacher with twelve years accrued at
our school. Jeanie is an art therapist and has maintained her role as a
collaborative teacher. Her influence on the students is one beyond compare
or description. Jeanie has always been enthusiastic about who she is and
what she does. Jeanie is open to learning, open to growth and the opinions
of others no matter how far fetched from her own knowledge as they may be.
Jeanie accepts change, understands the underlying course of change and indeed
has been an agent of change herself. In the last year Jeanie has moved from
a caring autonomous individual to one who is frustrated beyond complaining.
She has "given up" as it were and is seeking other employment, even employment
outside of her teaching career. Her frustration level has brimmed and her
understanding of the "whole" exists in a microcosm of self-protective.

"Steve" has been in a "stable and stagnant" stage for a long time. His ten
plus years at our school has kept him in a "place" of comfort. Steve has
also been in a "conscientious stage" of development. He is unconcerned on
how people view him or his tactics but often is unwarrantedly critical of
his self. Steve allows for perspectives of others to be incorporated into
his teaching and lessons as well as being involved in team and collaborative
environments. However, Steve has not had to deal with change or refused to
budge from his way of thinking. Steve now is in a search for other schools
which he believes will provide him with the ability to be conscientious as
well as autonomous.

"Dan" is stuck within a conformist stage of adult development. Dan seeks
to "fit in" and not make waves, his hopes lie on the belief that if he does
well and is well liked he will be recognized for the wonderful genius that
he is. Unfortunately, since the entity of school is stuck in a self-protective
mode Dan does not get the recognition he seeks. And therefore Dan, after
fifteen years of service to our school is looking for that sense of
accomplishment, the rewards for a good job done elsewhere.

This brings us to "Cindy" a recently hired teacher who brings with her fifteen
years of experience in teaching to our children. Cindy is in a self-protective
mode also, she works well within our school because her goals and sense of
accomplishments are mirrored on the same presence as the entity of our school.
Cindy is also locked into the conformist stage she is eager to be socially
accepted but then grounds her classroom into a set of rules both comforting
and rigid to her sense of justice. She views any acknowledgment towards her
methodology as being "against" her sense of self. With Cindy everything is
either her way or against her way. She reminds me of the
Ken Kesey
statement "you
are either on the bus or you are off the bus." While this statement can
be incorporated into many different and "positive" accolades with Cindy it
is not. Cindy also seems to be struggling with career frustration. She has
recently been "forced" to go back to school to become certified in an area
she feels that she has expertise in. Cindy tends to complain loudly that
she is under appreciated, she also challenges authority without ever opposing
authority. Cindy falls into that stratosphere of knowing a little about a
lot of things. It is unfortunate that in her state to be accepted or fit
in she often over extends her knowledge or what she wants others to appear
as her knowledge. By overextending her knowledge she appears unknowledgeable
and then becomes the center point of others' discussions which feeds against
her need to fit in. Thus, Cindy focuses on her room, and while trying to
fit in, does not extend that desire outside of her classroom. And when she
does venture out she criticizes others as she feels they are criticizing
her.

This is the general flux from within I our school is working. It is a machine
left to neglect and disrepair. Those individuals mentioned have a large presence
within our school and offer an immense wealth of background knowledge. But
because of the school fluctuating within its self-protective mode these
corresponding parts are withering, drying up, or falling away. Without them
the machine breaks down and becomes another obsolete argument for why our
education system does not work in the first place.

Listening to the Warm

2001-09-07T04:33:00.000-07:00

And so we begin another year. This year we are alight with hope for the days
that will come. As "mushy" as it sounds this year amongst the staff there
actually seems to be a glow as if we are pregnant with ideas. There is a
warmth a sharing of ideas and pedagogy. But most important people are
communicating with each other. Of course there still exists the administrative
witch hunt but this is part of the trade.

Rod McKuen (despite
a lot of evidence to the contrary) was a good poet and one of his poems which
touched me the deepest was
"Listen
to the Warm." How it touched me was in that revered silence that was
sung, danced, argued and fought about -- that personal nirvana we reach through
meditation. Keep in mind everyone's form of meditation is different. Some
of us are lotus eaters while others of us dance around the fire naked; some
find it in the rush of adrenaline and others in the push towards perfection.
It is all mediation and as
Edgar Cayce said
"…meditation is man listening to god."

The "warm" in this case is the communal understanding of our community within
the school walls. The acceptance we have in our roles as teachers, therapists,
friends: family. Our school does have a glow from this warm, a noticeable
reflection of who and what we are.

But sometimes this warm is achieved in ways that are not so noticeable. And
part of the listening that takes place is extremely difficult and hard to
understand when it comes to our children. An experience I had early this
school year was with a returning student. A student whom I believe I "know"
pretty well (which translates into the concept that Johnny "trusts"
me) was acting out in the lunch room, typical acting seeking attention in
negative ways. Unfortunately, these negative ways often and do erupt into
major acting out. In this case twelve year old Johnny erupted into
cursing, flailing his arms and trying to toss over the tables. It is not
often we have to physically restrain a child but there are times when these
things become necessary. This day it was necessary.

Using a Crisis
Prevention Institute, Inc. certified "standing basket hold" I held
Johnny, his arms across his chest as he screamed his obscenities and
demands for me to let him go and in his frustration he wept. These were wracking
sobs deep weeping that was more than the external dilemma that Johnny
was dealing with at the moment. His sobs came from somewhere deep inside
his "listening" and the "warm" was so entrenched and devastating -- there
are places within our children that no matter how deep and twisted we go
we most likely will have never experienced the hurt, shame or pain of our
children.

It was there in a "restraint" that I understood what Johnny wanted,
Johnny was not out of control, Johnny wanted someone to hold
him, someone he could bury his tears into, someone who would make him feel
safe. But in a Special Education school, a residential environment, a place
where your peers watch every move you make and then hold it against you,
a place where machismo is more important than emotion, a place where
respect really equates to fear. Johnny could not be seen
crying in someone's arms. We stood against the wall my forehead pressed into
the wall above his, Johnny's arms still crossed over his chest but
instead of gripping his wrists I let my arms hang around him. Yes, outwardly
Johnny was being restrained by Mr. K. But inwardly, this bond we had,
this understanding, Johnny knew, he knew I knew, and he understood
that this was the time to cry And yes, Johnny wept, and he brought
up all that warm that swirled inside him and he let it bubble out of him
one tear at a time.

