Honorable Men and Women Are NOT Hypocrites

If we define a hypocrite as someone who says one thing, and does another, then all great and honorable men and women should be called hypocrites. Why? Because their ideals and goals will always exceed their grasp. They're not pretending to be something that they're not--something very different than living below one's ideals.


I believe this is true not only of the honorable men and women of our day, but also those of the past. If we choose to look for their flaws, we will find them.....and in doing so we will miss the beauty of their high ideals that can influence and inspire us.


I once heard about an experiment called "scan the red." What one does in this experiment is enter a room and only look for the red. What will the person find? More red than she knew existed, even in a familiar room. What is missed? All the other beautiful colors that are there in the room.


A quote from the speech "Citizenship in a Republic" given by Theodore Roosevelt in Paris,France on April 23, 1910 says: It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiams, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while doing greatly, so that his place will never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat.

Ian Percy suggests that we live a double standard: "We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions." And Benjamin Franklin said, "Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain--and most fools do." It would behoove us, also, to remember that people are often doing the best they can with the knowledge they possess at a moment in time. Learning from the mistakes of others, as well as our own, would be a more productive stance to take.

This in no way means that we should never criticize. I concur with James Baldwin who said, "I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." After all, as Walter Ulbricht says, "The nature of a democracy consists in an important degree in the right of the people to criticize problems and mistakes."

Yet, even in criticizing we can be more effective if we remember the following counsel:

• "Sweep first before your own door before you sweep the doorsteps of your neighbors." (Swedish proverb)


• "Criticize the act, not the person." Mary Kay Ash


• "He has a right to criticize who has a heart to help." Abraham Lincoln

Then we have the inspiring words of Anne Frank, who even while suffering from the unthinkable, had the heart to say, "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."

Although it might be somewhat Pollyanish to believe that all people are good at heart, I do believe that the majority of people are---those from the past as well as the present. If we look for their ideals and goodness rather than focus primarily on their flaws, except to learn from them, it is my belief that our personal lives and the life of our country will be richer.

The Chinese Finger Trap Lesson

A Chinese finger trap is a simple puzzle that traps the victim's index fingers in both ends of a small woven bamboo cylinder. The initial reaction of the victim is to remove the fingers outward, but this only tightens the trap. The solution to escaping the trap is to push the ends inward toward the middle, which enlarges the openings and frees the fingers.


Doing the opposite of what seems the logical thing to do is also apparent in Karate. Rather than resist the opponent, Karate learners are taught to channel the opponent's energy.


Not only is this concept applicable to a toy and a sport, it is applicable to relationships. The book, Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin reveals how Abraham Lincoln was a genius on how to do this. After Lincoln won the presidential election, rather than keep rivals as far away from the White House as possible, he appointed them to high positions in his cabinet.


Lincoln included in his cabinet those who, prior to his election, were not just his major political opponents, but who viewed Lincoln with contempt. Edwin Stanton had even described him as a "long armed Ape."


Lincoln lived by what he said:

• "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make them my friends?"


• "With malice toward none; with charity for all."


• "It is an old and true maxim that 'a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convinve him that you are his sincere friend."


• "A house divided against itself cannot stand." (quoted from the Bible)

As we strive to address the needs of our diverse learners, it is critical that we follow Lincoln's example. We can work through disagreements if we will apply the following attitudes and behaviors:

• It's not you versus me; it's you and me versus the problem.


• Deal with the conflict from where you agree--It's more effective to move from areas of agreement to areas of disagreement, than the other way around.


• Rather than striving to bring adversaries to their knees, bring them to the table.


• First get conflict and violence out of one's own heart and soul.


• Say things such as:

"I hadn't thought of it that way."

"You make a good point."

"You may be right."

In other words, do what my BYU professor, Dr. Julie Hite, admonished us to do, "Move towards your adversaries." A great resource for learning how to do this can be found at Izzy Kalman's website: http://www.bullies2buddies.com/ and/or in his book, Bullies to Buddies.

Lincoln worked so effectively with his four political opponents that he had appointed to his cabinet that at the time of his assassination, each had grown to love as well as respect him even though initially they had considered themselves superior to Lincoln in all respects. Edward Bates even described Lincoln as "very near being a perfect man."

Our efforts in following Lincoln's example may not bring the same accolades from our adversaries, nor should we even expect them to. That isn't really what matters. What matters is the benefits our diverse learners will reap because of our efforts and willingness to work with, rather than against, others.

Be Proactive

Today's post will focus on: 1) What it means to be proactive, 2) The benefits of being proactive, 3) Why it's essential that we be proactive concerning the education of our diverse learners, and 4) What we can do to be proactive.

What it means to be proactive:

• Focus on what is wanted rather than what isn't
• Take responsibility rather than blame outside circumstances, seeing them as obstacles or problems
• Choose and control response to circumstances (people, events, environment)
• Create events and opportunities by setting one's own goals
• Go forward with purpose
• Keep readjusting the sails to arrive at the target goal
• Ask, What can I contribute?, rather than, What can I get? or What can I achieve?

The benefits of being proactive:

• Won't be doomed to work to achieve the goals of others
• Won't be holding high the banner of emotionally charged issues
• Won't go with the flow that leads to undesirable outcomes
• Won't rely on "silver bullets"
• Won't feel "acted upon" leading to resentment and ill-will

Thus...Circle of influence will be expanded which will result in an increase of power

Why being proactive is essential to improve the education of our diverse learners: If those who are knowledgeable about "what works" for diverse learners through research/study and/or experience don't take a proactive stance in advocacy, they will find themselves taking a reactive stance to the policies set by those who are not knowledgeable about the issues. 'A reactive stance is not nearly as powerful as a proactive stance.

What to do to be proactive:

When Linda Darling-Hammond was in Salt Lake City for an Education Policy Forum, I asked her to respond to the following comment by the late Dr. Ronald Edmonds from Harvard University:

"We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We already know more than we need to do that. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven't so far."

Edmonds, R. R. "Effective Schools for the Urban Poor." Educational Leadership 37 (1979): 15-27.

Darling-Hammond's response was enlightening and thought-provoking. She asked, "Who is the 'we'?" It was at that moment that I realized that not everyone knows and that what Walter Kelly's creation, Pogo, said, "We have met the enemy and it is us" definitely applies. It is up to those who have researched and studied this issue to educate those who aren't knowledgeable.

By taking the following steps, we can expand the "we."

