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 All were patchwork solutions to fix an outdated institution that is now making our nation lose ground in the global economy.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]

...............................

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

Spiritual Leaders "Travel"

Thanks to Dr. James Scheurich who directed me to the work of the late Dr. Julie Laible who was tragically killed in the spring of 1999.

One of the last pieces of scholarship written by Dr. Julie Laible is a keynote address she delivered for the Campus Ministers' Association Faith Seeking Understanding Lecture in March 1999. It was titled, A loving epistemology: what I hold critical in my life, faith and profession.

It was ironic that she mentioned in this speech that part of the request for her to speak was "the last lecture I would ever give" considering that it truly was one of the last speeches, if not the last, that she would ever give. This makes her words even more powerful.

The last idea she covered in this speech was the importance of "traveling." She quoted from an article, Playfulness, World-travelling, and Loving Perception, written by Maria Lugones in 1987:

Knowing other's "worlds" is part of knowing them and knowing them is part of loving them...without knowing the other's world, one does not know the other, and without knowing the other one is really alone in the other's presence because the other is only dimly present to me. Through traveling to the other's "worlds" we discover that there are "worlds" in which those who are victims of arrogant perceptions are really subjects, live beings, resistors, constructors of visions even though the mainstream construction they are animated only by the arrogant, perceive and are pliable, foldable, file-awayable, and classifiable. (Pp. 17-18).

Dr. Laible adds that by traveling to someone else's world we can understand what it is to be them and even more importantly we see what it is to be ourselves in their eyes This "traveling" can be through physical movement or talking to others or reading the literature written by others. In other words, we can't sit in our "worlds" and expect the marginalized to come to us. We must "travel" and be out amongst the people to begin to understand their "worlds."

As we "travel" it will become clear that we truly are a part of each other as John Donne so eloquently expresses:

'No Man is an Island'No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as any manner of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man's death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

Spiritual Leaders Have A Cause--A Cause That Will Cost Something

Spiritual leaders have a cause--a belief in something greater than themselves and something they are not only willing to die for, but also to live for---no matter what the cost.

Great minds have causes. According to John C. Maxwell, people with a cause pray, risk, plan, observe, sacrifice, expect, and unite more than the ordinary person.

If one's cause is only personal ambition, it will be impossible to think outside of the box. Yet, thinking outside the box is absolutely essential if our diverse learners are going to be served.

I had a principal who told me that his goal was to become a superintendent. Once I knew this I knew that he would never do what it would take to make a difference for the diverse learners in our school who happened to be about 80% of the school population. Why? In order to become a superintendent he would have to focus his attention on pleasing higher up people and being liked by people. He was liked, and he even did some good things, but his ambition but a lid on what he could have done if his cause had been bigger than his own ambition.

Being committed to a cause, though, no matter how worthy that cause may be, comes with a price. John C. Maxwell says in his book, Be All You Can Be, that commitment to a cause goes through four stages:

Stage One: The world recognizes one's commitment

Stage Two: The world will be annoyed by one's commitment

Stage Three: The world will question one's commitment

Stage Four: The world will test one's commitment

Maxwell goes onto to say that one will come to a commitment to a cause crossroad when a choice will need to be made---a choice that will require a decision that will cost something. That cost may be a friendship, one's popularity, one's security, scorn from others, etc. It will be an all or nothing decison. Yet, that decision will be the turning point for the cause and when one can truly start to make a difference

It well may be said of a leader who is willing to make this kind of commitment the same as what was said of Esther in Esther 4:14,..."and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

Spiritual leaders care

Spiritual leaders care. As Dr. Nel Noddings teaches us, though, there is a difference between "care about" and "care for."

Social justice and achievement gap and multicultural education are currently three very hot topics in the education field. They have even extended to a larger field. The whole nation (and even other nations!) has entered into the discussion. Just entering one of them as a "google search" will bring up thousands of entries on the topic. The terms are discussed in universities, in the newspaper, on TV news programs, on talk radio, at school board meetings, in churches, in political circles, and even at family gatherings. Books and articles galore have been written about them. There are numerous websites--and even "blogs"--that focus on them. Task forces have been formed to study the issues and make recommendations.