Pioritize This!

2001-06-10T23:32:00.000-07:00

It has been nearly an entire school year and still here we are. I noticed
a gap in my "weekly" rants, not that I did not have anything to rant about
it just seems that lately there is too much to rant about. And how do you
single out one particular item. We are a Special Education school within
the metropolitan Milwaukee school district. And once again good intentions
fall along the wayside like so many baby diapers and beer cans. Our school
administrator counseled with me on the fact that she believes we need to
"lower the bar" where hiring teachers is concerned. The problem is that we
cannot get Special Ed teachers to work at our school because of the low pay.
Call it what you will but the simple truth is that in order to hire a teacher
and retain them for the year is by paying them. And are Special Ed teachers
better than other teachers? You bet! Only because they have had some exposure
to recent advances in education. (Also because of their schooling they are
now much deeper in debt.)

So what? Right. So What. Special Ed teachers need to earn a wee bit more
because of their educational debts (just think if all education was in fact
free we would not have this problem.) All this means is that when we offer
$23,000 annually to a Special Ed certified teacher they nine out of nine
times decline our offer. Since we are shorthanded we have to find someone,
so we move to regular teachers, who nine out of ten times decline, and so
on and so forth until a warm (or semi warm) body can be found.

OK sure rethink the budget and pay our teachers more. Simple plan, yes?

Too. Simple.

We have decided to "lower the bar" (exact words) and we hire anyone regardless
of their lack of education and they work under the licenses of those of us
who do have them. Pretty smart eh? Yes, budget-wise.

I mentioned in one of those admin meetings I'm not really welcome to that
perhaps we could look into the local teacher colleges and get student teachers
in Special Ed to come to work for us through apprenticeships, "OJT" experience,
etc. (Fortunately and even moreso surprisingly we are actually pursuing this
avenue!)

But enough of this and onto the Milwaukee Bucks who just lost their chance
for the Eastern conference championship. While it was fun to watch and complain
about the NBA conspiracy what was truelly devastating was that one of our
star players, Ray Allen, at 24 has a multi-million annual salary. He drives
a personalized Bentley, and is not want for anything much less cash. We pay
for Mr. Allen's "lifestyle" through our taxes, revenues from games, etc …

Of course at our schools we hold craft and bake sales, volunteer time, to
get some of the things we need, much less want. And with the monies leftover
from taxes and revenues (which are being cut back more an more each year)
we cannot find enough to pay the salary of our teachers, much less a point
guard jumper.

For Unifying Conceit in Knowledge: Obvious and Formative Fundamentals

2001-03-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Our director of education has made the statement that "teachers" are not
professionals because they do not have an oath to which they swear by, nor
do they have a "patron philosopher" to adulate , nor some cool slogan in
Latin that explains who are what we do. Teachers are unlike doctors who have
taken an oath to "do no harm". Or lawyers who have take an oath "to uphold
the law". (Yeah, like that happens on a regular basis!) But the conflict
here is that teachers do not have an oath connecting their profession to
some obscure presence of mythology. (Of course when pressed I explained that
"Nurse" take an "oath" and therefore must be "professionals" but somehow
they do not fit into the professional schema of my director's dissertation.)

Needless to say, teachers are hard spent to prove that they are worthy
professionals. But then let us look upon their manner: most teachers I know
do not dress professionally, no as a matter of fact since the "freedom" wrought
on us by the Boomer generation the desire for professionalism is almost looked
upon as a "disease" a sickness of the corporate hierarchy. It has become
standard dress to wear jeans and slacks and sports shirts to work. Now I
enjoy a good "sports" shirt or "camp" shirt and wear them often, ok, all
the time when I am not working. But with my students I want to give them
a sense of direction a sense of self-esteem by modeling that "Yes Billy,
anybody can grow up to be successful" because that IS the American Dream
after all: success.

How we define that success is a whole different can of worms. By dressing
down so that we may look more "casual" comfortable "hip" or "in" (read: younger
) we have also brought down the respect of a world who no longer looks upon
us as "authorities in our fields". Ah yes the a-word. But why is "authority"
when used in this context wrong? Authority does not mean I get to push you
around. That is what "respect" now means. Authority simply states that one
is knowledgeable on a subject, enough so that others may come to them for
instruction, guidance, or acceptance.

And is that not the role of teachers? We are the guiding force, the instructors,
the people who accept you without judgement

I believe that anyone can become a teacher but not everyone can teach. And
when I hear statements like: 'the best teachers aren't teachers', 'teachers
are over-educated and over-rated' it gets my whirly gig spinning. Because
on many levels I agree with these statements and I state that not all teachers
are good teachers, hell half the teachers aren't even teachers. But we did
this to ourselves and now that we are in the camp and lumped together with
the pities and the fighters a change has to take place. Not everyone can
teach but not all good teachers need be teachers - it would be nice however
if we could get the two together.

The teacher profession has fallen to laziness, sloth, greed, and shoddiness.
We walk about wondering why we aren't respected nor treated well like other
"professions" and then there are some that would say that we are not even
a profession!

But we do have a "patron philosopher of mythical proportions" (he's Greek
too!) that exemplifies all that is great and decent about our profession
and that is Aristotle: the greatest teacher of them all. (I know some would
say it was Jesus but Jesus had simple lessons like: 'love one another' and
we his students have been failing that test miserably for thousands of years).
Aristotle in simple words: "teaching is the highest form of understanding."

And there we have it: a Greek philosopher, an "oath" and as for those cool
words to live by?

I propose these: For Unifying Conceit in
Knowledge: Obvious and Formative Fundamentals

MisHistory

2001-03-20T05:32:00.000-08:00

I want to teach mishistory. In the current issue of
Rethinking
Schools there is an article about the
Mercator projection map and the
Peters'
projection map and how the western Eurocentric viewpoint has skewed students
for generations. (And for those lucky few who were paying attention: this
same argument was presented on an episode of "The West Wing" albeit with
not a very favorable view, still it was broadcast on national TV - maybe
our kids will learn something!) This skewing is based on how we see the world,.
our perceptions, perspectives our "hidden curriculum". This article does
a great job exposing the hidden curriculum between the differences of the
Mercator projection (starting somewhere about Germany as the center most
point East to West as well as North and South.) The Peters' projection focuses
more on the equator but still leaves the "projection" misshapen.