1. Be knowledgeable about the issue focusing on "what works" rather than what doesn't
2. Network with others who are knowledgeable
3. Work together to identify, pinpoint, and prioritize the key points/goals/desired outcomes and be able to succinctly articulate them
4. Devise a plan that will embrace a variety of avenues to share #3 with policy makers, students, educators, parents, community groups, the general public, etc. and let them know specifically how they can contribute to the cause
5. Follow up so everyone feels responsible and accountable
6. Keep "readjusting the sails" until the desired goals and outcomes are achieved

Victor Frankl survived the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz by discovering the ultimate freedom "to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." We are facing some dire circumstances in the education arena, especially in regards to our diverse learners. It is my hope that we who are committed (and those who should be!) to serving our diverse learners will grasp a proactive attitude....and choose our own way... a way that advocates for what works for our diverse learners.

Wisdom About Learning from Kevin Eikenberry

Kevin Eikenberry has inspired me with ideas about leadership at least weekly over the past year. Below you will find the message I received yesterday. It fits perfectly into what I've posted the last few days.

Human beings are natural learners, and yet we don’t always harness that ability in a conscious way to help us achieve greater results. These approaches are meant to help you become a more conscious, intentional learner. Consider these approaches as habits that you can add to your daily or weekly regimen to improve your learning ability and agility.

The Three Approaches

Two articles.
I’ve already partly described this first approach. Take two articles (any two articles), read them and then look for the similarities and differences between them. Consider where they are in alignment, and consider the basis of the story or argument to see if you agree or not. This may be easy if you read two articles from a favorite trade journal or publication, but let me encourage you to consider branching out for your sources. This approach can lead to wonderful and serendipitous results when the articles come from more disparate sources. How about a newspaper article and a blog post in a different topic area? How about a trade journal article and a piece from Ladies Home Journal? Some of the best results (beyond the practice you gain from doing the exercise) will come when you haven’t “planned” your two sources upfront.


Two people.
You can do a similar thing, substituting people for articles. Have lunch with different people each of the next two days, or schedule a meeting with someone interesting. When you meet with these two people (whether planned or not) don’t focus on small talk, but get them to talk about their passions. Talk about ideas and plans. Learn more about their interests. After having done this, apply the same thought process we discussed above. Compare and contrast what you heard and discussed. Look for common lessons and ideas. Look for new ideas that might come to you with these conversations as fuel for your creativity and learning.


One of each.
Don’t have time to visit with two people today? You can use this same approach of comparing, contrasting and reflecting using one conversation and one article as the fuel for your thinking.


All three of these approaches require one important component – you must do more than read and listen, you must think. Thinking is a critical part of the learning process, and one many of us don’t truly do enough of!

[To learn more about Kevin's work, visit www.kevineikenberry.com]

Writing Is A Powerful Tool

I once heard that we should always carry two books with us--one to read and one to write in. Yesterday's "blog posting" addressed the importance of the first kind. Today's "blog posting" will address the value of the second kind...and how the two complement each other.

David McCullough in an interview with Bruce Cole, Chairman of NEH, said, "Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly" and William Safire states, "By elevating your reading, you will improve your writing or at least tickle your thinking."

To read is to empower

To empower is to write

To write is to influence

To influence is to change

To change is to live.

--Jane Evershed--

More than a Tea Party

According to McCullough there is something about the pen that focuses the brain in a way that nothing else does. Francis Bacon suggests, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."

Writing can be especially power for our diverse learners. Elie Wiesel has said, "Write only what you alone can write." Each diverse learner has a story to tell that only he or she can write.

We must encourage that story to be told. Often that will mean allowing the student to tell that story in his/her home language.

Learning English

In Cool Salsa

Translated by Lori M. Carlson

Life

To understand me

You have to know Spanish

Feel it in the blood of your soul.

If I speak another language

And use different words

For feelings that will always stay the same

I don't know

If I'll continue being

the same person.

Martin Espada, a famed poet, is convinced that giving diverse learners a voice through poetry will make a difference for them. He feels that young people have a hope regardless of their life's circumstances and in spite of the millions of people in the U.S. who are prejudiced against them and feel they don't belong here. Most young people feel that if they can make their voices heard, things will change. Therefore, Espada wants to help them find the poetry in their own experience.

Espada feels that poetry will help our diverse learners maintain their dignity and sense of self-respect...and therefore, be better suited to defend themselves against the world. Plus, poetry humanizes---and makes the invisible visible. In this way, their voices through their poetry can be a political tool.

After all, "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Edward Bulwer-Lytton

McCullough and Reading

David McCullough said in his 2003 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities: "We are what we read." He added that this was no less true in that distant founding time of our nation. Therefore, when he studies the life of a person, he not only searches for what the person wrote, but also searches to discover what he/she read.

McCullough mentions in this same speech that reading is a means of education and gaining knowledge. But books mean more than knowledge in the basic sense. Books allow minds to meet, ideas to be exchanged, and experiences to be remembered or imagined. Those who don't read impoverish themselves.

Dr. Seuss said it succinctly:

The more you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn

the more places you'll go.

Considering that reading is so important, it is critical that we keep the following in mind:

• "It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own," said Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The results of one research project indicated that while the average American home had 137 books, the average Hispanic family with an English Language Learner (s) only had 26. There are many Hispanic homes that have none.
• A book doesn't have to be read in English to carry the message. For instance, a monolingual Spanish speaking student who is learning English doesn't have to wait until he/she is proficient in English to read books---Let her read Anne Frank in Spanish. According to Dale Rees an ALS (Alternative Language Student) Coordinator in Salt Lake City School District, "Ten years from now the student won't remember whether Anne Frank was read in English or Spanish, but she will know that she read it."
• Mark Twain said, "The man [child] who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." In other words, focusing only decoding skills, especially for English Language Learners, won't help them to fall in love with books. Exposure to books is what creates a love for books....and a by-product of a love for books is a desire to learn to read them.
• Children, including our diverse learners and English Language Learners, can comprehend more than they can read on their own. Therefore, we must read books to them that they are unable to read on their own.
• Great literature comes from many different cultural backgrounds, not just the dominant culture. Therefore, we must not only expose all children and youth to a variety of genres, but also to great literature from a variety of cultures.

May all of us follow the counsel of William Faulkner, "Read, read, read." As we do so, and as we encourage our young to do so, we will reap the benefits that David McCullough claims come from reading.

Advancing the History Cause

"Take heart and take action," says David McCullough. "Get worked up, go and fix the problem, because it is fixable." After all, he adds, "There are more public libraries in the United States than McDonalds' fast food restaurants."

According to McCullough, since we are a government of the people, the answer as to what is to be done to advance the cause does not depend on some longed-for leader, but rather on the the person in the mirror.

What to do:

Universities:

David McCullough feels that universities must change the way they educate teachers. He feels that teachers get their degrees in education and they don't know any subjects. He suggests that teachers should have majors in the liberal arts to help ignite the passion for history. Teachers without passion for history won't spark any passion among their students as it's this passion that makes teachers effective.