There are obviously many who "care about" these three issues, including how they relate to one another. Yet, not much has changed. Why?

The late Dr. Ronald Edmonds from Harvard University said almost thirty years ago:

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.

I would add that we haven't gone past the "care about" to the "care for." We, as individuals and as communities, haven't committed ourselves to implement the solutions to what we say we "care about." Those who have moved from "care about" to "care for" are the ones who are making or who have made the difference.--- people like Salome El-Thomas, Erin Gruwell, Ron Clark, Jaime Escalante, Hector Montenegro, etc.

Spiritual Leaders Stand In Holy Places

Spiritual leaders seek to stand in holy places

Let's first contemplate the word seek. What does it mean to seek? It means to go in search of, in quest of. It also means to go to and to ask for, request. In other words, it requires one to be proactive.

Next let's consider the meaning of holy places as I am using the term in this context. Holy places not only refer to buildings such as churches but holy places can refer to all the places that uplift and inspire us to be more and to be better. Holy places, therefore, can include the people with whom we choose to associate, the books we choose to read, the movies and television programs we choose to watch, the internet sites we choose to visit, the music we choose to listen to, the events we choose to attend, and even the thoughts we choose to entertain.

Now let's consider the meaning of the two terms together, seek and holy places. The 13th Article of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints says in part, ....."if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." With so much that isn't holy--virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy-- in our world, we must literally seek for that which is. We must make it a quest to search for holy places.

When we find people who are holy places, we can request that they mentor us and/or counsel with us. When we read a book, attend a lecture, or listen to a cassette tape, etc. that is a holy place, we can approach it with pen in hand to capture that which inspires, uplifts, and/or teaches us.

Because we attract into our lives that which we are, as we proactively seek for that which is holy, we will attract holy places to us. As spiritual leaders become united through this mutual attraction they we will be in a stronger position to have a greater influence and impact on the lives of our diverse learners.

A Spiritual Leader Writes

Dr. Festus Obiakor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee gave a presentation at BYU called Let Your Work Speak.

In order to have one's work speak, a spiritual leader will take time to read, ponder, reflect, and write. In other words, if spiritual leaders are to make a difference for diverse learners, they must think. Albert Einsten said, "The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking." If the dismal education world for diverse learners is going to change, there must be a change in thinking.

Benjamin Disraeli said, "The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it." Well, it may not have to be a book, but it at least needs to be a journal article (even if it is rejected!) or it may be no more than a "Letter to the Editor" or a personal journal entry.

This writing must not be done to please others, but it must follow the counsel of William Wordsworth, "Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart....." One of the greatest writers of all time, Charles Dickens, learned this lesson. It was when he remembered and reflected upon his own life--the difficulties of his life--- and combined the images of the present with the past that he experienced an enormous burst of creative energy that subordinated all his problems, including his own depression and the possibility of financial ruin. The result of that burst of creative energy was the magnificent story, A Christmas Carol, which has blessed so many lives.


We learn from this incident in the life of Charles Dickens that not only does writing clear the cobwebs out of one's own head, but "The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think" (Edwin Schlossberg) and "But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling, like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think" (Lord Byron). And I would add, feel.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton eloquently expressed the impact writing can have on those who do the writing as well as those who read it: "The pen is mightier than the sword."

Spiritual Leader: Men and Women of Integrity

John S. Tanner, BYU Academic Vice PresidentA-387 ASB(801) 422-6201mailto:422-6201john_tanner@byu.edu

Dr. Tanner recently wrote an essay for BYU people entitled, Overheard by God. In this essay he refers to a book called Overheard by God written by A. D. Nuttal. He tells how the message of this book is a reminder that our lives our open books to God, overheard and overseen by Him. We must always remember that we are in fact always, "walking in his presence."

