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.