Schools:

• Tell stories


• Delve into literature from history (biographies, poems, speeches, etc.) from all ethnic backgrounds, not textbooks, to improve reading---According to David McCullough the quality of textbooks are so filled with "politically correct mush" that they kill the interest of students.


• Write and participate in historical plays


• Encourage all students to participate in history fairs

Parents:

• Turn off the TV more often and when it is turned on, use it more productively--watch the History Channel, "American Experience," the C-SPAN presidential series, etc.


• Have conversations about history at the dinner table or in the car


• Visit historic sites


• Read to and with children the history literature


• Keep journals to record one's own personal history
  

Libraries:

Become involved in the "We the People" project sponsored by NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities)

There is so much to learn about tolerance, patience, courage, human nature, and life from those who have gone before us. Winston Churchill reminded us, "We haven't journeyed this far because we are made of sugar candy."

"Indifference to history isn't just ignorant, it's rude. It's a form of ingratitude," McCullough emphasizes.

As each of us commits to fight the battle we face of raising a generation that is historically illiterate, may we also follow the example of McCullough who describes himself as a "short-range pessimist, but long-range optimist." Not only have there been great accomplishments in the past, there are more to come as we accept the opportunity to build upon the past.

What American History To Teach?

"The history curricula of public schools should be constructed around the principle that all people have been significant actors in human events.....The history of minority groups is critical to the understanding of the American past as well as the present.... A successful history education should help students understand what binds Americans together while simultaneously promoting respect for America's pluralism and diversity."

From the Organization of American Historians' Statement

on Multicultural History Education

Looking at history through the lens of different groups of people, will more likely than not result in a clash of perspectives. Therefore, it is critical that each perspective be based upon sound historical scholarship.

Sound historical scholarship can't help but reveal the flaws and imperfections of individuals and groups of people as well as their sterling attributes. After all, they were human, as we are. We must also remember that our history of them was their present. They were living it, not looking at it with hindsight.

It's also important to remember that people from our nation's history such as our founding fathers were aware of their imperfections. Their inability and our nation's inability to live up to the ideals they espoused should in no way diminish the importance and value of those ideals. It is the responsibility of each succeeding generation to carry the torch, striving to come closer to the ideals.

We can only carry that torch and be an educated participant in our democracy if we know our history. Being cynical and negative about our nation's history will dim, if not extinguish, the light of that torch. David McCullough has said, "Cynics don't get much done. Cynics don't advance the cause."

Tomorrow's "blog" post will carry on this discussion focusing on what we can do to advance the cause.

Teaching History and Multiculturalism

As I read LaVarr Webb's comments on David McCullough's visit to Utah in Utah Policy a couple of days ago, I felt that maybe it was time to tackle once again a controversial topic in the multicultural arena.

Historian Daniel Boorstein said, "Trying to plan the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers." Famed author and historian David McCullough states that if we are to be successful in the present, it is critical that we study history and be knowledgeable about the past

McCullough also made the following important points:

• "Because you were born into this particular era does not mean it has to be the limit of your experience. Move about in time, go places."


• "..you can't understand yourself or your country without a sense of your past."


• "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are."


• "..history is a larger way of looking at life."
  

In spite of the fact that probably most would agree with all these statements, the results revealed from one survey is indicative of what our young people know (or rather don't know) about history: The survey shows that almost half the kids polled don't know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. And about 1 in 6 parents don't know that the document declared the American colonies free from British rule. The survey also shows that only about 1 in 8 children can correctly identify the nation's founding fathers, that only about half know that "the shot heard round the world" started the Revolution, and that a third don't know that the "Redcoats" were British soldiers who fought in the Revolution - and not in either the Civil War or World War I.

This is a travesty. Yet, there are some things happening in education that could help explain reasons for this. One is the focused emphasis on reading and math in order to meet NCLB mandates....and forgetting that teaching history could help with reading comprehension. Another reason could be the paranoid educators feel ---that while teaching history they may say or do something that is not politically correct and/or in contradiction to multicultural advocate demands.

Tomorrow's post will further address this issue--with help from the wisdom of David McCullough on this topic.

Lessons to Learn from "Wet Pants"

As I read the story "Wet Pants" which was sent to me this morning by my good friend, Richard Gordon, not only was I touched by the depth of care shown by a 3rd grade girl, but I saw a new application. There are lessons Susie teaches through her example that anyone wanting to make a difference for diverse learners will want to learn and apply.

WET PANTS

Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet.

He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap. The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful.

But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie. She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good..

Lessons Susie teaches:

• She was observant


• She was empathetic


• She didn't blame anyone, not even the little boy, for the situation


• She didn't organize a committee to help


• She thought in terms of how she personally could help...and it didn't matter that he was a boy and that she was a girl or that she was only 9 years old


• She didn't wait for the authority person, the person with the "power," --the teacher--to address the issue


• She didn't ask to be recognized for the good she had done. In fact.....


• She allowed herself to be ridiculed and misunderstood--without whining or murmuring

The boy taught some lessons, too:

• Pray for help


• Recognize the help when it comes


• Give thanks for the help both to the Lord and to the person who helped

Most of the time Heavenly Father answers prayers through someone else. A spiritual leader will strive to live in such a way that he or she can be the answer to the unspoken, as well as the spoken, prayers of his/her diverse learners and their families.

Raise the Education Banner

John Florez in his recent editorial in the Deseret News emphasizes the need to act. Spiritual leaders need to raise the education banner and rally the "troops" so that we can do in education what needs to be done to make a difference for our diverse learners.



Stop tinkering, build common-good ed system
By John Florez
Published: November 19, 2007


Floods, fires, failing crops — it didn't matter. In times of crisis, Americans have pulled together. However, our debate over school vouchers revealed the ominous threat this generation faces: a loss of commitment to the common good. The debate centered on how to fix education against how to "save it" — privatization, choice, accountability, save the children, the poor and minorities. All were patchwork solutions to fix an outdated institution that is now making our nation lose ground in the global economy. Missing from the debate was the concern for our nation. It was parochial, all about "me." No one asked the question, How should we restructure our education system so our nation can succeed in a constantly changing world?


The crisis this generation faces is one of confidence and lack of leadership. Our nation was built and prospered by individuals who were not afraid to act. They did so with confidence in themselves and in their fellow citizens. They dared to dream and were not afraid to fail. Standing still when you have to defend your country or your family is not an option.


We have stopped believing in ourselves. We seem to be living in fear and unable to muster the will and the confidence past generations had. Today we are more divided and blaming each other for the failure of our schools, but much of the blame rests with the average citizen who sits back and does nothing.