Dr. Tanner goes onto say that we need to be men and women of integrity no matter who sees our actions or who does not. We must not be like Gyges in Plato's The Republic who used the ring he found that allowed him to be invisible to use that power of invisibleness to do evil. A truly virtuous person would act the same whether he were visible or invisible.

My response: The world of multicultural education is hungering for men and women of integrity, of all ethnic backgrounds, to step forward and be leaders in advocating for ways to best serve our diverse learners.

Dr. James Scheurich: A Moral/Spiritual Leader

The work of Dr. James Scheurich, a Texas A&M University professor and dept. head, is an excellent resource for those interested in this topic of Moral/Spiritual Leadership For Multicultural Education.

Dr. Sherry Marx from Utah State University first introduced me to Dr. Scheurich with a work of his that has had a dramatic effect on my life:

Highly successful and loving, public elementary schools populated mainly by lows-ses children of color: Core beliefs and cultural characteristics
James Joseph Scheurich. Urban Education. Thousand Oaks: Nov 1998. Vol. 33, Iss. 4; pg. 451, 41 pgs

Abstract (Summary)
The widespread existence of highly successful elementary schools populated mainly by low-socioeconomic-status students of color substantially undermines popular assumptions about the pervasive school failure of these students. Indeed, the fact that these highly successful schools are academically competitive with and even superior to the better Anglo schools suggests that these highly successful schools may have developed a better model for schooling.

Dr. Scheurich continues to have an influence on my work. Each time I communicate with him he introduces me to the work of others who in turn have been an influence. This last time it was the work of Julie Laible, Michael Dantley, Colleen Capper, and David Purpel.

Dr. Scheurich truly exemplifies one of the finest qualities of a moral/spiritual leader--helping others to achieve their goals.

"But That's Just Good Leadership"

In 1995 Gloria Ladson-Billings wrote an article entitled "ButThat's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy." She explains in the article that what is considered good teaching must be reexamined to understand that teaching that does not serve ALL students cannot be described or understood as good teaching.

I agree with George Theoharis in his article "Social Justice Educational Leaders and Resistance: Towards a Theory of Social Justice Leadership" that the same issue that Ladson-Billings addresses to teaching applies to educational leadership. To be an effective leader with diverse learners goes beyond what the literature defines as good leadership. Leadership that is not focused on what it takes for all children to be successful is not indeed good leadership.

According to Theoharis (and I would concur!), in order to provide "good" leadership (hopefully, excellent leadership) for all students, the content of leadership preparation programs need to provide content in required courses related to the following areas: special education, English Language Learners, curriculum, differentiation and teaming, using data, presentation skills, race, poverty, working with diverse families, taking a global perspective, etc.

When so many of our diverse learners are still not experiencing academic success, we must not only reexamine and redefine good teaching and good leadership, but also do whatever it takes to prepare educators to be excellent teachers and leaders for ALL students.

Great Website About Tolerance

There is a great website to visit: www.teachingtolerance.org When you visit this website, take some time to explore.

Religion and Academic Achievement

Dr. Jeynes has recently published his work on the influence of intact families and religion on academic achievement. As indicated below, he has also written a book on this topic.

Non-Resident Fellow, Education
California State University, Long Beach
Department of Teacher Education
(562) 985-4506(562) 985-5733 (Fax)
Phone: 562-985-5619Email: wjeynes@csulb.edu

News
Dr. Jeynes is one of the nation's leading researchers on the influence of religiosity and attending religious schools. He has conducted the only meta-analysis ever undertaken examining these issues in a series of journal articles and in his book, Religion, Education, and Academic Success. He has also written dozens of academic journal articles, which have divulged among other things that when African American and Latino students are religious and from intact families, the achievement gap with white students disappears.William Jeynes is also the Chair of the Religion and Education group of the American Education Research Association.

