Leadership

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I’m thinking about collaborative learning, and, because of an odd point of synchronicity–leadership. First of all, there’s a video on YouTube that is a focal point of my musing. Alex Hughes, an 11th grader from Greensboro, North Carolina, made it for a Dept of Education contest. He is obviously a student with drive, talent, and resources–all important ingredients for success. Maybe those are not the only ingredients needed for success, but kids who have those can accomplish amazing things. Add some friends to support the effort, and–violá! An award-winning video.

It’s clear that Alex Hughes understands 21st century skills. He’s used technology to engage an audience for a specific purpose in an authentic situation. He’s worked collaboratively with his peers, judging by the list of friends who helped him and who appear in the video. He apparently takes ownership of his learning and shown leadership.

A couple days after I watched this video, I attended the University of Toledo’s graduation. It was an impressive scene, with over 1000 graduates. The usual graduation hyperbole was flying with lightning speed, as was appropriate for the occassion. The keynote speaker was Dr. David Eaglesham, a vice president of First Solar, an international company on the cutting edge of green technologies. As he was exhorting the grads to go out in the world and do great things, he said something along the lines of “In the coming years, you need to all be leaders.” My ears perked up and the wheels started whirring. All 1000 plus grads needed to be leaders? Really? So….who’s going to follow? Doesn’t being a leader imply that someone is there, shoring up the rear?

Which lead me back to Alex Hughes, the embryonic Spielberg. As I consider all the various techniques for using collboration in the classroom, there’s one element that can’t be turned into a nifty protocol or check off box on a rubric: for a group to function well, it needs a leader. That doesn’t imply that we need mini-Mussilinis making all the railroads run on time, either. Alex Hughes evidently is a leader. He knows how to organize, he knows how to get people to buy-in and be productive. While leaders obviously can refine their skills, and people can learn skills to lead, many people are not suited to be leaders.

And that’s okay. Really. For a leader to be effective, people who believe in the vision and will take responsibility for helping make it come true are crucial. Ask Alex Hughes–or President Obama, whose friend Rahm Emanuel is working as Chief of Staff to make Obama’s White House effective. Or any Academy Award-winning actor, who was making the writer’s and director’s and producer’s visions come to life, following someone else’s vision to produce a film.

We need to teach students to be responsible, to be curious, to solve problems, and all those other 21st century skills that are becoming ubiquitous buzzwords–but maybe instead of pretending we can teach them to all be leaders, we need to help them learn how to carefully choose who they follow and which visions they should support. I’m still thinking this through, but I’m considering how to use collaboration in the classroom to develop not just leaders, but examplary, creative, effective followers who can challenge their teams and their leaders to achieve more than they imagined possible. That doesn’t sound as….deingrating, I guess…as it did before I thought about Alex Hughes

Letter I just sent to the Powers That Be

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Note: This is very dated and specific to a situation that is long ago, but I love how deeply I felt all this at the time.

I know how deeply you care about our kids’ education, and that when you are making decisions and considering hard issues, the impact on the students is in the forefront of your mind. I don’t question that in the least, so I’ve been biting my tongue and silencing my email for a of couple years now, trusting that my personal reservations about campus wear were based on my inability to see the big picture. After two years of campus wear at the high school, I am concerned that we may have all lost sight of the cosmic picture frame.

Here’s what has prompted my finally writing to you: I have heard from several teachers—including people not in my school—as well as two students about your reaction when you walked into the music room during a senior project presentation. Exactly what the student was doing as the project is not part of the grapevine retelling, nor is how well the task was accomplished. Instead of the focus being on the student’s project, the story flying around recounts how appalled you were by the dress code violations.

Although I’m not working on senior projects this year, I am a firm supporter of them, and want the MI students to value them, be invested in them, and yes, even be nervous and concerned about how well they are completing them. We make the task demanding for a reason: so the students have truly accomplished something noteworthy if and when they pass. I’m troubled that the topic of discussion at lunch tables and hallways is not the senior project, but how people in an ancillary position relating to the project were dressed.