My loving critics complain that I do not offer specific solutions. All too often, individuals look to others for solutions, but our democracy doesn't work that way. It was designed so that people kept informed and took action when our government needed a push — sometimes a big one. We live with the myth that leaders mean someone else, rather than seeing ourselves as leaders. The solutions rest with each of us. The voucher debate was started by leaders who had the courage to reach out to others and act.


Changing institutions requires leaders who offer a vision of what institutions ought to do that promote the public's interest, rather than tinkering with the system as we have done with education.


When the owners decided that the old downtown Key Bank Building was not worth fixing, it was blown up, making room for a newer building designed to meet today's needs. We need leaders who have the courage to do the same with education: Build a new education system that can prepare children and adults with the skills needed to succeed in the new economy.



The voucher fight also brought out the strengths of our people. We care enough to argue and to fight for our beliefs. It wasn't about vouchers. It was our way of trying to fix a failing system that has left caring citizens frightened about the future of our children. It also brought the ingredients needed to bring about change. It started with someone who stood up and offered a solution and found others with the same passion. That's the way our democracy works.



There was a tremendous amount of human energy mobilized and over $8 million spent. Can you imagine what we could do if we combined that passion and money to build a new system? What if we came together around a common goal to restructure our education system so it can prepare our people with the world-class skills needed to succeed in today's global economy?


As my friend the late Judge Frank Wilkins often said, "That's big medicine."


Utah native John Florez has founded several Hispanic civil rights organizations, served on the staff of Sen. Orrin Hatch and on more than 45 state, local and volunteer boards. He also has been deputy assistant secretary of labor. E-mail: jdflorez@comcast.net

Overcoming Injustices

Today I am addressing a topic that is extremely delicate. Therefore, it is my hope to approach it in a very sensitive manner.

There is no question that groups of people as well as individuals have suffered discrimination and the consequences of it throughout our nation's history---at the hands of a system as well as from individual people.

While we fight against discrimination in all its forms and strive to eradicate it, our diverse learners need every tool possible to achieve in spite of it.

It is my belief that the work of Dr. Terry Warner provides some important tools we can give our diverse learners. I'm sharing today some thoughts from a speech he gave at BYU on January 16, 1996 titled Honest, Simple, Solid, True.

He states in this speech that the way a person can become hones, simple, solid, and true is to do it Jesus' way. Jesus suffered more degradation than what has been suffered by Native Americans, African Americans, Latter-Day Saints in Missouri, or victims of the Holocaust. He suffered without taking any offense whatsoever, without becoming mistrustful, without retaliating or withdrawing or concentrating on Himself. Rather than resisting evil, he suffered. Why? Because of his loving kindness. His love never diminished for anyone including those who caused his suffering.

By sharing this I'm not suggesting, and I'm sure Dr. Warner would agree, that we condone injustices. I just want our diverse learners to be able to respond to these injustices in a way that will help them overcome the paralyzing effects of victimization.

Dr. Warner goes onto say in this speech that the Savior's love can achieve what force cannot because where force calls forth counterforce, love calls forth love. The Savior can provide one with the assurance, hope, and strength needed so as not to become hostage to anyone who seems to want to do harm. One will, therefore, be able to see all actions of disrespect, scorn, and even abuse as opportunities to choose good over evil. The important word here is choose.

Towards the end of his speech Dr. Warner says:
In all generations idealists and revolutionaries of many religious and political persuasions have tried to rouse the world to bring an end to violence, to pull down oppression, to oppose every form of domination of one being over another, and many remarkable souls have dedicated all they possessed to make these ideals real.

How grateful we are for such people. In fact, it would behoove all of us to follow their example. Yet, as Dr. Warner, says, "But only one, the model of all peacemaking, entered the wine press alone and actually broke the power of selfishness, enmity, and death.

It is only through following the Savior's example and implementing the principles that He taught and lived can we be truly successful in fighting injustices.

Be Intelligent

To best serve our diverse learners, we must not only be well- educated and knowledgeable, but we must also be intelligent. To be intelligent requires one to be filled with light and truth. It is possible to be forever learning and never arrive at light and truth.

What must we do to move from being educated and knowledgeable to being intelligent?

• First step: Be humble knowing that no matter how much we know (or think we know!), there is still so much more we don't know. We will learn line upon line and precept upon precept.


• Second step: Seek to learn from the most excellent sources, not just the good or even the better. In order for souces (literature, art and music, people, articles, movies, websites, etc.) to be categorized as excellent, they must teach, enlighten and inspire us.
• Third step: Feast upon and ponder the lessons being taught by these excellent sources.
• Fourth step: Always have a pen and notebook close at hand--in the car, in the bathroom, on the night stand, and in one's brief case--to record insights and ideas.
• Fifth step: Within 24 hours teach someone else what was learned.
• Sixth step: Apply what was learned.


• Seventh step: Be open to new ideas and thoughts even when they are diametrically opposed to one's personal ideas and thoughts. This will require listening to the "voices" of others, including those who are not formally educated.


• Fourth step: Be willing to be wrong.

Being filled will light and truth--being intelligent--will lead to wisdom. Wise and intelligent, not just educated and knowledgeable, answers are required to respond to the question, "How can we best serve our diverse learners?"

Potential

Last spring I wrote a paper for a Linguistics class about the importance of cultural/ethnic identity. In the paper I said:

Did you hear about the time when a president went to visit a nursing home?

He walked up to a lady in a wheel chair and tried to be polite, but found that he wasn't being very successful at carrying on a conversation with her. Finally, in desperation he said, "Ma'am, do you know who I am?"
She answered, "No sir, I don't know who you are--but if you go up to that desk they can tell you."
Everyone wants to be recognized for who they are.

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study was to determine if ethnic/cultural identity was important to Utah Hispanics/ Latinos who had achieved academic success. Because the fervor in Utah (and the U.S.) right now is “English Only” and the desire to assimilate our culturally and linguistically diverse students as soon as possible, this study wanted to determine if there might be a more productive alternative. The hypothesis is that Utah Hispanics/Latinos who retain and value their ethnic/cultural identity while also learning the rules, customs, practices, perspectives, etc. of the dominant culture, will experience greater academic success. This hypothesis is based on the rationale that students who retain their primary ethnic/cultural identity will have stronger family ties as families are critical to young people developing a strong sense of identity. This strong sense of identity and identification with ethnic cultural values can serve as protective factors (Alford, 2006) . One’s primary culture can offer support as a young person deals with the stress and anxiety when striving to adapt to new roles and social expectations in a new culture (Decapua & Wintergerst, 2004) Young people who are made to feel that they have to sacrifice one culture for another, may experience a feeling of not truly fitting in anywhere. Plus, having two cultures from which to draw strength can only make students that much richer as a person.