Spiritual Leaders Understand "Belonging"

We, as human beings, have a longing to belong. Feeling that we belong provides comfort and security as well as conveying that our lives have meaning and value. This helps explain why people, especially our young people, go to such lengths to belong---even if that means joining a gang. And then we see the disastrous results that can occur when one doesn't feel that he/she belongs anywhere--suicides, eating disorders, drug abuse, killing sprees, unwed teen mothers, etc.

It is crucial that we do all we can to help our diverse students feel a sense of belonging in our schools. With all the hype about immigration even so far as people telling immigrants, even young people, to go home because we don't want them here doesn't convey to them a sense of belonging. Sadly, we even have educators who have this attitude. Ironically, some of these young people (and adults!) are home--this is the only country they know and they don't even speak their 1st language. A majority of them are U.S. citizens.

Maslow has belonging as the second rung of his hierarchy ladder, and Dr. William Glasser lists it as one of the five needs we all have in his "Choice Theory" for Quality Schools. Dr. William Purkey and Invitational Education elaborate on specifics schools can do to make schools inviting for ALL studnets, and thus provide a sense of belonging.

Clarence W. Joldersma from Calvin College has a chapter in the book Nurturing and Reflective Teachers that provides some new light on what it means in regards to the uniqueness of our students. He suggests that valuing uniqueness doesn't mean focusing on differences, or even similarities, but realizing that each child regardless of his/her contribution is irreplaceable as an image bearer of God--someone chosen by God "to be." [and therefore, belongs!] He goes on to say that educators serve God by pedagocally ministering to the needs of each student within his/her stewardship.

Spiritual leaders understand this need for belonging that each person within his/her stewardship has and therefore, will commit to do " whatever it takss," for each and everyone within his/her stewardship to have this need met.

Christians and Multicultural Education

http://www.huntington.edu/education/old_site/Nurturing.htm

A book I had requested called Nuturing and Reflective Teachers arrived in the mail yesterday. I started to read it and have been so impressed. It is a book that anyone interested in multicultural education issues will want to read. Information about the book and how to order it can be accessed at the website at the top of this posting. There is also a study guide to go along with the book.

Effects of Religious Commitment on Academic Achievement

I just read this morning a primary research paper called, The Effects of Religious Commitment on the Academic Achievement of Urban and Other Children, by Willliam H. Jeynes. For those of us interested in better serving our diverse learners, the findings from this research can definitely give us some food for thought.

Reference: Education and Urban Society 2003; 36; 44

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.

Spiritual Leadership: Invitational Education

Those interested in spiritual leadership and it's relationship to multicultural education issues will want to become familiar with Dr. William Purkey's work on Invitational Education. As a starter you could take a look at his starfish analogy at http://www.invitationaleducation.net/ie/starfish.htm

Spiritual Leader Website

As I have been doing some research on spiritual leadership for a research paper for one of my classes I have met some incredible people. One person is Dr. Laura Reave. She told me about a website, www.iispiritualleadership.com, that is an excellent resource for anyone interested in spiritual leadership. The research leader for this site is Dr. Jody Fry, a leader in spiritual leadership.

An Alternative Thought to Ponder by Izzy Kalman

These thoghts came from the newsletter of Izzy Kalman, author of Bullies2Buddies:

