Ten Year Olds and Dreams

There was an article in the Seattle Times on Wednesday, February 24th, that talked about the United States Nordic Combined Olympic team. The United States had never won an Olympic medal in a Nordic Combined event. Until this year.

This year, the United States won one individual medal and one team medal. The article talked about the effort of the US team and their excitement at winning this medal. It spoke of how long these athletes had been working to get to this point and their satisfaction and joy on reaching their goal.

What struck me most about the article however, was the last sentence. It read, "And only a fool would bet against a 10-year-old with a dream."

This captures our goal in Grand Ledge. I want our school district to do two things. One, I want us to help 10-year-olds learn to dream. I want us to help every student in our district learn to dream, to hope, to have a vision for what they passionately care about. Then I want us - the teachers, administrators, and staff who work here - to be able to give them the skills, the passion, and the heart they need to succeed.

The vision for our district is to be among the best schools in the nation. One way to do that is to make sure we help students dream about the future and then prepare them to achieve those dreams.

Adapting to our environment allows us to grow

Wired Magazine has an interesting article on California redwoods. The giant redwoods have developed the ability to absorb as much as 40% of their water directly from the fog that is a constant in the part of California that they grow in. Without this ability to absorb water from the fog these trees could never grow so tall. If they relied on their roots only, they would be much smaller trees. The water from the roots could never get up to the heights that these trees grow.

To me this is a great example of how we can use the resources around us to do great things. These trees grow to great heights because they use their resources.

Our district has to continue learning how to use its resources to grow to great heights. It is possible in the difficult environment that we find ourselves to continue to adapt and grow. That is our challenge and my goal.

Our School Should Be A High Reliability Organization

I recently attended a workshop on "high reliability organizations" or HROs. The workshop focused on whether or not we can and should expect schools to be high reliability organizations. An HRO is an organization that does not tolerate failure. It is an organization that operates under high-risk conditions and makes the effort necessary to avoid failure in that environment.

I think the HRO is an excellent model for schools. When we fail in our system it is catastrophic! If we fail then we let our students, our parents, our community down. We cannot afford to be an organization that tolerates failure. In that respect we have to be a high reliability organization. We have to create a system that will prevent failures.

As I contemplate moving forward in our district I want us to become that high reliability organization. We have to have a preoccupation with failure. When failure occurs we have to analyze and examine the causes and not be content with simply interpretations. We have to cultivate a culture that is resilient so that setbacks will not become permanent. Finally we have to cultivate expertise in teaching and learning so that know what works and we can find solutions when problems present themselves.

This will require that we use data better, that we understand how to help students, and that we intervene early rather than late. My goal is to help our district become that high reliability organization so that we can reassure every parent that our schools will help their son or daughter succeed.