This incident crystallizes one of the key issues relating to the campus wear policy: the balance between focusing on “rigor, relevance and relationships,” the three R’s we have been told would revolutionize our school, and focusing on compliance. As you just demonstrated, I’m sure with the best intentions, that balance is difficult. If we as teachers are to seek rigor and relationship, to get the student’s trust as their advocate, we undercut it in many students’ minds if the first words they hear in class relate to their clothing. Regardless how gently we phrase it, in many students’ worldview that makes us enforcers first. That is not indicative of the educational atmosphere I loved teaching in when we went to the small school concept, and it’s at least one component changing the climate in our school for the worse.

There is an issue tying in with that I think underlies many of the problems with enforcing the dress code: the students have not bought in. They do not really understand why it exists, or believe that campus wear will improve anything. As Chasity Boedicker said in her speech last year when she spoke to the dress code committee, the dress code feels like punishment for low test scores and being from a poor school. “How high do our grades have to be to make this go away,” I’ve been asked. We can explain and justify all we want, but high school students aren’t stupid; they know that Shawnee, Bath, and Elida don’t have campus wear and do better on the tests—as well as having parents who will get involved if they question a policy. When I go to church, or the store, or even to family events, I hear griping not about enforcement of the policy, but the policy itself. And believe me, I’m not the one raising the topic. I’m incredibly tired of thinking about it!

The campus wear policy has done one thing well: it has polarized the adults involved in enforcing it. Some people notice clothing quickly; some people couldn’t tell you what their spouse wore at their wedding! Some are very color sensitive; some didn’t know that baby blue, sky blue and light turquoise were different colors. Some people do not mind beginning class by calling out students for untucked shirts; other people are have multiple papers, late work, make up assignments and other tasks occupying their thoughts. Until campus wear, we could embrace and applaud our quirks and differences, knowing that we are all committed to helping our students perform at the highest level possible. Now, the differences too often divide us into the people who are following the rules to the letter and the people who aren’t—all still with the best of intentions, but the difference still exists.

Out of respect for Jeff last year, and for Sue this year, I’ve kept my concerns quiet. But as I sat in a sermon during Holy Week, I felt indicted by the story of Jesus overturning the tables at the temple. If I don’t tell you what I am concerned about, I am giving you and my students less than my best effort. Our students’ needs are so overwhelming in so many ways. I have to keep asking myself if the time we spend on this issue is key to helping our students learn to navigate the 21st century, or if we are working hard to win a battle, regardless of the effect on the war? The more I think about that, the less I like my answer. Since you were in the music room, maybe you have some frame of reference for understanding how easily we can lose sight of the mission at hand as we deal with the students on an hour by hour, day by day basis.

I didn’t mean to write so much, but there are even more points I could make. However, thank you for your time and consideration–and I do hope you have a good rest of the day!

My Patron Saint

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2020 Note: I no longer am Methodist or want to turn Quaker, but St Clare is still my patron saint.

Ok, so a Methodist who wants to turn Quaker probably shouldn’t have a patron saint. I understand that. But when I discovered St Clare, there was no choice. As a saint, she’s got impeccable creditials. She was one of St Francis of Assisi’s first followers, and was noted for her disdain and disinterest in worldly possessions and events. She is described as having a “radical commitment to poverty,” (wikipedia) meaning she did not believe in personal or even communal ownership of anything. She is the founder of the order of nuns nicknamed the Poor Clares, who are among the strictest about not having personal property. She lived from 1194-1253.

So far, typical nun. No doubt holy and awesome, but…ho hum. BUT, in 1958, Pope Pius XII surrendered to a massive fit of irony and named Clare the Patron Saint of Television. Pius was obviously an insightful man, to realize as early as 1958 that television would need a patron saint, so I applaud his choice. St. Clare, the saint of poverty, also the saint of conspicuous consumption, culture-altering advertising, and total shifting of the societal zeitgeist? I need a T shirt for her. Or him. Using irony to make the point about how television would impact post-modern sensibilities, as a statement about the commodity-driven paradigm shifts that would occur because of the flickering influence of Lucy, Mike Wallace, AlkaSelser ads, Disney channel, and Saturday Night Live–the pope was a prescient genius.