Racism and Freedom of Speech
I am a strong proponent of Freedom of Speech, and demonstrate repeatedly at my seminars through role- playing that the true practice of Freedom of Speech is the solution to bullying. It even works with racial, religious, gender, and sexual-orientation harassment. I have volunteers come up and play a bigot. When I try to stop them from expressing themselves, they continue to insult me and my group, and have no respect for me or my group. When I let them say what they want and treat them with respect, they inevitably stop insulting me and my group, and come away with more respect for me and my group.
Despite the obvious positive results of these demonstrations, some participants are so locked into thinking that no one should be permitted to insult anyone's background that they continue to insist that Freedom of Speech should not be permitted for such expression. One participant wrote that forbidding racial free speech has led to "civility" among the races.
These people don't realize that all it has led to is "civility." It has not led to meaningful relationships and friendships between the races. The races still, for the most part, stick to their own kind. And there is a good explanation for this. If I have to be so worried about hurting your feelings that I can be sued for saying something you might find offensive, I would rather stay away from you. I will be pleasant to you, but I'll stick to my own kind, where I don't have to worry about being sued for offending you. Because of this fear of being prosecuted for hurting each others feelings, it prevents us from eradicating our stereotypes. Destroying stereotypes requires us to get to know each other as human beings. By avoiding each other, we continue with our stereotypes. We keep them locked up inside, but they don't go away. And we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to get to know each other as fellow human beings.
On a few occasions, people - all from Hispanic countries - said to me following my presentations, that they were so happy to hear my views. They said things like, "Here in the United States, we can't make fun of anyone. Where I come from, everybody makes fun of each other, and if you are in a social situation and nobody insults you, you feel neglected." One psychologist approached me after a seminar and said he lived half of his life in Hawaii. Hawaii, he told me, has the greatest racial mix of all fifty States, but it also has the highest percentage of interracial births. In Hawaii, he told me, all the races make fun of each other. They don't go for this "political correctness" business. They can laugh at each other, and this breaks down racial barriers, bringing people closer to each other. The subject of racism has always concerned me, and in recent months, I have been contemplating tackling it - a rather daunting task. I have been a bit reluctant to do so because it is has become such a sensitive subject that I may be setting myself up for hateful attacks. Anyway, I have decided to take on this mission. To keep myself relatively safe, I will do it by advising my own group, the Jews, rather than tell other groups what they should do. In my forthcoming newsletters, I will be presenting my approach to ending discrimination, not by curtailing Freedom of Speech, but by correctly employing it. By the way, a horrific incident occurred this week. A hunter of Asian decent killed five of his fellow hunters. He said in his defense that he was racially insulted. I'm sure that those who fight for limiting freedom of speech will capitalize on this as proof how destructive racial insults are. It is easy to forget that the insults did not do the killing. People who don't know how to tolerate insults did the killing. And rather than teaching people how to tolerate insults without getting upset, we are teaching them that they SHOULD get upset by insults; that words kill and insults should not be tolerated - particularly insults about people's group affiliation. We are thereby unwittingly increasing the likelihood that people will want to kill when they are insulted. Best wishes, Izzy Kalman

Spiritual Leaders Care

Jeanetta Williams, Utah NAACP president, has a radio show on a KCPW, a public radio station. On one of her programs about a year ago she had some minority guests talking about education. At the time I was teaching a multicultural class at BYU (Brigham Young University). I called into the show and asked what they felt was the most important thing I could tell my students they needed to do to make a difference for diverse students. Overwhelming the answer was: CARE.

Hector Montenegro reinforced this principle at the recent UABE Conference when he stressed the importance that the #1 characteristic of an effective education leader is love for children---for ALL children. All includes those children who are poor, who don't speak English, who are from a different ethnic background, who have learning challenges, and even those who are belligerent.

That word ALL is even more critical when we consider the fact that our diverse student population is exploding while the diverse educator population is declining. The majority of those entering the education field are white middle class females. We obviously need to address this scenario, but while it is being addressed, all teachers, including white middle class, must have this #1 important characteristic--the ability to CARE for ALL children....OR they need to be strongly encouraged to leave the education field.

To CARE does not mean to feel sorry for the children. In fact, it means quite the opposite--which will be addressed in another blog.

A Must Read

By chance I ran across an article, Teaching Christianly in Public and Private Schools: A Responsibilty Model, by Stephen Holtrop that is a must read. It can be found at www.huntington.edu/education/faculty/sholtrop/philos.htm.

Spiritual Leaders Act on Inspiration

Superintendent Hector Montenegro was the keynote speaker for the UABE (Utah Assn. for Bilingual Education) Conference on October 12th and 13th. He definitely ranks as one of my top ten inspirational speakers.

Yet, I left the conference feeling quite discouraged..and even depressed. I have been doing some pondering as to understand why. I believe I've come to one of the key reasons.

