Success vs. Meaning

by Tom Olverson

Tom Olverson is head of The Rivers School in Weston, MA. This blog post was originally published on Tom Olverson’s blog “Inside the Head’s Head” and it has been reposted here with his permission. See the original link here.

I was talking last week to a 2013 Rivers graduate who is doing a gap year before she attends an Ivy League college.  She spent two months in Tanzania, working in a clinic that delivers babies.  She actually delivered four babies herself.  Her experience was transforming.  She now realizes that she can make decisions about her life, that she does not have to follow a prescribed path that leads to “success.”  She may, indeed, end up being “successful” but not at the expense of finding meaning in her life.  We talked and rejoiced at her new-found discovery.

As I listened to her story and the epiphany she realized, I could not help but think about the purposes that different independent schools have.  Beyond those schools that have very specific missions like addressing learning issues, it seems to me that most schools fall into one of two categories.  There are those schools that will almost exclusively teach students how to attain success- success as it is traditionally defined- great job, lots of money, financial security.  This is their sole purpose- to teach students how to compete, how to win, how to work harder and smarter than the others.  For these schools, adolescence is a training ground, a sort of boot camp to prepare students for the inevitable struggle that lies before them.

There are a lot of New England prep schools and independent schools in major cities throughout the country that fall into this category.  They are littered with parents who see their child’s success as yet another emblem of their successful lives.  I’m not convinced that these schools chose this path, but saddled with a parent and alumni body that demand the markers of success, they have clearly drunk from the “excellence or else” kool-aid and cannot turn back.

There are other independent schools, like Rivers, that teach a different value.  It’s true that that they want their students to strive for excellence; it’s true that they celebrate the excellence that their students achieve.  But the pursuit of excellence at these schools has a different, broader purpose- to find meaning in life.  It’s not that success and meaning are viewed as necessarily antithetical in these schools.  Rather, it’s just that the pursuit of a meaningful life has equal footing with the pursuit of a “successful” life.  At these schools excellence is not just an end; it is a means for finding a meaningful life, a life well-lived, to use Aristotle’s words.

Prospective parents ask me frequently how is Rivers different from the other independent schools in the Boston area.  In many respects it is very similar- similar programs, similar kinds of students, etc.  But its purpose is very different from that of many other schools.  At Rivers the pursuit of excellence is designed to strengthen a student’s character, not have him or her compete for the most prestigious jobs.  At Rivers the pursuit of excellence is designed to help students find meaning in life, not just the “good life.”  To help students find meaning, Rivers’ teachers and coaches know and value each student- not just the student taking four AP classes but also the one who demonstrates real leadership skills or a creative approach to solving problems.  The unique attributes of each of our students, we believe, are critical to their finding meaning in life, not just success.

Q & A with Eric Liu, Founder of Citizen University and Civic Collaboratory

Interview with Eric Liu, Founder of Citizen University and the Civic Collaboratory

 Eric Liu is a former speechwriter for President Clinton and the Founder of Citizen University and the Civic Collaboratory. Lynn Barendsen had the opportunity to talk with the civic entrepreneur recently, who shared some of his thoughts about collaboration. What follows is a brief excerpt from this interview. For the full interview  click here.

What was the inspiration behind the Civic Collaboratory?  Did you have models or mentors in its formation?

The inspiration was really organic.  I had for years been organizing an annual national conference – now Citizen University – and the larger the community became, the more appetite there was to sustain the engagement beyond once a year. I had a desire to build a structure for that sustained engagement.

It was Bill Gates, Sr. who initially suggested we conduct more frequent and focused gatherings the rest of the year, so that the leaders and innovators who came to the conference could stay connected.

Around the same time, in Seattle, my friend and colleague Nick Hanauer and I had created something that ended up being a bit of a prototype for the Collaboratory. It was called the Civic Innovators Club (CIC).  Our goal was to get leaders and innovators from the Seattle/Puget Sound area (in and around western Washington state) together for dinners and discussions once every few months.  We were trying to build a community that would be a constituency for more civic ambition in our city and state. This was in some ways a nice dry run for what would become the Civic Collaboratory.