But, alas, what is good about this article is that it talks about the hidden
curriculum, that information we present without realizing that we are presenting
it. The misguided "modeling" of fallacy. And nothing gets me riled and ranting
like the teaching of fallacy as truth, fundamental doctrine as the "standard".

I have a "squeeze" ball, you know one of those things you are supposed to
squeeze when you are angry. Mine happens to be a model of the earth. I like
this because it is soft and flexible and does not hurt when I toss it at
my students. I do this to get them to rethink their perspectives. I toss
them the "earth" and then ask them quite loudly and publicly: "Which is the
top of the ball?" Invariably they will spin the earth until the North Pole
or Arctic Ocean is on top and say "This is." I then toss them a plain red
squeeze ball and again ask them which part is the top of the ball. Here they
look at me and grin like I'm trying to pull something over on them and they
say "Mr. K this is a ball it doesn't have a top."

I then ask them to compare the two balls they have n their hands and have
them explain to me why one has a top and the other does not. This usually
leads into mass confusion where my students grab up their pitchforks and
shovels and try to route me out of the village.

I bring this up because of Western advancement and the Eurocentric view the
Arctic Ocean (according to the standardized Mercator projection map) is at
the top of the world. And therefore the Antarctic (which quite literally
means NOT the Arctic) Ocean is at the bottom of the world.

Why is this important? Please think for a moment: in America everything UP
is good. When we are happy we are "up" when we are sad, depressed, we are
"down". For those Christians notice they "climb up" to Heaven and fall "down"
to hell. Western civilization has associated UP with everything good and
positive and DOWN with everything bad and negative.

Try this simple experiment: ask your students to describe what they think
a typical city in North America is like. Then ask them what they think a
typical city is like in Central America, South America. If my assumptions
are correct most of the answers for the non-USA countries will be something
akin to grass huts or adobe shelters or something similar where everybody
either rides a donkey or an old school bus. But (again I am looking at a
generalization of students) they will not talk about skyscrapers, factories,
suburban homes and late model Acuras, Fords, or Volkswagens.

Why is this? Well many reasons but one is the misconception, the myth we
propagate every time we point at a map on the wall. We (good ol' USA) are
better because we are UP. We are ABOVE, all of the other countries, and therefore
we are civilized and important.

I have this map on my wall (it was designed by Lovell Johns, LTD of
Oxford, England).
TARGET="_blank">

On mine I have written the words "The World as Mr. K Sees It" because I am
trying to make a point. However, the map itself should tell you a lot. What
is even more educational is that MapQuest sells another in the exact same
colors and design but in the more traditional viewpoint.

The point? The point is awareness, awareness of everything in its own
perspective. I do not think that a child in Chile needs to believe that they
live at the bottom of the world, or (while it IS embraced as a badge of honor)
do we need to refer to people who live down under something? Just our simple
act of explaining the Gulf War Crisis or how when we point to where the soldiers
that were accidentally killed this week in Kuwait by friendly fire is a modeling
of how superior we are because "hey, we drew the map!"

I am reminded of that adage: 'history is written by the winners' - since
this is a fundamental truth I want to teach mishistory.

Ch Ch Ch ch changes -- remain the same

2001-03-09T05:26:00.000-08:00

Change. Change is good, change is a welcome addition to a stagnant pool of
resources. "Life" as Dennis Miller put it "is like riding the bus, it requires
change." But "change" is a misnomer; a fallacy when we discuss the education
process and needs of our children. I was discussing this during one of our
'in-house' 'in-services'. Our goal was to put into simple and understanding
words the philosophy of our school. The words that careened about the room
all dealt with "changing" the behaviors of our children. "Our goal is to
modify the positive/negative behaviors…" and etc. This disheartens me:
being in a room of professional Special Education teachers who are practicing
"experts" in the field and the believe that we are "changing" behaviors in
these students.

Let me backtrack a bit: I teach in a school designed to educate youths with
Emotional/Behavior and other Learning Disabilities. All of us here are educated
and trained to do so. And here then lies the problem: we cannot "change"
the behaviors of these children and to believe we can is doing them a disservice.
But if a "school filled with Special Educators" believes in this myth - then
what does that say about the rest of us teachers?

More history: a hundred years ago or so a researcher played with the concept
of trying to discover what behavior was. This guy we remember as Pavlov noticed
that when he rang a bell at feeding time that his dogs would salivate whether
there was food or not. This was a conditioned response mechanism for behavior
modification. This and a few decades of research later developed into a theory
that we could modify the behavior sequencing of an organism by training it
"salivate" during a conditioned response. We discovered this technique by
researching on animals, mainly rats. We discovered that these animals could
be conditioned to respond in certain manners to a point of incredible
significance. It almost appeared that man modified the behaviors of these
animals.

The theories abound and evolve on this pretext. But here is a misconception
that has followed along. We "treat" animals and then claim that we can transfer
these modification techniques to people and treat them as well.

"BUT" I say. It is a well known and often proved fact that animals when
"treated" may "act" in accordance with their "natural" instinctive behaviors
and "go against" their treatment.

"BUT" You say "People are not animals we have a higher consciousness
…blah blah blah" and therefore they will not go against their treatment.
Because people are inherently superior than animals…

This is "Western" thought: the concept that people have "consciousness" superior
to all other of earth's creatures. This simple "fundamentalism" has wrought
more evil and misapplication of thought than any other singular entity. For
if we believe as many other cultures do that humans are an integral part
of a greater "force" or consciousness we can then understand that we "may"
salivate when you ring the bell but then again we may not. Keeping this in
mind, that we are not of superior consciousness, we can then understand more
readily that our students with emotional or behavioral learning disabilities
cannot be "changed" nor "modified". More likely than not, they cannot adapt
either.

What WE need to do is teach them to be aware of themselves and how their
behaviors fit in the social fabric of their chosen society. We need to teach
them the strategies to deal with their own difficulties in order for them
to function in society. Did we change them? Is this modifying their behavior?
Will they turn and bite the hand that fed their minds?

I was told I was "arguing" semantics. But this is not semantics: semantics
is the difference between adapt-change-modify. As Behavior Specialists dealing
with Behavior Management (notice it does not say Behavior Changers in the
professional literature) we must remember that it is the management of behavior
that we are teaching and not an end all cure or change of bad habits. Because
yes, habits we can change, but behaviors we cannot.

It is with "knowing" our own limitations that we begin to know ourselves.

"The Rights of Parents in the Digital Age"

2001-02-20T09:21:00.000-08:00

This time of year always finds me extremely busy -- both professionally and
personally: mainly professionally. Personally, I need to figure out how to
budget my time better: and yes I am full aware of the
"Covey
Principles" of
time management.
My problem exists because I am having too much fun experiencing the amusement
rollercoaster ride we call "life". Hence, I am using this space to invite
(unbeknownst to them) "guest" ranters to rant my view point. Yes, I could
take the time to regurgitate their sentiments but "Why?" I ask you when they
have dones it so much better to begin with...

Click
here for Lawrence J. Magid's "rant" on Parental control vis a vis
Censorship.

"Children's Bill of Rights"

2001-02-09T02:24:00.000-08:00

A Brand New Day

2001-01-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

It's a brand new day… yes and I do believe I see a pig flying. The hiatus
is over: the mess of the electoral process along with the commercialization
of the Holiday season leaves one ranting in fevered rage. Hence I thought
it wiser to leave off until it was over and we began a new year, with a new
administration - you know the one thing we can all agree on is that the Bush
presidency has paved the way for any American to grow up to be president.
Even those of us who dabbled in the excesses of life: like sex drugs and
rock & roll. The times they is a changing (hey Dylan even won a Golden
Globe and we even could understand him!), as Dennis Miller said "Life is
like riding the bus - it requires change."

For us in Wisconsin our gain is the nation's loss: as Tommy Thompson resigns
as governor to join the Bush administration. Finally, 12 years of Tommy's
idiocy is over. This brings us Lt. Governor McCallum: a better choice? Well
considering the previous anything is an improvement. But I do not mean to
be so harsh on Tommy, it is just that Tommy turned an educational system
into a profit machine through his expansion of prison facilities for youths.
Basically the schools that used to educate youthful offenders in the ways
and means of society are now holding tanks that train these youth on how
to be model and effective inmates for life. (Even before Tommy is gone McCallum
is promising an increase in the educational budget. [I am skeptical therefore
we shall wait and see what McCallum can do]).

I had read in the paper that there are some schools out west that are having
"anti-bake" sales to protest the funding or rather lack of … of their
school districts. Their idea is that it is ridiculous to have to have a "bake
sale" in order to raise funds for the education of our children. It reminds
me of that T-shirt that went around in the late 70's: 'it'll be a great day
when the pentagon has to hold a bake sale to fund its new warplane and schools
will have all the money they need' Ah but I am being idealistic as is wont
to happen as the days get longer the nights shorter and the wind shifts and
blows from off the lake.

Tommy's gone, Andrea is back from Nashville and the "Bluebirds" are playing
the Nashota Clubhouse every Friday night, and did I say that Tommy was gone?
Looks like it's going to be a great day.

Happy Xmas

2000-12-25T03:14:00.000-08:00

Please click on the link to go to our Xmas Web Card http://mrkay.org/thekays/xmas/

The Myth of LD

2000-12-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

(originally presented at the 1998 annual Special
Education Conference in Oshkosh, WI)

I. Introduction

II. Paradigms vis a vis Perspective

III.The Animal School

IV.Hypertext: Or What has this got to do
with the internet?

V.Technological Perspectives

VI.The World Wide Web in Education

VII.The Role of the Web in Curricular Reform

VIII.What Next for the Web and Education?

IX.Final Thoughts

When
I was an impressionable youth (as opposed to an impressionable adult) I had
this dream of playing the saxophone. I don't meant playing in the sense of
the established notes of the school concert band. No… I mean playing
the saxophone -- emoting a sound from the keys that enveloped like a muse
- making that horn wail and jump and sing and moan… I wanted to join
the school band so that I would be able to learn how to master this ideal.
But I was not allowed to join, I did not have any music theory background,
nor did I know the first thing about playing notes, much less combined notes
with fellow musicians.

Hence I was destined to be average after all …

But getting back to that impressionable part, one day I heard this song it
was a good song, especially for an impressionable youth. It is a song by
the group Steely Dan, the song is "Deacon Blues". In this song the singer
proclaims:

I'm gonna learn to work the saxophone I, I'm going to play just what I feel

And it dawned on me at that early age that I could play the saxophone, not
because I wanted to be a musician but because I wanted to play. Because I
wanted to feel the music. It didn't matter if I was good as long as I enjoyed
what I was doing.

And most importantly I could stop myself from doing things simply because
I was not good at them.

Paradigms
vis a vis Perspective

At an early age I encountered what we popularly call the "paradigm shift"
(I always just called it 'looking at something from another person's view'
- but technological advances make us restate the obvious … don't you
think?) . This is the concept of trying to see more than one point of view.
I use this example when I discuss what it means to have a learning disability:
I ask my students to visualize a world where everything is backwards to their
own strengths. (Simply stated: if you are right handed now the world is left.
And if you are left handed now the world is …wait a minute the world
is right handed!) I ask them how they would feel about having to use a different
hand or leg for basic needs like opening a door, pulling up a zipper, trying
to cut with a scissors, writing in a notebook, answering the phone, using
a mouse etc etc etc. Another personal aside: I also wanted to play the guitar
and taught myself how by actually learning notes and chords. But I had the
misfortune of being left handed and I switched the strings around so that
I could play left handed. I say misfortune because now I have to carry my
guitar with me in order to play, I cannot simply go over to a friend's and
pick up theirs. Thereby I limited myself.

The idea I am trying to make is that we are not "physically disabled" simply
because we favor one hand over another. Instead us "lefties" have to discover
a method or strategy to adapt to our surroundings. For instance we could
carry about left handed scissors, and notebooks, and switch our mice to be
left handed … or we could learn to use our right hands to do these functions
and not worry about carrying this excess baggage.

I also use this short story to further illustrate my point:

The Animal School By R.H.
Reeves

Once upon a time, the animals decided they must do something heroic to
meet the problems of a "New World", so they organized a school. They adopted
an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming, and flying.
To make it easier to administer, all animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming, better in fact than his instructor,
and made excellent grades in flying, but he was very poor in running. Since
he was low in running he had to stay after school and also drop swimming
to practice running. This was kept up until his web feet were badly worn
and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school,
so nobody worried about that except the duck

The rabbit started at the top of the class in running, but had a nervous
breakdown because of so much makeup in swimming

The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustrations
in the flying class where his teacher made him start form the ground up instead
of from the tree-top down. He also developed charley-horses from over-exertion
and he got a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and had to be disciplined severely. In climbing
class he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using
his own way of getting there.

At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceedingly well
and also could run, climb, and fly a little had the highest average and was
valedictorian.

The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because
the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum.
They apprenticed their children to the badger and later joined the groundhogs
and gophers to start a successful private school.

Hypertext:
Or What has this got to do with the internet?

The key to the Web's success lies in its ability to present information in
a non-linear format. Though a user may begin with a given starting point
(often known as a home page), where to go from there is up to the whim of
that user. Order becomes irrelevant, at least in the tradition sense of reading
a book from one end to another. Because the Web allows you to click and choose
your next subject, you can skip over entire sections of information while
nesting through others in great depth. This ability to "surf the 'Net," exploring
the Internet with no defined end point or order, is known as hypernavigation,
and the form in which it appears on the Web is commonly referred to as hypertext.
Hypertext was first conceived of nearly 50 years ago when futurist and FDR
technology policy advisor Vannevar Bush published his article, "As We May
Think" in the July 1945 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. In the piece, he discussed
how society and technology must cope with the ever-increasing scientific
advances in post-War America. Among other things, he predicted the invention
of a curious device known as a Memex (or Memory Extender), a data storage
device "in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications,
and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed
and flexibility." Electronic "links" would allow the Memex user to connect
different points of information together, so he or she could go from one
page of a book to another, or from one page to an entirely different publication
or subject. There would be no convention of linking subjects together - the
user of the Memex could link together anything at will. According to Bush:

The process of tying two items together is the important thing… When
the user is building a trail, he names it, inserts the name in his code book,
and taps it out on his keyboard. Before him are the two items to be joined,
projected onto adjacent viewing positions…Thereafter, at any time, when
one of these items is in view, the other can be instantly recalled merely
by tapping a button below the corresponding code space. Moreover, when numerous
items have been thus joined together to form a trail, they can be reviewed
in turn, rapidly or slowly, by deflecting a lever like that used for turning
the pages of a book. It is exactly as though the physical items had been
gathered together to form a new book. It is more than this, for any item
can be joined into numerous trails.

Though Bush's prediction of the actual technology involved isn't exactly
as it turned out to be, his concepts of linking previously unassociated
information was an intriguing idea. A Memex user could become the editor
of a customized encyclopaedia, a codex of knowledge presented in an customized
fashion.

In the years that followed Vannevar Bush's seminal depiction of this non-linear
world to come, Ted Nelson lead the charge into hypertextual exploration using
computers. Ever since he coined the word hypertext in the early 1960s, Nelson
has articulated a vision of a society where on-line, hypertext documents
are as common as books or magazines are today. The advent of digital, high
capacity data storage now allows us to house seemingly infinite amounts of
information; hypertext, according to Nelson, is the key to how we access
and and present that information. As hypertext's non-linear architecture
becomes more popular and mundane in non-scientific circles - as is now becoming
the case with the Web - a whole new cultural attitude will develop in the
worlds of reading, writing publishing. Says Nelson:

First, there would be new documents, a new literary genre, of branching,
non-sequential writings on the computer screen. Second, these branching documents
would constitute a great new literature, but they would subsume the old,
since all words, all literature would go online and extend to a new branching
generality.

When Nelson first began to toss around his ideas 30 years ago, his
prognostication of an entirely networked culture seemed far flung at best
- computers were expensive and cumbersome while data capacity and bandwidth
had yet to advance even into their Bronze Age. But with the growth of the
PC market in the late 70s and early 80s, hardware development picked up speed,
as did consumer purchases and software design. With more people buying more
computers and storing more information, the need for a simple, yet efficient
way of accessing that information was obvious. Pioneering the way, among
others, was Apple Computer, with its Hypercard software. Essentially a primitive
form of Nelson's (and Bush's) vision of hypertext, Hypercard allows a user
to create and organize the equivalent of digital 3x5 cards in a computer's
memory. It is easy enough for all ages to use, yet Hypercard offers a handy
way to arrange segmented bits of information and link them together in any
order, even in a continuous loop.Its greatest limitation, though, is its
insular nature - a Hypercard stack can link you to the data on your computer,
but it can't allow you to interact with other computer's data over a network.
And by the mid- to late 1980s it was already clear that international networking
was the next step into the Information Age. The World Wide Web provided the
right solution at the right time - sophisticated hypertext interconnected
by an enormous lattice of computers.

But beyond the World Wide Web's hypertextual architecture, it is the official
standardization of hypertext publishing that has turned the Web into an
international phenomenon. In order for the Web to work, all computers on
the Web must be able to understand everyone else. If two computers each speak
a different language - or more accurately, if a person's Web navigation software
can't understand another computer's hypertext, garbage instead of useful
information appears on the screen. To alleviate this problem of incompatibility,
researchers lead by teams at at CERN and MIT have come up with what is called
astandard generalized markup language for the Web. This standard, known as
HTML (HyperText Markup Language), is abasic set of codes that can be added
to any regular text. By including these codes, any computer on the Web can
interpret thattext as hypertext.

Technological
Perspectives

But what has this to do with education and technology? By establishing the
idea that we need to "look at others' points of view" we need to see what
technology can do for us and our children. What I am getting at is a stepping
away from how we have viewed the technological advances of the past and even
present and review the future. For instance: our children have grown up in
a technological rich world which is far more advanced than the technological
rich world we grew up in. (Students entering college today have never know
a world without cable TV; MTV; video stores; these people never cared about
where the beef was; who shot JR; and believe that no you do not have a choice
and cannot get it your way.) (Today's kindergartners have never lived in
a world without www-dot-com!)

What we need to do is look at technological prowess not as a specialized
area but as a natural outgrowth of today's existence. And this is the new
perspective the "paradigm shift" we need to get a handle on.

The
World Wide Web in Education:

Of all the recent developments in advanced computer networking, it is the
World-Wide Web that has truly captured the imagination of millions of
technophiles and information buffs. Since its popularization in 1993, WWW
(also known as W3 and the Web) has caught on like wildfire in business, research
and academia, and many users now tout it as the first real step to the creation
of an "information superhighway." But for all of its profit-making and
curiosity-seeking potential, WWW has largely been ignored as a powerful
educational tool. Scattered throughout cyberspace, one can find occasional
examples of educators, students and researchers experimenting with WWW as
a way to teach and to empower students with newfound creative ability. Yet
as a whole, on-line classrooms are few and far between, with recent reports
suggesting that less that three percent of schools have Internet access.

But you ask: What exactly does the World-Wide Web have to offer
education?

The
Role of the Web in Curricular Reform

The advent of the World Wide Web comes at an exciting, yet controversial
juncture in American education reform. Though more detailed information on
education reform policy can be found elsewhere, certain basic trends and
terms should be mentioned briefly. Possibly the most important point that
must be addressed is the current emphasis towards interactivity in the learning
process. The term "interactivity" has become somewhat of a buzzword in American
pop culture, teaching and commerce - for example, some educational software
packages attempt to add to their appeal by emphasizing the product's
"interactive" nature. In other words, passive learning doesn't work, yet
interactive learning works wonders.

Beyond all the hype and rhetoric surrounding interactivity in education,
there is a solid backdrop of empirical analysis to support the positive nature
of interactive learning. Simply put, students of all ages learn better when
they are actively engaged in a process, whether that process comes in the
form of a sophisticated multimedia package or a low-tech classroom debate
on current events. Over the years, social scientists and education researchers
have attempted with reasonable success to debunk the traditional notion of
the passive classroom environment. But considering the nature of that notion
- one teacher lecturing to a large class, encouraging informational absorption
and regurgitation, and finally assessing the students by a series of simplistic
standardized tests - it doesn't take a reformer with a Ph.D. in educational
psychology to recognize that the old ways of teaching and learning need some
serious restructuring. In order for today's youth to become competitive in
tomorrow's marketplace, yesterday's pedagogical methodology is no longer
enough.

One of the key problems in education reform is that traditional teaching
fails because students have no use or interest in much the material as it
is presented, yet in order to expand their understanding of a given subject,
they must become involved in the entire teaching process. For example, producing
a physics experiment in order to actively discover the results, in addition
to exploring the social context in which the original experiment was performed,
has more educational value than merely hearing a lecture about how some scientist
first attempted the experiment several centuries ago.

Engaging students from a variety of angles and allowing them to feel as if
they are a part of the subject matter will often lead to them becoming more
interested in (or at least more willing to discuss) that subject. Therefore,
they invest more mental energy and thus commit the concept to memory with
a better comprehensive understanding of it. Roger Schank (right) of Northwestern
University's Institute of the Learning Sciences proposes that learning be
attained through the use of goal-based scenarios - the teacher, with a set
of learning goals in hand, allows the students to explore the subject from
their own particular point of view. Students, when encouraged and given the
proper opportunity and medium, can express a wealth of opinions on nearly
any subject. And by giving them the chance to articulate and share their
thoughts, they can grasp the meaning of the subject and thus understand it
better.

What
Next for the Web and Education?

Although there exists always those technoskeptics and informational Luddites
who suggest that the World Wide Web is only a passing fad, (remember television?
That old forgotten fad?) certain facts would suggest that this is highly
unlikely. The Web has found enormous success word-of-mouth - it is soon expected
to pass file transfer protocol as the highest user of bandwidth on the Internet.
Moreover, commercial developers have recently adopted the Web as their new
pet cybermedium, from the Star Trek: Voyager site to Time/Warner's Pathfinder.
Increasing the profitability of these ventures are the planned integration
of basic Web browsers in the operating systems for both Macintosh and Intel-based
PCs, as well as Prodigy's and America On-Line's recent moves to make the
Web accessible over its commercial subscription services to millions of users.

Assuming that the future of the Web is secure, at least for several years
to come, what steps must be taken in order to further its development as
an educational instrument? Above all else, institutional access to the Internet
must increase dramatically. Though many schools are lucky enough to have
formed partnerships with universities and local business in order to gain
access (and still others have received networking grants or employ persistent
technophiles as educators), the overwhelming majority of schools lack the
hardware needed just to get connected in the first place. And while policymakers
and politicians argue how to best finance schools for technology development,
it is still possible for many schools to get started.

Ideally, more community networks and freenets must begin to offer Web access
at reasonable rates, and more importantly, they must offer schools and classrooms
server accounts so they may publish Web sites of their own. The Web will
only grow if people are willing to commit the time and energy to creative
pursuits, and the first step to this goal will always be through the providing
of easy access. Additionally, members of the community who already have access
and experience should offer their assistance to demonstrating to others what
the Web can do and how simple it is to develop a new site. In the world of
Web development, there are scores of experts who are always willing to donate
their time to each other in order to expand the various offerings already
available over the Web.

Yet because of the communal nature of the Internet, rarely do we see them
venturing out of cyberspace into the real world to provide their knowledge
to those who lack it. This is not to say that there aren't committed individuals
(See:
http://www.psynet.net/exorcist)
who are doing more than their fair share to enhance the educational community,
but the numbers of volunteers must increase if we ever truly wish to see
the Web expand into education. And as people begin to explore the Web and
publish their own electronic products, the quality and creativity of Web
sites will increase dramatically. Few Web sites ever exist in a vacuum -
as people access it, the publisher is bound to get inundated with suggestions,
criticism, and encouragement, which usually translate into further development
of the site.

What is bound to be most fascinating, though, is the integration of new Internet
technologies into the world of the Web. For instance, Internet Relay Chats
(real-time group discussions) and MUD's (Multiple User Dungeons, essentially
an IRC in an interesting setting) could provide users and designers with
the ability to interact with each other live, instead of having to wait for
a listserv to distribute the information as it is posted via e-mail. Similarly,
webmasters may begin to integrate the user of CUSeeMe into Web sites. CUSeeMe,
a teleconferencing program developed at Cornell, allows users to see and
hear each other by way of a video camera by converting the data into an
Internet-compatible format. Programmers are now experimenting with software
that will allow easy access to these live discussions in a Web environment,
and when combined with the Web's audiovisual capabilities, one could only
begin to imagine the possibilities for on-line education and enhancement.

And what of the next generation of hypermedia tools - is there a protocol
which will be better than the Web? According to some Internauts, there already
is. Hyper-G, a new protocol designed by researchers in Austria, is a cross
between the Web and gopher. Like the Web, Hyper-G is easily hypernavigatable
and can access other Internet tools like FTP and e-mail. But unlike the Web,
Hyper-G can handle enormous amounts of data and automatically process it
into multiple subject areas. It can interpret Postscript files, which saves
time and allows greater flexibility in terms of document layout. Perhaps
most interesting is Hyper-G's ability to assign users access privileges,
so users can get on and add their own documents to certain areas and thus
become telecommuting co-publishers of a site. Fortunately for proponents
of the World Wide Web, Hyper-G is totally compatible with Web browsers and
vice-versa, so as Hyper-G begins to spread throughout the Internet, its high-data
advantages will probably steer it towards certain uses. In the end, it will
not be a matter of Hyper-G versus the Web, more likely is that they will
complement each other as people begin to explore each protocol's potential.

But for now, the World Wide Web will continue as the protocol of choice for
many network users, and its growth as an education tool will doubtfully taper
off any time soon. The Web is accepted internationally because of its relative
ease of use and cross-compatibility, and future changes in HTML standards
(especially in layout design and in the integration of live communication
protocols) will inevitably make it even more powerful. For the educational
community, on-line hypermedia offers a simple way to design interactive lessons
for local and distant use. And as the World Wide Web becomes more accessible
to schools around the country, teachers and students alike will be able to
explore cyberspace and design new resources for a multitude of purposes that
have yet to be realized.

Final
Thoughts

There are many different ways we can use computers or new technologies in
the classroom. But first we need to commit our ideas and more importantly
our actions into developing these ideas. Ideally we all would exist in an
implementation and invention stage of curricula. But we do not. We lack the
technical expertise to keep equipment running, or we lack the educational
know-how on how to "teach" others. Life long learning is another term coined
for the millennium which needs focus. As educators we need to rethink our
roles as a teacher and what that role is. We need to establish what needs
need to be met and how we are going to meet them in this new and exponentially
growing world. We need to develop a mission, a statement of goals and ideas
along with a plan on completing our mission.

Hedonism

2000-11-24T09:07:00.000-08:00

Hedonism:
is
the doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the sole or chief good in life.

Epicurean:
is
the doctrine that pleasure is the only good.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" An American tradition that epitomizes
the hedonistic epicures. A time where people get together to demonstrate
their sybarite talents in the form of a culinary feast for the pleasure zones
of the human psyche. Tradition intimates us to gorge ourselves on our harvest
of the year. While perhaps in the beginning of this tradition we had a need
to celebrate the harvest and give thanks to our chosen deities for the harvest:
we have turned this festivity into a celebration of all that is base and
immoral.

This year I celebrate my first Thanksgiving. This year my father, who lives
hundreds of miles away, was in town over the Thanksgiving holiday. So this
year I asked him to come to my home and share in this festival with my family.
This was the first "Thanksgiving" that we hosted as a family, (too often
going to others' ).This year I was bandleader of our own hedonistic tendencies.
Years before I became a teacher I was a chef -- albeit while this
term today is widely used to represent any kitchen personnel there does exist
a protocol for one's self to be able to qualify for this professional moniker.
As a chef I (with the assistance of too many people to list in this treatise)
opened up our restaurants to people less fortunate than those families who
were able to gather together. That is, we offered a Thanksgiving feast for
those people who may be alone on that particular Thursday in November, or
had not the resources to proffer their own dinner, or whose parents/children
no longer were with them, or people who just wanted to gather as a community
instead of the narcissistic demands of family.

Thanksgiving as we teach in American schools was a time that pilgrims from
European countries came to another land seeking freedom from religious
persecution. Their dream existed as a means to worship their chosen deity
in their chosen fashion when and where they chose to. Accordingly, we as
Americans claim that America was established, founded, built, created, mortared,
solidified on the beliefs and values of "religious freedom". Since America
was "established" on these principles it would be safe to claim that America
still stands for this concept, this "religious freedom". And at Thanksgiving
we gather together and demonstrate our faith by being thankful for our community,
family, and lives.

We tend to blame "tradition" for the reasons we do the things we do: it was
"tradition" to roast turkey on Thanksgiving, it was "tradition" to gather
with family, it was "tradition" to praise "God". But these are not things
of tradition. Thanksgiving was first celebrated with the "Pilgrims" and
Indians of America. It was a gathering of harvest, a celebration of
"thanks" but of thanks for making it through the year. Everyone brought their
own identity to the table and shared. (At the time the pilgrims called all
American fowl "turkeys") The foods were the local fare: venison, squirrel,
raccoon, fowl, maize, roots, gourds, tree fruits and berries. These foods
were cooked in a combined effort of many different cultures utilizing these
cultural differences: instead of excluding them!

I bring this up because too often we as Americans forget that we are a nation
of merged cultures. (As I like to joke we are not so much "Farengi"
as we are the "Borg" -- assimilation is inevitable -- "resistance is futile").
We are a nation of people from all walks of life, all corners of the globe,
from diverse cultural preferences. We are fortunate as gourmands: the typical
American can easily, and within a short radius of their home, dine on Middle
Eastern cuisine on Monday, Mexican on Tuesday, European on Wednesday, Asian
on Thursday, Icelandic on Friday, African on Saturday, Mediterranean on Sunday
and all kinds of variations in between. In my own home it is not unusual
to have Italian roasted chicken with a side of red beans and rice, buttered
tortillas, and a medley of "stir-fry veggies".

The point? Logic would deem that in America "Thanksgiving" should
be a celebration of community, of harvest, of roasted turkey and cheese
enchiladas, of pierogi in nam soc, of miso maize dumplings with curry, of
bangers and beans, of salted cod and lutefisk , of sashimi and knockwurst…
"Thanksgiving" would be a communal praise of Allah, Jesus, Yahweh, Buddha,
Mother Earth, Thor, Gilgamesh, Aristotle. "Thanksgiving" to our chosen "lord"
would be accomplished through bread breaking, wine toasting, herb burning,
goat bloodletting, or however our chosen faith represents a giving of thanks.
For in America "Thanksgiving" is a representation of the communal gathering
of cultures though harvest and a celebration of religious freedom. Which
means we have the freedom to practice our religion without fear of reprisal
or persecution.

And yet in America we recognize this "freedom" and its separation from the
hand of government as long as it is the prescribed faith of the
majority. This I do not understand.

But then as my father is often wont to say: "I understand everything but
Greek… and that sounds like Greek to me."

Weeding Out the Herd

2000-11-10T08:37:00.000-08:00

Deer Hunting Season has begun and I bagged mine on opening day. A beautiful
8 point buck weighing in at 200 some pounds. This buck was the epitome of
nature's beauty: strong, sleek, elegant in his jumping, regal in his purpose.
I brought him down with a single shot. A single shot with the grill of my
car. This bothers me, not so much the hunting of animals -- this is a different
argument, but I can understand the "hunt". This is a natural thing: the predatory
food chain instinct. (Yes, even if we dress up that instinct with blaze orange
camouflage and a rifle.) What is not a natural thing however is to be struck
down by a vehicle on the highway. This is not my first kill with a car, I
have logged five all out instantaneous kills and one maiming that shortly
ended in a kill. I am not proud of this, not only have I lost 2 cars to these
accidents but these animals died needlessly.

Yes I can find beauty in natural selection, wolves or coyotes bringing down
a deer. And I can find solace in man "hunting" animals. But, the stupidity,
the waste of accidental death is far more weighing. Especially when we look
at why these deer are being killed on our highways. In Wisconsin 20,000 deer
are killed each year by motorists. The arguments go that there exists a large
population and we need to thin out the herd. But the reason we need to thin
out the herd is because we have nearly exterminated the deer's natural predators.
But we also must look at how we as a race "take over" the earth as if it
is our private domain to do with what we want when we want to and however
we choose fit. We are taking away the homes of the deer through residential
sprawl and then are confused when these animals show up on our manicured
lawns or feast from our gardens, or wind up dead on the hoods of our cars.

I was doing an accidental science experiment with one of my classes where
we had developed our own hot sauce. One of the batches had gone bad and became
fermented and moldy. I think about how many of our cities have been laid
to waste and then left as "urban or suburban" sprawls have taken place. Instead
of rebuilding, repairing, replanting we find the pristine and lay it to waste.
Much like the mold and bacteria within my jar of hot sauce. Perhaps that
is all we are as a race, a bacteria consuming and wasting away.

This week I am lost in my similes and metaphors while we as a race are like
bacteria we are even moreso the mournful spectator in the driver's seat.
5,000 children die each year in accidental or intentional shootings. 5,000
yearly deaths attributed to stupidity. 5,000 children laid to waste.

Question Everything: express your right to speak

Xmas from the Kays - 2011

Xmas from the Kays - 2010

Xmas from the Kays - 2009

The October Surprise

Idealism does not a good leader make: or why I can not vote for Obama

Why the meter's running...

I am an anarchist!

Geneva Convention - No longer matters?

The Scent of a Woman

Somewhere in America there's a Street Named after My Dad

What is this thing called leadership?" Dimensions of Leading a Learning Organization

Vision/Action Challenge:Defining Ours

Mission Impossible: a review of the vision of a K-12 School

Walk in Balance: Book of Leadership Values

We Are the Champions

Do Teachers Have the Freedom of Speech?

Becoming the Change

A Model of Supervision

Reframing Suburbantown K-12

Meddling Parents & Norman Bates

Happy Xmas Y'All!

A Catalyst of Change

"It's hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way" Mac Davis

The Undeniable 15 Minutes

"I read all kinds of books about heroes and crooks" Jimmy Buffet

Victor Jara of Chile

Following "the Boss"

Respectful and cooperative competition

Surround oneself with an experienced and knowledgeable crew

Lead by example: develop a spirit of camaraderie, delegate & help each crew member reach their utmost potential

Demonstrate confidence and optimism; focus on the future or the goal, take responsibility for the whole job: the good and bad aspects & realize that risk taking, deviations from the plan, or utilizing others' input often realizes the goal

Leave a legacy for others who not only follow in these footsteps but blaze paths of their own

A Cry in the Loveless Waste

a criminal for peace

"If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me" Kris Kristofferson

A Lifetime of Lessons Learned

Well, it's Saturday night and the Jester's broke

"There's something going on here and you don't know what it is. Do you Mr. Jones?" Bob Dylan

A Catalyst of Change

REFERENCES

In the real world ...

I do this because it makes me feel good?

The Journey Begins

Ho Ho Ho & All That Jazz

Rogue Linebackers, Greg Foglia, & Chaos in the Classroom

Schrodinger's Kittens: What we choose to see

What is service?

"We are who we pretend to be, therefore we must be careful who we pretend to be. " Kurt Vonnegut.

Extrinsic Rewards

Yin Yang

Spirituality

Our Stories

Teacher Shortage?

Welcome to the Machine

Listening to the Warm

Pioritize This!

For Unifying Conceit in Knowledge: Obvious and Formative Fundamentals

MisHistory

Ch Ch Ch ch changes -- remain the same

"The Rights of Parents in the Digital Age"

"Children's Bill of Rights"

A Brand New Day

Happy Xmas

The Myth of LD

Hedonism

Weeding Out the Herd

"It's hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way"

Mac Davis

"I read all kinds of books about heroes and crooks"

Jimmy Buffet

Victor
Jara of Chile

Lead by example: develop a spirit of camaraderie, delegate & help
each crew member reach their utmost potential

Demonstrate confidence and optimism; focus on the future or the goal,
take responsibility for the whole job: the good and bad aspects & realize
that risk taking, deviations from the plan, or utilizing others' input often
realizes the goal

Leave a legacy for others who not only follow in these footsteps but blaze
paths of their own

"If you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me"

Kris Kristofferson

"There's something going on here and you don't know what it is. Do you
Mr. Jones?"

Bob Dylan

"We are who we pretend to be, therefore we must be careful who we pretend
to be. " Kurt Vonnegut.