DOING What Parker Palmer Suggests

After I bought a GEO Tracker some years ago, I started seeing Trackers everywhere. They had always been there. I just hadn't seen them until a Tracker became part of my world. I've since learned that this phenomenon is not unique to me. It happens to almost everyone.


While writing and now that I have finished my research paper for Dr. Julie Hite's class titled Principals As Spiritual Leaders Improve the Academic Achievement of Diverse Learners I am experiencing something similar as to what I experienced with the Tracker. My eyes and ears catch things like articles, books, speeches, comments, etc. that might have gone unnoticed in the past. For instance, yesterday I ran across an article by Jeffrey L. Lewis & Eunhee Kim entitled A desire to learn: African American children's positive attitudes toward learning within school cultures of low expectations. Then this morning I accessed from Education Week a commentary by M. Christine DeVita entitled Getting serious about leadership. Not only was this an enlightening commentary, but also in this commentary was a link to the study released this year on preparing school leaders by Linda Darling-Hammond and a team of researchers from Stanford University. Obviously all this has led me to meet some incredible people.


Just like people who own Trackers feel a connection to each other, people who are committed to the principles of spiritual leadership feel a connection. It would be my hope that these people could follow the counsel of Parker Palmer that was posted on my "blog" yesterday and that is: Join with others in a community of support to buoy each other up by honoring the best within each other.

As we do so we will be better able to follow the other recommendation from Parker Palmer which was: Join in the politics around education protesting injustice and proposing paths toward justice because educating the young is far too important to leave their fate in the hands of politicians.

Report: Leadership Affects Student Learning

http://cehd.umn.edu/CAREI/Leadership/ReviewofResearch.pdf

REPORT: Review of research on how leadership affects student learning.

Transcript: Visit Education Week to get this transcript.

October 17, 2007
Getting Serious About Principal Preparation
Experts in education leadership took readers questions on schools' efforts to attract, prepare, and support talented individuals who want to become effective principals.
Guests:Gene Bottoms, the senior vice president for the Southern Regional Education Board; and Jon Schnur, the CEO of New Leaders for New Schools.

Leadership: Continuing to Look For Better Answers...AND Questions

In spite of:

• A cry for social justice
• A fury to get teachers ESL endorsed
• An outcry to address the achievement gap
• An attempt to make it a university requirement for educators to take a multicultural education class

not much has changed in the education system and statistics across the nation still look pretty dismal for our diverse learners.

In a talk by Henry B. Eyring, "Teaching Is A Moral Act," delivered at the BYU Annual University Conference on 27th of August 1991, he quoted his father, Henry Eyring, a famous scientist. It was a response his father had given to someone who chided him for changing his mind (flip flopping) about an issue related to science but the same principle applies for those of us concerned about the education of our diverse learners. He said, "I have been on every side of this question, and I will get on every side I can discover until I get a better answer."

If we are to better serve our diverse learners, we must find a
safe place where we can look at every side of the issue without having our
ponderings attacked. Even though much work related to research has
been done (and we haven't even applied that!!!), the quest isn't over....and nor will it ever be. There will always be a better answer for those willing to take the journey and who have the courage to step out of a comfort zone and ask the hard questions.

In Stephen Covey's work he talks about a "Third Space."---where we come to conclusions that are better than either side of an issue can come to by itself. Yet, for this to happen at least one side must be willing to listen with open ears to the perspective of the other side even though he/she may be diametrically opposed to what the other side is saying or advocating.

There is a story about a man who wants to sell a lamp to another gentleman. Rather than telling the gentleman how inferior his present lamp is, he starts by having the gentleman describe all the wonderful things about his lamp. Then he shows him the new lamp. The gentleman himself sees the improvement in quality of the new lamp.

We need moral/spiritual leaders in the multicultural arena who will have the courage to not only speak out but who also have the courage to truly listen:

To enlist people in a vision, leaders must know their constituents and speak their language. People must believe that leaders understand their needs and have their interests at heart. Leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue. To enlist support, leaders must have intimate knowledge of people’s dreams, hopes, aspirations, visions and values… Leaders cannot command commitment, only inspire it. (Source: The Leadership Challenge 3rd Edition: Kouzes and Posner
pg 15)