So I took the prompt by Bill Sr. and the model of the CIC and that led me and my team to design what would become the Civic Collaboratory, a leadership network dedicated to building a movement of strong citizenship in America. Bill Sr. and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor actually helped kick off the first meeting of the Collaboratory, at the Gates Foundation offices in July 2011.

What are your specific goals for this work in the short term (6 mo – 1 year)?  In the long term (5 – 10 years)?

In the short term: create a strong and durable leadership network that can help foster a culture of strong engaged citizenship in the US. People have invested in the Collaboratory – not just time or expense, but they’ve taken ownership, wanting to participate and wanting to host.  I feel like the flywheel is starting to turn, but not yet turning at peak speed, and want to get it humming so that the culture is humming.  So that it has energy on its own.

In the long term:  Our goal ultimately is a culture, from popular culture to a culture of schooling and learning or of business or of political life, where there’s a higher emphasis and premium on the ethics and acts of great citizenship.

I see us as the germ of a movement about citizenship – in religious terms, a movement of spirit as well as of project.  Movements like this have to be authentic but also require catalytic leadership, across sectors, across lines of division.

We’re going deeper, too.  One aim in the coming year:  every time we get together as a group, we’ll be meeting with other leaders from the host city. The idea is to both deepen, for national leaders to connect with people in that particular city; but also for people of the city to be able to engage on a national scale.  But also in a Johnny Appleseed way, seed the same kind of intentional movement and leadership that we can do on a local level.

What are the beliefs and values that guide you in this work?

Responsibility. Reciprocity. Participation. Inclusion. Practice.  Unpacking each of them – whether it’s how I was raised, or how I’m wired, but responsibility is crucial to me.  Americans spend far too much time thinking about rights, not enough about responsibilities.  And I think Americans are far too prone to believe that we’re isolated individuals rather than part of a web of relationships.  I really believe that every aspect of citizenship and self-government begins with a choice to take responsibility.  That may sound conservative, but that’s fine.  I’m a progressive by almost every political policy measure, but any healthy society begins with shared responsibility.

Reciprocity is connected to that. We have to understand and appreciate the ways in which in a diverse large democracy, trust is everything and doesn’t’ come automatically, has to be earned, built and increased.  It is built by reciprocity – understanding that our fates our bound together.

Participation: I always quote Bill Gates Sr., about showing up for life.  I am the son of immigrants:  I’m conscious of every opportunity involving obligation to participate, to get involved, not to take for granted anything that I had the dumb luck to inherit.  I had the luck to be born here, have the advantages of safety, advantages of support – that means I’m obligated to participate in the substance of that ecosystem.

Inclusion means not just to respect diverse view points but also in the sense that our diversity is only as good as what we make of it. It’s paper diversity if you don’t actively seek to bring people together and make something out of their difference.  Active inclusion.

Practice is a very American thing.  A “more perfect union” means we are never perfect, practice will be our charge forever as a country.  Every generation seems to live up more to our ideals, but there are still great gaps between actual ideas and inclusion.

The meta value is true patriotism.  I believe America is exceptional, but because it is we have an exceptional responsibility to keep it up, to earn it.  That’s the overarching value that we hold.  It’s not complacent – it’s a consideration of all of the above, earning it.

Eric Liu is the founder and CEO of Citizen University, which promotes and teaches the art of great citizenship (www.citizenuniversity.us). His books include national bestsellers The Gardens of Democracy and The True Patriot, both co-authored with Nick Hanauer; The Accidental Asian, a New York Times Notable Book; and Guiding Lights, the Official Book of National Mentoring Month. Liu served as a White House speechwriter and deputy domestic policy adviser to President Clinton. He now lives in Seattle, where he teaches civic leadership at the University of Washington. A regular columnist for CNN.com and correspondent for TheAtlantic.com, Liu can be found on Twitter @ericpliu.

The 3 E’s of Leadership

by Reha Bublani, Head – Training, The Global Education & Leadership Foundation

Leadership is a broad concept, with several dimensions and perspectives. No single theory or example can explain its depth or intensity, and no single leader can exemplify all qualities of leadership.

