Progress Culture and the Limitations of Design Leaders

EXPLO Elevate scours the world for exceptional ideas, practices, and wisdom to help schools and their communities thrive now and in the future.

Dear Friend,

From the Desk of Ross Peters, EXPLO Elevate Managing Partner

March 2020 Lesson: Be the Adults We Want Our Children to Become

I am afraid March will forever be complicated by an additional association after March 2020–the official entry of the pandemic into our collective consciousness. That particular March adds a strange and bitter taste to what is a largely pleasant potpourri for our collective early Spring tabletop of daffodils and lighter jackets. I associate March with exiting Winter, yet 2020 was far more of an entrance into a dark set of transitions.

Looking back at what I wrote that March, I am fascinated by several things: my naiveté, my privilege of relative comfort and safety, and my clear yearning for things I might be able to count on in a moment of trial.

Much of what I wrote, however, feels instructive and relevant to our lives today as we find ourselves struggling against forces that are myriad, powerful, and ever present. Most important in my reflection is the recognition that to create a positive impact in any area of our lives–family, work, or community, we must begin with ourselves. For those of us who work in or with schools, we must, as I said at the end of the second piece I wrote, “be the adults we want for our children to become.”

From the desk of Moira Kelly, EXPLO President

The political season, civil discourse, and meaningful conversation

We now have two presumptive presidential candidates and civil discourse is not the phrase of the day. Tung Trinh, Dean of Faculty at the Collegiate School and EXPLO Elevate consultant has penned a few words on "What is a School to Do?"

I was recently doing work with the universities/college that will be hosting the presidential and vice-presidential debates this fall. (You plan for what you want to come to pass.) We were discussing educational programming and I recommended they take a look at a Bowdoin College civil discourse project run in conjunction with Makeshift Coffee House. The program, What Matters, had Bowdoin students speaking with rural Mainers. A version of the What Matters program or Makeshift’s coffee house format could be a meaningful project for schools to take on to explore political and generational divides.

What we think we know, data, and innovation

This year is the 20th anniversary of the New Yorker publication of Atul Gawande’s The Bell Curve. I’ve been using it for just about that long with administrative teams. It eloquently probes at what you think you know (but often don’t), how important regularly collecting and reviewing data is over time, and the ingredients of innovation.

Smart phones aren’t that smart for kids

If you haven’t read the recent Atlantic article, End the Phone-Based Childhood Now, by Jonathan Haidt, please do. I’ve already passed it along to two boards and it was eye opening for many.

An excellent board assessment tool with very high ROI

Finding a good board assessment tool can be difficult and expensive. Years ago, Deborah Hirsch (former president of the High Meadows Graduate School of Teaching and Learning) brought the New Hampshire Center for Non-Profits (NHCNP) to my attention. They have a board assessment tool that’s an incredible value at $89. NHCNP sends out the assessment to all of your board members. They do the reminding and they tabulate all the data anonymously, which can be important in getting board members to be forthright. I find two sections of their final report particularly useful–areas of strength and areas where your board can use some additional work.

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Junk, play, imagination, and problem solving

As part of my peripatetic childhood, I lived down the road from a junkyard filled with equipment and materials from a decommissioned Nike missile site. That junk yard filled hours of time for me and my siblings. I remember my brothers building a rudimentary but operational satellite listening device with WWII headphones. That combined with a telescope made for some interesting spy work of which my mother did not approve. So I was nodding when I ran across the Loose Parts Play Toolkit from Scotland. Yes, it likely makes most playgrounds messier, but so much much more fun and powerful.

Thanks for reading,
Moira

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