Comments on: Mindful precedent

By: mike vitelli

mike vitelli — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

interesting view…http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/7/10/1/an-hour-on-education-with-national-teachers-of-the-year

By: Daniel Winters

Daniel Winters — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

This is a very real danger. Some of us forget that criticism can be a gift as our visions can get a little myopic. First of all, It’s a good idea to float ideas out to a leadership team for refinement before going forward schoolwide. Better yet, shared decision making processes create a culture where ideas belong to the staff instead of being imposed from adminisration. Also, I think leaders gain lots of credibility when they actually pull an idea back after initial negative feedback and poor results. This is a good model of risk taking and learning from failures that teachers can emulate in their classroom as well.

By: Skip Olsen

Skip Olsen — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Developing hubris and forgetting humility. I don’t even like the term “leader” but rather like to think of leadership in the organization. That implies leadership is throughout and deeply imbedded in the organization. The best principals I’ve seen are those who see themselves as part of a team of professionals, not THE leader.

Reflection, coaching, peer consultation, Parker Palmer’s clearness committee process, keeping a journal, having a critical friends network—these are all things that come to mind to help prevent hubris and to keep a healthy attitude/perspective.

By: D.C. Hess

D.C. Hess — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

We must also be wary of being mindlessly groundbreaking as well. Leaders who cite mindful precedent are resistant to change because they have seen futile change efforts before. They are wary of people eager for change but who march forward blindly. Or even worse, they have seen those who use change to simply peddle their newest edproduct© at the expense of the school. Leaders need to be open to change that is mindfully without precedent.

So the question becomes: How do we strike a balance between mindful precedent and mindful change? How do we make sure the former doesn’t rule out the latter as too much of a risk?

By: Marshall

Marshall — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

As long as it is mindFUL, precedent and change both should then have a purpose that has been explored. Routines without reason and change without cause are the risks.

By: Jeff Schumacher

Jeff Schumacher — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

The comments from this masters’ student is well penned. One dimension I would offer is that of leadership, inside and outside of the confines of the schoolhouse walls. 21st century schools require the community to support change to the extent that pressure for change occurs from the establishment (educators) out AND the stakeholders (community).
Indeed, the practice of homecoming queen posses the same visionary disconnection to needed change as undifferentiated teaching, overhead projectors and powerpoint lectures as cutting edge technology, and the eight period day.

Leadership that asks the critical questions, hires those who most closely approximate the answers, challenges resistors, and builds the environment for change is most likely to tilt change.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

We might prefer that administrators bureaucrats and politicians, but any administrator whose job is at the whim of a school board is first and foremost a politician, and any administrator who has to answer to the state is first and foremost a bureaucrat.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

revised:

We might prefer that administrators not be bureaucrats and politicians, but any administrator whose job is at the whim of a school board is first and foremost a politician, and any administrator who has to answer to the state is first and foremost a bureaucrat. It would be nice to believe that most administrators, even if heavy handed, make decisions based on their belief, experience and conscience, but survival and self protection is the real driving force in the machine of education. Sorry to be such a cynic, but it’s been true in my experience.

By: Steven Kimmi

Steven Kimmi — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Excellent thoughts in this piece, things I would like to hear more about. It seems to me, that our preservice programs and new teacher orientation processes are an excellent place to start bringing about some of these changes. In fact these are the two places I where we should concentrate on bringing change as heavily as possible.

Change does require some administrative buy-in, but not necessarily exuberance. And, just like in the classroom, we have to expect that it will require some work to get us where we need to be, we cannot simply say, we are here, if you are not, go home. Just was we engage students and let them explore, we need to be doing the same with teachers.