Working on instilling leadership skills in youth, our foundation found communicating what is at the essence of leadership to be a big challenge. Who is a leader? What makes him/her a leader? What can  one do to nurture one’s own leadership potential? These are some common questions that The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, based out of Gurgaon, India, has frequently faced. We explored possible solutions to this puzzle and found something we fell in love with: The GoodWork Toolkit.

We were delighted to share and present our work at the Project Zero Conference in London, held in October 2013. Attended by educators from across the globe, the workshop fostered intense discussions and sharing of experiences as the participants tried to reflect on their own leadership potential. Before discussing this workshop, we would like to present some background on our involvement with the Good Work Project.

Lynn Barendsen and Wendy Fischman, from the Project Zero Team, introduced the GoodWork Toolkit to us as part of the GoodWork Toolkit Certification course conducted for 35 partner schools across India. What started as an endeavor to encourage passionate, introspective discussions in the classroom soon turned into a movement aimed at promoting “good work culture” in schools.  Our students saw themselves in the vignettes, rattled their brains through the ‘value sort’ and above all related their real life decisions to the values they chose as most important. Through these activities, discovery and learning –  some expected, some surprising –  was taking place. In due course, the students gained clarity on leadership. As teachers and students came to comprehend the depth of the 3 E’s (Ethics, Excellence and Engagement), they drew connections to global leaders we had spoken about – Gandhi, Mandela, and Mother Teresa. That is when, together, we created a new definition of leadership:

Leadership = Ethics (Values) + Excellence (Being good at what you do) + Engagement (Working with others)

While this is in no way the ultimate leadership formula, we believe it is a strong starting point for students. It helps them understand the relationship between each of the 3 E’s  to leadership, and how the absence of one can lead to the possibility of weak leadership.

At the Project Zero conference, our audience was willing to engage in the same kind of reflection we had participated in on the road to learning about good work.  We explored each “E” in terms of leadership, understanding, and experiences facilitated by use of activities in the classroom.

Ethics, defined as values in action, was the anchor for a meaningful discussion as we saw participants exploring their own important values using the value sort. Further, the difference between espousing a value and living a value was highlighted, using stories and leadership examples. A key question we posed, “We all believe in honesty, but do we live out that value?”,  encouraged participants to explore their own value-behavior gaps.

Excellence, defined as “being good at what you do”, formed the second ingredient of leadership. In our discussions, participants stressed that there is no substitute for excellence and a leader needs to be good at what he/she does. Sharing their own moments of excellence helped participants solidify their success stories and plan paths ahead. It also inspired participants to consider how they can walk the “extra mile” towards achieving excellence in professional and personal realms.

Finally, Engagement, as constructed by us to mean “working with others”, was brought forward with groups forming “human machines”. This not only reinforced the importance of teamwork but also highlighted its role in leadership.

The participants felt that the activities and games conducted during the workshop could help students back in the classroom to understand their leadership potential. They also felt that it was a good starting point for facilitators and educators to conduct discussions relating to leadership and life skills.

As The Global Education & Leadership Foundation grows in its journey to create change-makers of tomorrow, Project Zero and The GoodWork Toolkit have added incredible value, bringing a variety of flavors to the delicacy called “Leadership.”

Lessons Learned on Inclusivity

by Blake O’Connor

Much to my excitement, angst, and disbelief, the culmination of a nearly seven month project had arrived. Among the chaos of shuffling students dressed as Dr. Seuss characters, construction paper, and books, I stopped my frantic running around at the sound of bus airbrakes and 250 second graders chatting and giggling as they marched to the gates of the Freedom High School (FHS) football stadium. They were here. In full suit, our varsity cheerleaders distributed notepads for students to write down new words, and stickers of Dr. Seuss characters. Orderly, they were escorted out onto the field by members of the FHS chapter of the National Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, where each student found an enthusiastic Student Government officer whose costume and sign matched that of their sticker.  Teachers followed closely behind as the FHS students led their groups to a Rhyme Time obstacle course, read-aloud “No Dragons for Tea”, sight word games, and other literacy-related exercises facilitated by members of Café Freedom, the leadership team behind the entire celebration. Everyone who had been a part of it was there – students, teachers, and administrators -between the bleachers, bringing the “I Feel the Need to Read” literacy project to a smashing close. Originating as an idea to put books in the hands of second graders and instill a love of reading, the project galvanized an entire school community.