It has been said, “Our feelings were given us to excite to action, and when they end in themselves, they are cherished to no good purpose” (Daniel Keyte Sandford, in The International Dictionary of Thoughts, comp. John P. Bradley, Leo F. Daniels, Thomas C. Jones, Chicago: J. G. Ferguson Publishing Co., 1969, p. 291). This means that once we have felt something, we must act in order to hold on to those feelings we experience. As C. S. Lewis said, “The more often [a person] feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel” (The Screwtape Letters, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1982, p. 61).

No matter how inspired people were at the conference, things will stay the same if people don't ask themselves, "How am I going to apply within my 'circle of influence' what I learned from Mr. Montenegro? " We have a tendency to go to conferences, take good notes and get inspired, and then fail to implement what we learned because:

• We make up excuses as to why it won't work in our situation
• We think about all the people who weren't there who should have been there to hear the message
• We complain about the fact that our leaders aren't a Hector Montenegro
• We just forget

....and the result being that we forget what we felt....and thus, things stay the same.

Spiritual leaders do more than attend a conference, take good notes, and get inspired. They leave a conference committed to implement at least one new idea/concept within their "circle of influence"----in spite of all the resistance and obstacles that they may encounter.

Spiritual Leadership: Meeting the Challenge

Spiritual leaders understand that best teaching practices are still waiting to be discovered. They know this is especially true when it comes to teaching our diverse learners.

Stephen Covey says in his book, The 8th Habit, that nothing fails like success. When there is a challenge and the response is equal to the challenge that is success. BUT when there is a new challenge, the old once-successful response no longer works. If it is the response implemented, it will result in failure.

Education is experiencing a new challenge---many of our schools are no longer predominantly white. This challenge of changing demographics requires different and new ideas beyond what was (and what is!) successful for a predominantly white student population

Spiritual leaders understand that to address this issue they will need to "build a ship that has never been built before." This will mean being a maverick and challenging the status quo by asking questions such as, "Why?' and "What if....?" ....and then being prepared to endure scorn and ridicule, even by "experts" in the field. Experts are often the least receptive to any new idea.

Yet, the very word research means to explore and find new ways. If we already had all the answers, there would be no need for research.

Spiritual Leadership Requires Righteous Motives

You probably know, as I do, that there is nothing quite like the sting that comes when one's motives are questioned or challenged.....especially when one has taken the risk to step out from the crowd to advocate for a cause greater than oneself The sting is even more painful and harder to endure when the criticism comes from those who are supposedly on the same side of the battle.



Yet, in spite of the painfulness of the sting, it provides an opportunity for us to ponder on our motives. Whenever our actions are motivated by a desire for a response from others whether that response be accolades, money, recognition, prestige, approval, etc., it would behoove us to do some changing.



It is not only the strength of a motive that is important but also the rightness or wrongness of it as L. Tom Perry suggests in his book, Righteous Influence. He goes onto say that power and influence are to be exercised only when a leader has in mind righteous purposes--pureness of heart. In other words, when and how a leader steps in has as much to do with the leader's readiness to do so as with the needs of the person (s) he/she desires to influence.



When one has a desire to influence another---to know when and how to step in (or back off!)--the first thing one should do is drop to his knees for guidance. From a personal conversation, L. Tom Perry quotes Jerry Harvey, a well-respected organizational scientist, "You don't really know anything about a leader until you know something about his prayer life."



Even if are motives are pure and even if we have prayed for guidance, there is still no guarantee that our motives won't be questioned or challenged. Others still have their free agency in how they choose to respond to our righteous motives. They may still falsely accuse us as Nephi was accused by his brothers, Laman and Lemuel, in the Book of Mormon of wanting to rule over them--in spite of all that he had done in their behalf.



If we are wrongly accused after we have determined that our motives are pure, we have the option of choosing to retreat or to go forward in spite of it. The cause depends on us choosing the latter... remembering the words of Albert Einstein,

"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds"