Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So, early on when I, in my principalship
we did apply for the National Blue Ribbon Award.
It wasn't so much a reflection of what I had done.
It was a reflection of the school.
One of 250 schools in the, in the country.
We were selected, it was a.
Quite a process.
So it was, you know, it was a good school, but I really had
other visions.
I think we could, we could do better.
So the process of changing the school culture, and it might
not just be a school culture, it could be whatever, is incremental.
In step by step.
And here are some of the key elements, I
think, in terms of my own philosophy, philosophy of educational
leadership.
Okay first of all, core values and vision.
The vision is something that needs to be articulated and.
I'll kind of talk about that as we go here.
Student centered.
For me, it was all about the students.
So my, my thought was
when I kind of came, came to think about this, I, remember I was thinking
about this process of change and how
we're going to move along in this process.
I started thinking of the, of the school as.
My classroom.
So taking some of the imagery I had as a classroom teacher, and
applying that to the whole school, I
just fundamental, students are honored and respected.
Total commitment.
We talked about that.
Being all in it.
Being of service.
My approach was, even though I was the principal,
I was basically in service of everybody else there.
So if you were a classroom teacher and you needed something, if it was
that bulb needed to be changed and
the custodian was kind of monkeying around.
I got a ladder and.
Changed the bulb.
Or if you had a parent that is a, just totally stepping over the line.
Call me and I'll reestablish that boundary.
Transparency.
You know, this is again, something I learned
from the principle that I first worked with.
If you're going to do this, you do what you're talking about.
You can't do it in kind of, a.
[COUGH]
>> You gotta be inside who you are on the outside.
Everything has to be congruent.
What you say and what you do fit with who you are.
You can't fake it.
because if you, start faking it, people pick it up.
Creating a path.
And one thing I noticed is that when
things were static, that's when things started to
[INAUDIBLE].
Through leadership and modeling, I was creating a path,
in a sense a way, for others to follow along.
There's a, a Taoist saying.
Taoism is a Chinese philosophy.
Whatever you do, don't wobble.
So in, in that way I'm not talking about you're
so confident that you don't you know, readjust to changing conditions.
But your own,
again you're providing a.
A secure path for people to follow.
And in the same way, you're creating proper
boundaries for people to, relate to each other.
Best practices.
A quote by, from Picaso, Picaso said.
Good artists borrow.
Great artists steal.
So when I looked around, I looked at those schools that had
[INAUDIBLE],
a chunk of that.
Why aren't we doing this?
Take those best practices, and their, their part of your thing,
and after a while, you forgot you got it from someone else.
Hire well.
I was looking for teachers that reflected the core values,
and teachers, who I thought had the capacity for growth.
This is the story of, of John Lennon and his band.
So he had this, John Lennon had his band The Quarrymen.
And so he was kind of like, trying to bring some new musicians in.
And Paul McCartney.
And John heard him sing and song play and
[INAUDIBLE].
He said heck
[INAUDIBLE].
But if I didn't bring him into the band, what are my leadership skills?
Right now, I'm the guy.
And what he decided to do, was go with Paul McCartney.
So again, it's that ability sometimes to submerge the ego,
and not worry about how it's going to reflect on you.
And then I would say, there's always
going to be some, they're not there, they're not on the bus.
And even through that bond.
And that's hard work.
Firing somebody for doing something
like that is difficult stuff, especially
[INAUDIBLE].
But with the Dead, it wasn't really a,
it was really totally all about the music.
It was not about egos.
They were kind of like, you know, these two guys were the leaders, but.
The
concert was a fun place to be.
There was a melding of everybody there, kind of a communal thing.
Let's lean off the drugs and all that kind of
stuff, and you know, some hippy dippy and all of that.
But I'm just saying, as.
It happened, everybody comes and goes.
In a sense, all the stakeholders in musicians,
the audience, the roadies, were on the same page,
working together in a tremendous collaboration.
The experience was joyful.
Improvisational.
The sense of movable feast.
So I mean, why not think big?