The research for this paper supported the fact that young people who are able to navigate both the dominant culture and their heritage culture do better not only academically, but also in life generally. They have a greater sense of who they are.


Yet, there is an important component to remember as we strive to help young people realize their potential. Their potential lies not in any particular cultural or ethnic identity. Potential lies in the fact that they are literally children of God. When we think deeply about what that means, it can have a profound impact on how we interact with our diverse learners.


Once again I'm reminded of the words of C. S. Lewis and how they relate to our diverse learners:

"It is a serious thing," says Lewis, "to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship...... There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

--C. S. Lewis, From The Weight of Glory.

E. D. Hirsch and Closing the Achievement Gap

Yesterday's "blog" posting ended with two questions:

1. Which facts?
2. Who decides which facts?

Before answering these two questions, the following are some other questions to consider:

• Why does the learning gap for the haves and have nots grow wider as students move through the school in the U.S. while the opposite occurs in other countries?
• Why do more 2nd and 3rd generation immigrant students drop out of school than 1st generation immigrant students?
• What makes our schools unfair?
• What does educational justice mean?

Some points to consider while pondering the answers to these questions:

• Educational justice means equality of educational opportunity
• Imparting a universally shared core of knowledge helps overcome inequality
• Classroom learning can go forward more effectively when all students share some common points of reference
• ALL children will learn relatively well in an effective school--High quality tends to be correlated with high equity
• Some students are learning less than others because of systematic shortcomings in their schooling and social and economic differences rather than because of their own innate lack of academic ability
• New knowledge expands exponentially
• There is a "Matthew Effect"--the more background knowledge and the richer the vocabulary a learner has, the greater will be his/her ability to accumulate more knowledge
• Detailed guidelines provide clarity
• A diverse country has a greater need of a core-knowledge system than does a homogeneous one

The work of E. D. Hirsch's, Cultural Literacy, has been criticized not only in the multicultural education arena, but also in the general education arena. Yet, before criticizing him too harshly and "throwing the baby out with the bath water," it is my opinion that we need to have an understanding of why his work on core knowledge could be helpful to diverse learners:

• It addresses the snowball effect that allows a small knowledge difference in kindergarten to become a huge gap in learning within a few years
• It builds from year to year on the background knowledge learners need to be academically successful
• A teacher can identify what background knowledge a learner is missing
• It does not stipulate everything a learner should know. In fact, it is meant to comprise only 50% of the school's curriculum leaving ample time to address other learning needs, including more ethnically-centered curricula
• Because cosmopolitanism is a true friend to diversity, core knowledge has adopted a cosmpolitan approach to history and literature in order to reinforce the fact that no longer are Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and other ethnic groups invisible in the past or the present
• In order to be fair to diverse learners, it is critical that schools not neglect or reject the current dominant culture
• The Hirsch core knowledge is not the work of one person, but the work of many, including multicultural advisors, who combined scholarly research with grassroots experience to develop this sequence consensus
• It was empirical science and not ideology that originated cultural literacy and the core knowledge movement
• There is evidence that supports the connection between core knowledge and educational justice. In fact, the correlations between fairness and core knowledge are 100 percent.

As the U.S. becomes more diverse it is critical that we find ways to not only acknowledge the diversity and benefit from the richness that diversity brings, but also find ways to bring us together. It is my opinion that the principles of Hirsch's Cultural Literacy and core knowledge can help do both.

Facts Plus

I had the opportunity to attend a forum the first of this week where Linda Darling-Hammond was the keynote speaker. One of the many wise insights she shared was that educators need to be preparing students for a world that doesn't even exist at this point in time. She suggested that rather than teaching students an inordinate amount of facts that they then regurgitate, we need to be teaching them how to learn.

I totally concur with her recommendation....and I am also in agreement with what John Dewey said, "We can have facts without thinking but we cannot have thinking without facts."

Scott Anderson, the President and CEO of Zions First National Bank, gave some added insights to consider when he spoke recently at the Governor's Education Summit in Salt Lake City. The title of his speech was, Preparing the Workforce for the 21st Century. He noted in his speech that future workes needed to have knowledge skills in math, reading, speaking, science, history, literature, and the arts. Yet, these weren't sufficient. Anderson emphasized that there are 5 skills/traits that give added value: 1) Communication, 2) Interpersonal, 3) Creativity, 4) Hard work, and 5) Integrity/Morality.

If facts are important as a foundation, then the questions arise:

• Which facts?
• Who decides which facts?

These two questions will be addressed in tomorrow's post.

What I Want For My Child...and All Children

Yesterday I posted this quote:
John Dewey quote
“ What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child,that must the community want for all of its children."

After doing some pondering today I would like to expound on what I would want for my child...and therefore, would want for all children....from our schools:

A safe, caring, inviting, challenging environment that would....

• value, respect, and honor his and his family's language, culture, and assets

• believe that she can learn and use assessments to take her from where she is to where she isn't...and use scaffolding and building upon her background knowledge to bridge the gap

• broaden his horizon by exposing him to new "worlds" of history, literature, science, the arts, languages, current events, etc. that inspire and enrich him

• provide her with opportunities to learn the skills she'll need for the 21st Century

• help him develop his unique talents and interests and know and use his learning style--teach him rather than content

• see her not only for what she is but also for what she can become

• help him become an involved citizen who is committed to serving others and making the world better

In other words, do whatever it takes, so all children can BE their best--now and in the future.

John Dewey quote

“ What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child,that must the community want for all of its children.”

Becoming A "Butterfly"

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. Harry S. Truman This is a favorite quote of mine. Another favorite is: Express beauty and go one without waiting for a response.

If a leaders stands around waiting to be recognized or feeling sorry for herself because she wasn't recognized and someone else got the credit, valuable time is lost in making a difference. Once a leader is committed to a cause greater than herself, external applause and recognition will no longer matter.

A leader committed to a cause doesn't have the time to be concerned about who is on top. There is a wonderful book called Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus. In the tale, the heroes, Stripe and Yellow, want something more from life than eating and growing bigger. They get caught up in a "caterpillar pillar", a squirming mass of bodies, each determined to reach a top so far away it can't be seen. Finally disillusioned, they discover that the way for caterpillars to find their particular "more", who they really are, is to enter the cocoon and "...risk for a butterfly."

Once a leader stops fighting to get to the top and becomes a "butterfly" is when he can truly make a difference.

Response To Quality Research

Last summer the famed Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam was hesitant to publish the results from a 5 year research project he and his colleagues had conducted. He feared the implications some people would attach to what their research had discovered concerning how immigration challenges community cohesion. In fact, his concern was so great, the results were first published in the quarterly Scandinavian Political Studies.

Dr. William Jeynes could have had similar concerns when he published the results of his research which revealed the positive effects of religiosity and two parent families on closing the academic achievement gap.