While education has always been a personal priority, only after my participation in the Bezos Scholars Program (BSP) did I realize the extent to which education has shaped my values, identity, and aspirations. As part of BSP – a leadership development program for 30 top public high school students and exceptional educators from across the U.S. and Africa – we attended the Aspen Ideas Festival, where we participated in sessions and had small group meetings with change-makers from around the world. At nearly every session, each speaker connected education to the issue discussed on stage – from poverty to public health. After returning to Florida, I was inspired to improve reading opportunities for a demographic to which I could relate: below-level second grade readers at Title I schools. I had read below level after moving from a low to high performing school district. Fortunately, I was able to catch up because I had access to supportive teachers and parents, and books inside and outside the classroom. Knowing that 35 percent of my district’s students read below grade level upon entering 3rd grade, my assistant principal (a Bezos Educator Scholar) and I began planning the “I Feel the Need to Read” literacy project, which mobilized high school students as reading mentors and promoted literacy education within the community. Since the founding year, four other high schools have been engaged, over 4,000 second graders have been served, and a service-learning course has been launched at FHS.

Leading the I Feel the Need to Read program affirmed my belief that every child has the ability to learn regardless of their background. As every child should be given the opportunity to learn, every team member should be given the opportunity to contribute. The inclusion of students, teachers, and administrators better informed our planning process and created a community of literacy champions that have driven the program over the past four years. This experience I had with inclusion during the course of the project provided me with a foundation to reflect on the importance and see applications of inclusion in learning how to be a good leader.

In college, I’ve identified role models based on their leadership style. What most, if not all, of them   have had in common, is a natural tendency to be inclusive in their work. They are aware of those that have a stake and that their ideas matter too. This inclusive approach creates space where diverse people share with and learn from each other. Inclusive leaders leverage diversity to breed innovative thinking as a disruptive force in the status quo. Much to my surprise, inclusive leaders are a dime a dozen. Unlike the instance of “I Feel the Need to Read,” simply including everyone in the process doesn’t guarantee excitement or results. Where there is diversity, there is potential for error, miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict. An inclusive leader avoids these obstacles, by creating a work space where people, regardless of background, “seek first to understand, then to be understood.”[1]

A few weeks back, Dr. Vicki Stocking, mentor and summer advisor at the Robertson Scholars Program, helped me differentiate between simply practicing inclusivity and using it as a tool for transformational leadership. She shared that Inclusivity is the first step to creating a space where individuals are confident in their own identity, experience, and strengths, and understand their role in a collective force toward meaningful impact. In the process, inclusive leaders foster a culture of equality, feedback, and transparency within a team.

We are starting to see inclusivity catch on in organizations that prioritize a presence of diversity. However, including a diverse set of people or stakeholders is not the end to which a team should aspire, but instead is a means to integration.

Undeniably, the status quo of our collective educational system is not meeting our own expectations. But, rather than collaborating toward a system better suited for our children and our world, we are pitted against each other, pointing fingers at the other, and siloed by our own initiatives in pursuit of a noble vision. Why not work together? Here’s a call for inclusive leadership in each level of our education system. At the top, we need inclusive leaders integrating researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to share, test, and implement the policies and pedagogies that are best for student learning. In a school, we need inclusive leaders to form communities of students, parents, teachers, and administrators designed for student success. Since A Nation at Risk, we have seen unsatisfactory change. Collectively, we in education know what needs to be done. So, collectively, let’s do it.