I know that the cynical amoung you will suggest that the pope didn’t anticipate all that, couldn’t have guessed that TV would turn our population cynical, selfish, and sedentary–that’s the impact of television you’re feeling, you know! Yippee for St Clare! August 12th is my new Feast Day. I’m writing the ceremony now!

A Letter to Limaland re: Sparkle & Twinkle

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Dear Limaland,

I have a favor to ask. Maybe I’m presumptuous to imagine that all 60,000 or so of you will pitch in to help, but it’s the season for surprises.

For a few weeks, could you all believe in Santa? And—more importantly– Santa’s elves?  I know that’s asking a lot from some of you, the Grinches and the Srcoges especially, but it’s important. My daughter is a second grader, so this is likely to be the last year she approaches Christmas with an openhearted conviction that magic lurks in hidden corners of our world. I know that “the truth about Santa” is knocking on the door, but we can wait till after Christmas to answer.

Until then, could you be careful about the comments you make about the Jolly Old Elf when you’re in the line at the store? And could you maybe wait until you’re in the privacy of your own home before watching movies like “The Santa Clause” and “Prancer,” where disbelief is assumed as normal, especailly if you happen to keep movies running in the background, like at the local video store?

See, my daughter Bethany still believes in Santa. In fact, she regularly gets email from two of his elves, 9 year old twins named Sparkle and Twinkle. My daughter has heard stories about the elf twins since she was three years old. She still sometimes asks for Sparkle and Twinkle stories at bedtime, but when Sparkle and Twinkle started learning to read, they began sending her email full of details about daily life in Santa’s Village.

Sparkle and Twinkle attend school in Santa’s village. They learned to read by helping in the mailroom, and their math lessons involve helping in Mrs. Claus’ cookie bakery. In fact, they can count by dozens as fast as most children count by five’s since Mrs. Claus’ cookies are shipped by the dozen. Just as some families raise German Shepherds to be trained as guide dogs, Sparkle and Twinkle’s family has a polar bear cub they are training to help around Santa’s Village—polar bears are better for some of the heavy work than reindeer, of course.

Bethany knows the whole extended Elf family through bedtime stories and emails, including little cousin Joy, big sister Merry (who is currently an apprentice in the doll clothes division of the workshop), and the rambunctious neighbor boy elf who messes up the twins’ games. Many people spend hours trying to find ways to entice their children to practice reading and writing; Bethany rushes to check her email to see if the elf twins have written, and she is amazingly diligent as she composes answers to their letters.

Probably some of you are worried about the effects of this…deception. As a high school teacher, I have a front row seat for talking with kids about their loss of innocence, Christmas version.  I’ve discovered that many kids know for at least a year before they let on to their parents. They instinctively understand that part of the fun is believing, and they don’t want to spoil the fun either for themselves or their parents. The fact is, very few students have ever been outraged at the Great Santa Hoax.

My older children passed through this phase of development with no obvious scars on their psyche—at least Santa-related ones—and I suspect that Bethany, the Princess of Pretend, will adjust equally well.  And even my son, who is by nature somewhat Grinch-like, tolerates Bethany’s friendship with Sparkle and Twinkle with only the occasional sigh.

For those of you who are concerned about the real meaning of Christmas getting lost among the glitter and elven magic, fear not. Bethany excels in knowing what’s pretend and what’s real; her Sunday school lessons have reinforced the birth of Jesus as the reason for the season. In our family, the secular and the sacred complement each other, and the joy, wonder and generosity of Santa is seen almost as an extension of the Good News—St. Nicholas’ response to God’s gift, in a way.

So, I haven’t asked much of Lima before, knowing how busy we’ve all been with pressing issues and daily concerns. I know that Sparkle and Twinkle are living on borrowed time–as much as mythical, imaginary beings can—but I have faith in Lima’s holiday spirit. Thank you from the toe of my pointed slipper for helping keep Santa alive one more season.

Published in the Lima News, 2005 (approx)