Too often this kind of research is rejected because it is interpreted as blaming the victim. I would suggest that any quality research should not be dismissed just because it doesn't confirm our beliefs. Rather it needs to be valued for the insights it provides.

For instance, the research from Dr. Jeynes can help us see that if we want to close the achievement gap, we need to find ways to strengthen the family. Sharing with families the part they can play in making a difference in the academic achievement of their children is not blaming them. Not sharing this information with them is irresponsible, and even unethical.

Yet, we also want to be extremely sensitive to single parent families and not put them on a guilt trip. We need to find ways, as educators and as a community, to be supportive of single parent
families. Supportive doesn't mean denying the facts. It means finding creative ways to fill the gap.

Robert Putnam's reaction to his own research is impressive. He responded to it not by denying what the research said, but by saying in essence, "Now that we have this information, what can we do about it?"

As leaders who want to make a difference for diverse learners we must look at what quality research says. We do this by not taking a defensive stance against it, but by following Robert Putnam's example, "How can I use this information to benefit diverse learners?"

Spiritual Leaders Know Who They Are Leading

One day while driving to my school to teach a classroom full of Hispanic students I had the strongest feeling come over me as to whom I was teaching--their legacy and their destiny. Today I share quotes from C. S. Lewis, William Wordsworth, and Marianne Williamson that are reminder about this very concept.

"It is a serious thing," says Lewis, "to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no 'ordinary' people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whome we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit -- immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

--C. S. Lewis, From The Weight of Glory. (note: I have left the English spelling of words as C. S. Lewis spelled them)

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:

The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar:

Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness,

But trailing clouds of glory do we come

From God, who is our home:

William Wordsworth: Ode: Intimations of Immortality

Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson
- an excerpt from the book, A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Paying the price

Spiritual leaders understand that commitments come with a price....and they are willing to pay that price, whatever it may be.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet and visit with a retired BYU professor, Dr. Neil J. Flanders, who gave a speech at BYU on August 13, 1999 entitled The Search for Moral Harmony.

As I have pondered on his counsel I have been reminded of some words that are not only worthy of memorizing and pondering, but that should also be written upon the heart and lived by every leader who desires to be a spiritual leader and make a difference for our diverse learners.

The first are the lyrics of the song The Impossible Dream from the movie, The Man of La Mancha:

To dream the impossible dream

To fight the unbeatable foe

To bear with unbearable sorrow

To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong

To love pure and chaste from afar

To try when your arms are too weary

To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest

To follow that star

No matter how hopeless

No matter how far

To fight for the right

Without question or pause

To be willing to march into Hell

For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true

To this glorious quest

That my heart will lie peaceful and calm

When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this

That one man, scorned and covered with scars

Still strove with his last ounce of courage

To reach the unreachable star

The other words come from a letter written by Archbishop Tutu to Tim Wise, the author of White Like Me: (you can visit Tim's site at: http://www.timwise.org/ )

"You do not do the things you do because others will necessarily join you in the doing of them nor because they will ultimately prove successful. You do the things you do because the things you are doing are right."

Thomas Merton words provide similar counsel:

Do not depend on the hope of results. You may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. You gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.

Last of all is a scripture that comes from an epistle written by Mormon to his son, Moroni, found in the Book of Mormon:

"And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently: for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay....." Moroni 9:6

And added words by Albert Einstein to ponder: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"

Make new friends, but keep the old

When I was a young girl in Girl Scouts we learned a song the lyrics for which are: Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other is gold. I was reminded of the wisdom of these words yesterday as I had lunch with two people I met over 30 years ago as we served as LDS (Latter-Day Saint) missionaries in Ecuador. We met at my request because of a dilemma I'm facing, and I felt they would likely have some valuable insights--which they did, including connecting me to others.

For every dilemma we face or need we have in regards to our cause, according to the theory of "Six Degrees of Separation," the answer is only 6 people away. US psychologist, Stanley Milgram, created this theory in 1967 which stated that all persons on earth are only separated by 6 people. Even if one chooses to reject the theory as an academic urban legend, there are some worthwhile ideas within the theory to consider.

Harvey Mackay has written a book called Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty. The message of this book is that we should be building and strengthening relationships--with new and old--before we have the need. Then when we have a need or a concern for our cause, we can contact all these relationships within this network we have built. They might not have the answer, but they can start connecting us with people who do. Thus, the "Six Degrees of Separation" theory goes to work.

The actor Kevin Bacon has built upon this idea and believes that we are all connected to accomplish something good. He even has a website, www.SixDegrees.org, that I invite you to visit to see how to take advantage of this concept to further your particular work or cause.

When we ponder the theory of "Six Degrees of Separation," it is a reminder that this truly is a small world that connects us all, not a big intimidating world.

Money As An Excuse, Not An Answer

Whether one supports school choice or not, this article by David W. Kirkpatrick is worth reading. Kirkpatrick is not saying, and I concur, that funding shouldn't be equitable for all students. That is a no-brainer. Yet, if money is the ONLY focus, our minority students will come up wanting.


Money As An Excuse, Not An Answer
The Blum Center for Parental Freedom in EducationDavid W. Kirkpatrick On School Choice, No. 18, January, 1997By David W. Kirkpatrick

Opponents of school choice, and other basic reforms of public schools, not only argue against real change but generally maintain that what is needed is more money. While no school can operate without funds that does not prove that more money will suffice.

Not that money isn't required, or that teachers shouldn't receive decent salaries, or that some classes may not be too big. But satisfying these needs, if that is possible, cannot and will not do the job, and this has been repeatedly demonstrated.

There are some 15,000 school districts in the nation, ranging from a few students to the million or so in New York City. They also range from districts that are very poor and could effectively use more money to some that spend more than $20,000 per year per pupil. Yet, whatever their size or budget, where is the district that says it has enough money or, wonder of wonders, that says it is spending too much?

Significantly, apologists for the status quo rarely attempt to cite instances where money has led to noteworthy achievement gains, much lower dropout rates, or other proof that money alone works. Nor do they say how much is needed, other than "more."

The standard answers to the present system's faults have been tried and have failed. Incomprehensibly, there are those who should know this who continue to advocate more of the same.

A generation ago John Henry Martin put the platitudes to the test. He was the superintendent of a school district which supported a budget increase of 35%, making possible many changes that are supposed to make for efficient schools and effective education.

Average class size went from over thirty pupils to about twenty. Specialists of all kinds were hired or increased in number: guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, classroom aides, and remedial teachers. Two full-time remedial reading teachers were assigned to each elementary school in which the average enrollment was 600 pupils.