The Bezos Scholars Program @ the Aspen Institute is a year-long leadership development program for public high school juniors and educators to put their education into action. It begins with a scholarship to the Aspen Ideas Festival and continues through the following school year when Bezos Scholar teams return home to launch sustainable, Local Ideas Festivals that transform their schools and communities. Learn more: www.bezosfamilyfoundation.org/Scholars, www.facebook.com/BSPAspen, twitter.com/BezosScholars 

Blake O’Connor is a senior studying public policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Inspired by his participation in the Bezos Scholars Program, Blake and Educator Scholar, Assistant Principal Rosemary Owens spearheaded the “I Feel the Need to Read” literacy festival at Freedom High School in Tampa, Florida to put books in the hands of Title I second graders and promote reading in the community. Since 2010, four high schools have been engaged and over 4,000 second graders have been served. In college, Blake has solidified a desire to make a positive impact in education as a summer teacher at Sunflower County Freedom Project, in his work with the Roosevelt Institute | Campus Network, and in independent research on social-emotional learning with the Duke School Research Partnership.

[1] Stephen R. Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

Connecting the Elementary Toolkit to Models of Thinking

by Amy Hoffman

As a graduate student at Teachers College, Columbia University, I recently completed a course that  encompassed research-based theories on student thinking and learning. I was intrigued by the content matter and found myself reflecting on the elementary toolkit activities through the lens of a landscape of thinking skills. In case you are not familiar with the Elementary GoodWork Toolkit, it is a set of activities based on the original GoodWork Toolkit to introduce elementary-age students to GoodWork concepts. There are connections between models of thinking and Good Work:  when creating curriculum for young students, it is essential to give them opportunities to explore their thinking and learning and to self-reflect on a deep level about their learning processes.

In this blog entry, I explore the connections between visuospatial thinking and word mapping activities.  In my classroom, students use word mapping activities to research definitions and meanings for each of the 3 E’s and then construct a word web of their understanding. According to the organization Reading Rockets, “a word map is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development” (Reading Rockets, 2012). Word maps are used in classrooms to assist students in understanding abstract words and concepts. The use of word mapping in this activity allows students to construct a “spatial mental” model of the content being presented (Hegarty, Stull 2012). For students first encountering a complex concept such as Good Work, visuospatial thinking provides a means for grasping the concept that is accessible and age-appropriate for students.

Most recently, the students in my classroom engaged in a word mapping activity to help them further explore their understandings of Good Work terminology. I was able to develop a webquest (http://questgarden.com/146/51/5/120716111216/) for student use and to assist in keeping a structured eye on the content being searched. The webquest and modeling led the students to work in small groups to research multiple definitions of excellence, ethics and engagement and jot down notes of their thoughts surrounding what they were discovering. From there, the small groups of students were asked to turn their thoughts into word maps- creating a visual representation of their thoughts- the goal being a series of connected words surrounding each one of the 3E’s. Below is an example of a student’s word map:

In this example, when these young students were faced with the task of creating their own thoughts surrounding these complex ideas, they were at first apprehensive. For many, this was their first independent experience with exploring a concept using the Internet. Through continued discussion during the activity, I supported their research by guiding questions, “Can you make a personal connection to words?” “Are there any group members that have a different connection?”  Students were given the opportunity to discuss their experiences and explorations with each other, they were able to learn about multiple perspectives and eventually, they moved beyond their initial hesitations. At this young age, the students have had success in constructing meanings through guided partnership discussion and activities. The students have been able to find clear connections between themselves and others, discuss the meaning of true social and academic success, and begin to become excited about their future possibilities.

Visuospatial thinking skills are an essential part of a young child’s development. In giving students the opportunity to work on this development through discussion and activities, students are able to utilize their creative thinking to construct meaning of vocabulary as related to Good Work. I am looking forward to providing students with subsequent activities to enhance their thinking skills and to continue to make connections to Good Project ideas.

References

Frederiksen N., (1984). Implications of Cognitive Theory of Instruction in Problem

Solving. Review of Educational Research. 54 (3), pp.363-407.

Hegarty, M., & Stull, A., (2012). ‘Visuospatial Reasoning’. In: Holyoak, K., & Morrison, R. (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. 1st ed. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.606 – 630.

Marzano, Robert J. (1998). A theory-based meta-analysis of research on

instruction. Aurora, CO: Mid-continent Educational Research Laboratory. Retrieved June 28, 2013, from http://www.mcrel.org/PDF/Instruction/5982RR_InstructionMeta_Analysis.pdf