“Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you are saying.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson) “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” (Jesus Christ) I have just returned from spending ten days working with a school outside New Delhi. I had worked with them years ago on how to engage their students … Read More
A Difficult Time When Fears and Change Impact Our Lives: Politics, Science, Education, and Values
Change may impact our lives in powerful ways, causing our welfare, joys, and safety to seem at risk from challenging new realities in our lives. That seems the case in many aspects of the current political season – global shifts in values cause new perceptions regarding gender, social behavior, and educational efforts to name a few of the issues in … Read More
The Seven Last Words of a Dying Church [School]?
The original version of this sentence used the word “church” instead of “school” but I hope you will permit me the substitution in order to stimulate your reflection on this statement. According to my research (although the sentence does show up in a number of references), D.E. Parkerson, a Baptist minister from North Carolina, coined the phrase in this narrative … Read More
Praying for disruptive change
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them … Read More
Will and Wisdom
As I consider beginning to work with schools through CACE in both of the areas of improvement and innovation I think it is appropriate to start with the words will and wisdom. Over the years I have observed that effective change in schools is often simply a matter of having the will to do something. The leader must possess the … Read More