Teachers with advanced degrees were hired, the curriculum was updated, an extensive in-service program for teachers was initiated, a teacher council was chosen by secret ballot, and dozens of other reforms were introduced. After two years, outside evaluators were hired to assess the results. Students took achievement tests, with the results analyzed by class size, teacher age and experience, and the student's race, sex and family income.

In his 1972 book, Free To Learn, co-authored with Charles H. Harrison, Martin reported, "In the end, the cherished faith died...all that was done to make a difference had made no difference. The panaceas were, after all, only false promises--vain expectations. All the patented prescriptions...that made such a grand appearance in the college textbooks had failed the hard test of reality in the field."

At about the same time, in 1970, former Berkeley, California school superintendent Neil Sullivan told a U.S. Senate committee that his district had also lowered class size, provided remedial teachers, and the like, only to conclude three years later that inner city children had actually lost ground.

One of the most extensive and, given the source, one of the more important tests of the money theory was New York City's More Effective Schools (MES) program, initiated and supported by the New York local of the American Federation of Teachers, begun by the district with much fanfare in the 1960s. Because of the great costs it was introduced into only a handful of the 1,000 or so schools in the district.

MES could more properly have been termed the More Expensive Schools Program, because that was its principal distinction. It succeeded in spending great sums of money, but not in gaining added academic achievement by students.

It was also evaluated and found wanting, despite smaller classes (a teacher-pupil ratio of less than one to twelve), more experienced teachers, greater per-pupil expenditures, better facilities, compensatory education efforts, and all the rest. In only four of twenty-one schools did students average reading at grade level, and these schools contained mostly middle-class white students. The background of the students again appeared far more important than anything the schools did.

Even if MES had worked, a teacher-pupil ratio of one to twelve would not be replicable. Nationwide that would require some 3,750,000 teachers, over a million more than are currently in the schools, an obvious fiscal impossibility. But MES didn't work, and, in the mid-seventies it was ended, with much less fanfare than accompanied its introduction.

This information has been available for years, and has been publicized from time to time, including in my book, Choice in Schooling, published at the beginning of this decade. Yet it is largely ignored or forgotten. Even those who argue that just spending more money is not the answer often do so rhetorically without citing the ample evidence supporting their view.

Many urban districts that are in desperate shape educationally are among the nation's most expensive. Despite spending as much as $10,000 per year per pupil some cannot even maintain clean and safe schools. As Cleveland reportedly does, they may pay custodians as much as $80,000 per year while students have textbooks that are decades old. They then use the deterioration of the buildings, for which they are responsible, as an argument for more money.
Perhaps nowhere is the failure of money more evident than in the ongoing saga of Kansas City, Missouri. Federal district Judge Russell G. Clark took control of the district in the mid-1980s and ordered the state to give the district virtually a blank check.

He accepted the professional educators argument that money could make a difference, and if they were given enough of it they could transform the district, even raise test scores to state averages in about five years. (NOTE: the establishment wants several years to test its reforms, but demands that projects they don't like be declared failures and discontinued if they don't show immediate gains.)

In the decade since then more than 1.6 billion extra dollars have been spent on the fewer than 40,000 students, or about $40,000 extra per pupil. State officials argue that they have been forced to spend 45% of the state's education funds on the 9% of the state's students who are in Kansas City.

As Paul Ciotti noted in the Philadelphia Inquirer last August, "...in the new magnet schools were an Olympic-size swimming pool with an underwater viewing room, a robotics lab, professional quality recording...and animation studios, theaters, a planetarium, arboretum, zoo, a mock court with a judge's chamber and jury deliberation room and a model United Nations with simultaneous language translation." CBS-TV's "60 Minutes" did a feature presentation on the topic.

The result?

Minority enrollment in the district has increased to 77%, achievement rates have not gone up, the large gap in scores between blacks and the district's few remaining whites continues, while dropout rates are said to have gone up to 55% and are still rising.

In short, "all that was done to make a difference had made no difference." Despite all the changes that money could buy the situation has worsened.

At last, the U.S. Supreme Court, reacting to an appeal from Missouri officials, has directed Judge Clark to modify his approach. It remains to be seen what benefit that will have for students, not to mention teachers, parents, and taxpayers.

The forecast here is that the outlook is grim unless the system is opened up through the introduction of meaningful reforms, including full school choice, that permit the creativity and intelligence of individual teachers, parents and students to be utilized.

Democracy rests on the belief that people make better decisions for themselves than others will make for them, but everyone seems not to have gotten the word. According to Nicole Garnett, writing about the school choice program in Milwaukee in the December 30, 1996/January 6, 1997 issue of The Weekly Standard, although 96% of the students in the program are minorities, and the local African-American newspaper, the Community Journal, reports 90% of the black community supports the program, the Milwaukee National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), argues against its expansion, saying "African Americans and other racial minorities especially benefit from implementation of uniformity of educational opportunity by a government official."

Unbelievable!

But arguing for more money has one seldom-recognized benefit for the educational establishment. When they fail to make progress they have a ready answer: we weren't given enough money!

1998, David W. Kirkpatrick 2323 Rudy Road, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 17104-2025 Phone: (717) 232-2146, Fax: (717) 232-2164 kirkdw@aol.com

Dr. Kim Cameron's Wisdom: Virtuousness

Dr. Hite, my BYU professor, gives us tons of reading to do each week. Therefore, when she sent us an email recommending that we read one more article, I laughed and said to myself, "I can barely find time to read what you have already assigned let alone one more article." Yet, when I discovered it was only 6 pages long, I felt it was manageable.

This 6 page article, "Good or Not Bad: Standards and Ethics in Managing Change," by Dr. Kim Cameron from the University of Michigan, has had a profound impact on my thinking. Every leader who desires to make a difference will want to become familiar with Dr. Cameron's work.

In this particular article, Dr. Cameron emplains why an emphasis on positive practices, not merely the absence of negative or harmful practices, should be emphasized if an organization is to have successful performance. He calls these positive practives VIRTUOUSNESS. He points out that virtuousness is different than ethics which merely focuses on avoiding the negative.

Dr. Cameron goes onto stress that we live in a time when it is impossible to manage change when it is occurring constantly. For this reason it is essential that we have and live by unchanging, undisputed guiding principles. These fixed points or principles will give us stability in the midst of ambiguity and chaos.

To achieve this, Dr. Cameron adds, we must move from ethics. Ethic standards that focus on avoiding harm are not the same as standards that lead to doing good. In order to lead to doing good, ethical standards must be supplemented with what Dr. Cameron calls viruousness standards.

Viruousness is what individuals aspire to be when they are at there very best Dr. Cameron notes that these aspirations of virtuousness are universal and unchanging in essentially all societies, cultures, and religions.

