Excited enough that I am writing with my elbows pinched to my sides and my laptop angled awkwardly and wedged on my knees, I am flying back to Atlanta from Chicago where I had a great experience this morning speaking at the MSBP Heads Meeting about the Hawken Upper School Schedule—its genesis and its initial […]
School Transformation: Becoming a Progress Culture
When we talk about creating a transformative moment in a school, the goal is to move the curriculum and the culture to a new place. What is misleading about this kind of talk is that it sounds as if the place where the school lands will represent a new stationary normal. But in fact the goal is to transform the school into a progress-culture, in which normal will include the ongoing ability to reflect on and respond to a changing world.
Where the Good Work Is: The “Learning for Life” Vision Statement
I just had a second meeting with parents in our High School this month. These meetings primarily regarded the important and defining new language the school has created entitled, “Learning for Life: A Vision for Westminster.” We call these gatherings “Coffee with the Principal.” Last week the group was fairly modest, while this week the […]
A Thought for NAIS: An Emerging Practice Cohort Structure
I have a proposal for a structure that will sustain and support innovation and emerging practice in independent schools. As conversations are taking place across the country and indeed beyond our national boundaries about what our schools will need to become over the coming years and decades, our institutions and […]
The Role of Communication in Establishing a Progress-Culture in Schools
School faculties and school leaders need families and students to exert the same attachment to innovation and to progress in their schools that they have demonstrated to technological innovation and progress elsewhere. Think about how quickly we have moved toward the latest iterations of the digital age—we are forever poised […]
Interdisciplinary Work and Real World Learning
We see an increasing need for generalists. What is your vision on schools/education to meet that need? I got this question from Arnold Beekes of the Society of Creative Generalists after posting something on their webpage (http://creativegeneralist.org/), and interestingly it jives in some ways with […]