Learning From Mitt Romney's Bafflement

Governor Mitt Romney withdrawing from the 2008 Presidential Race has given rise to some thoughts..and how they relate to those who advocate for diverse learners.

During one of the debates when Romney was getting "beat up" by the other candidates, in particular Sen. John McCain, he had a look on his face that said, "Why are you doing this to me? Aren't we suppose to be talking about issues?"

My husband and I weren't the only ones to notice this. The next day, January 31, 2008, we read a comment by John Hinderaker that summed it up quite well by saying, "Romney doesn't know how to fight dirty like his rivals: Businessmen, in my experience, are generally more idealistic than politicians. Businessmen really do make deals with a handshake. No one would dream of doing that with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or the Clintons. Turning a businessman loose in the political world is basically a mismatch. That's the sense I get of McCain's reaction to having Romney as his last serious rival. McCain can poke him in the eye, knee him in the groin, and the rule-following businessman has no idea how to respond."

We could substitute the word educator for businessman and run into the same problem when educators strive to advocate for policies that will benefit diverse learners. I'm not suggesting that educators need to learn to fight dirty, but they do need to understand the rules of the political game so they can be effective advocates in the political arena.

Cornell West Insights--Part 3

"A democracy is created to ensure that arbitrary forms of power are not deployed or used against fellow citizens and fellow human beings." "Democracy is affirming the humanity an dignity of people of color."

"I am not a politician. I am a fellow citizen but I am deeply political."

West reminds us of what Malcolm X suggested about the fact that the chickens will come home to roost. "We must not think that there will ever be enough police or prisons to deal with the overwhelming social despair that results from the social neglect in those kindergartens, elementary schools, and secondary schools and high schools.

"Resources are necessary for education, but not sufficient for essential education. "Creative thinking, critical intelligence, deep commitment, connection with students, believing deeply that students can learn are other critical essentials." Yet, when 1% of the population has roughly the same wealth as the bottom 95% of the population, there needs to be a serious discussion about the wealth inequality in this country.

"Charity is not justice."

"I am not optimistic. Anyone who has the audacity to adopt a democratic vision cannot be optimistic, though I do not conflate optimism with hope." Hope means one keeps keeping on to come together to form communities and schools that embody democratic principles.

"Maybe we have a problem. Maybe we ought to really try to take seriously multiracial democracy. Which we know was not the division of the founding fathers, even given their relative wisdom. They could not conceive of black, white, red, yellow, all having equal citizenship status. They could not conceive of women having equal citizenship status. And one says that not to trash them just contextualize them. They had wisdom but it is relative to context, just as we have wisdom today but it is relative to our context. But we are building on their vision...if we do not wrestle...with [its] overwhelming inequality and increasing inequality, then yes, we can begin to lose that precious democratic tradition that was transmitted, bequeathed to us by the best of those who came before."

West reminds us of a staple from the Martin Luther King legacy which was to let go of bitterness, hatred and revenge, regardless of history. We must fall in love with peace and justice and the desire to serve.

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.