The results of empirical research are revealing that organizations that are virtuous organizations significantly outperform less virtuous organizations with positive outcomes, not just the absence of negative outcomes.

Virtuousness obviously needs to be a topic for not only every management classroom, but it also should be included in the curriculum for every education leadership programs. It has the potential to make a huge difference for our diverse learners.


For more information on Dr. Cameron's work, visit his website: www.bus.umich.edu/Positive (Positive Organizational Scholarship) and/or read one or both of the books he co-authored:

• Leading With Values: Positivity, Virtue of High Performers
• Competing Values Leadership: Creating Values in Organizations.

The Purpose of Education

Before a leader can become a spiritual leader for multicultural education, he or she must be clear about the purpose of education. It would, therefore, behoove us to ponder the insights spiritual leaders have given us on the purpose of education.

David O. McKay, an exemplary educator, is one such spiritual leader whose insights I'll share in today's blog.

"Students enter school primarily to gain economic or social advantage. But this aim is not always achieved, nor is it, nor should it be, the highest purpose of education. However, we must not underestimate the value of obtaining an education for a livelihood. Education for economic advancement is a good investment for the individual as well as for the State. The United States as a Nation is still young, but its brief history is replete with striking examples of the value of its free public school system even as a financial investment. . . .No, I do not in the least disparage this aim, nor criticize our public school system for planning to make possible its realization. But education for a livelihood is not the highest purpose of education.... let us face clearly and forcefully the fact that the paramount ideal permeating all education is the grades, the high school, through college and the university, should be more spiritual than economic." - McKay, D. O. (1951, June). "True education: the paramount purpose of a free people." Address delivered at the commencement exercises, University of Utah.

"Character is the aim of true education."

"True education seeks…to make men and women not only good mathematicians, proficient linguists, profound scientists, or brilliant literary lights, but also honest men, combined with virtue, temperance, and brotherly love—men and women who prize truth, justice, wisdom, benevolence, and self-control as the choicest acquisitions of a successful life"

As educators ponder these insights of David O. McKay, a wise and noble man, and write them upon their hearts, they will discover ways to approach multicultural education that will benefit ALL learners.

Going Beyond Saying, "Good Luck"

The words, Good Luck or Buena Suerte in Spanish, are meant to be encouraging. Yet, they often have the exact opposite effect.

They are just hollow words that too often convey: That's nice. (or that's too bad). Now go on and don't bother me anymore--figure it out on your own. I have more important things to do. In other words, the one who speaks them feels absolved from doing anything. A period has been placed on the conversation.

Someone who truly desires to be encouraging will go beyond saying, "Good luck," and ask something like, "What can I do to help you realize your dream (or soften your pain)? There is the possibilty that the answer may request something that will require some kind of sacrifice in time or energy or resources, but more often than not, just the fact that the offer was made will be sufficient.

Then there are those encouragers who don't wait to be asked. They send encouraging notes, they show up to events, they share books or articles, they connect people, they make follow-up calls, or anything else that says, "I am here for you."

Spiritual leaders understand that doing whatever it takes to become an ultimate encourager is a worthwhile investment.

Spiritual Leaders Aren't Mediocre

I share today the words of Charles Malik as they appeared in a speech given by Gordon B. Hinckley.

Stand Up for Truth
GORDON B. HINCKLEY
Gordon B. Hinckley was president of The Church ofJesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 17 September 1996.

..................
I recently reread a statement given on this campus years ago by Charles H. Malik, then secretary general of the United Nations. He said:
I respect all men, and it is from disrespect for none that I say there are no great leaders in the world today. In fact, greatness itself is laughed to scorn. You should not be great today--you should sink yourself into the herd, you should not be distinguished from the crowd, you should simply be one of the many.
The commanding voice is lacking. The voice which speaks little, but which when it speaks, speaks with compelling moral authority--this kind of voice is not congenial to this age. The age flattens and levels down every distinction into drab uniformity. Respect for the high, the noble, the great, the rare, the specimen that appears once every hundred or every thousand years, is gone. Respect at all is gone! If you ask whom and what people do respect, the answer is literally nobody and nothing. This is simply an unrespecting age--it is the age of utter mediocrity. To become a leader today, even a mediocre leader, is a most uphill struggle. You are constantly and in every way and from every side pulled down. One wonders who of those living today will be remembered a thousand years from now--the way we remember with such profound respect Plato, and Aristotle, and Christ, and Paul, and Augustine, and Aquinas.
If you believe in prayer, my friends, and I know you do, then pray that God send great leaders, especially great leaders of the spirit. [Charles H. Malik, "Forum Address" (18 November 1975), BYU Studies 16, no. 4 (Summer 1976): 543­44]

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Status Quo Is Not An Option

Until people realize that status quo is not an option, business will continue as usual. Business as usual is unacceptable if we are to better serve our diverse learners in our education system.


One of the reasons that status quo persists is because when a proposal is presented, people tend to focus on its flaws and reject it because it is imperfect. Then a debate ensues, those for and those against. No one really wins, especially our diverse learners, when this happens. A debate is divisive.


A better option, in my opinion, would be to understand that there is a "THIRD SPACE." In other words, there is a better answer than a for or against a proposal. To find that better answer, though, at least two things must happen: 1) An understanding that status quo is not an option, 2) A healthy dialogue where all ideas can be freely expressed and explored.

David Deford: An Inspirational Leader

David Deford is one of my inspirations! Therefore, I choose today to share with you insights from David Deford that every leader who chooses to be a spiritual leader will want to apply.

david@daviddeford.com
Today's Article: Follow Your Shot
by David DeFord

In my school days basketball career every coach repeated the instruction, "Follow your shot."As soon as the ball left a shooter's hand, he was to run toward the basket. This put him in a better position for a rebound. If the shooter rebounded the ball, he had a very good opportunity to shoot again from closer range.If a shooter felt too confident that his shot would score and he didn't follow his shot, the coach would scream, "Follow your shot!" from the sidelines. Fail to do it twice and the coach would most often remove him from the game to reinforce his message.Missing a shot was not an offense, but failing tomove forward for the rebound was a huge one.My coaches knew that the moment just after a misfire is the most opportune for a favorable score--if we follow our shots.Not all business or personal attempts we make will bring success. Though we will fail many times, we can increase our opportunities for ultimate achievement by taking advantage of that brief moment after the miss.If we keep our heads high and move forwardTo put ourselves into position to rebound, we can often find ourselves tipping in the game-winning shot.Missed shots (failures) need not be the final outcome--rebound and shoot again.

Related quotes:

A setback will never defeat you. Only yielding to the setback can do that. David DeFord

I am never down. I am either up or getting up! John C.

Behind every success is a succession of failures. Rick Beneteau

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. Dale Carnegie

Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street. Zig Ziglar