Several times when we lived in Asheville, NC, I made the early morning drive west on I-40 to Canton, then swept southwest on Highway 74 to US 441 and finally to US 23. Passing Waynesville, Silva, Dillard, Bryson City, Clayton, and Rabun Gap, it is a beautiful drive that slowly, and briefly steeply, falls out […]
Thinking About Process Change (Part Two): Holding Off the Rite of Passage
I have always been fascinated with rites of passage as they make ritual from the incomprehensible space between one stage of life and the next. Rites of passage represent moments where we are between and therefore we are nowhere—not where we were and not quite where we will be. In response to such moments, we create […]
Thinking About Process Change (Part One): Contextualizing Technology Use in a Progress Culture
From Wednesday to Friday I attended, along with three other Westminster folks, the AASA Leadership Symposium in Boston, led by Alan November, and since we finished, I have been thinking about the cosmetic changes schools traditionally undertake versus the possibility of what November called process change. The conversation we had overlays my ongoing reflection on […]
Finding the Right School Words for Everyone
“Words, Words, Words.” – Hamlet What language will best communicate to a school’s various constituents? What is the Venn Diagram between the appropriately nuanced language of educators and the language equipped to speak compellingly to a smart, discerning and demanding larger community? How do we use language to bring these two […]
“How would it be if we lived in that castle?”: A Five Year Old Films and Narrates
This growing up happens fast, no doubt. Three summers ago my wife, daughter and I spent a month in Italy, mostly in a small Piedmont town called Vogogna, which backs up into the northern side of the Ossola Valley not too far from Domodossola. Just this evening I found a video my daughter took one […]
Good Conversation and Chick-fil-A: Class of 2012 Lunches with the Principal
Besides simply a desire to get know Westminster’s Class of 2012 better, I want our seniors to help us see the way forward in our school. Good conversation and Chick-fil-A seem like the way to go! Next week I will host eight to ten seniors in my office for the first of a series of […]