Monday, September 17, 2007

Reflections of Week 1 Questions

Question 1: I have been a superintendent in another state prior to becoming superintendent in Benjamin. My previous experience has been in districts of about 15,000 students. I immediately became excited about working in a small district of nearly 1,000 students to be able to establish and nuture direct relationships with students and staff. So far I have found this to be very rewarding to build relationships as well as lead the district to higher levels of excellence (the district's results are already excellent). With smaller number of administrators, it is even more imperative to identify and grow the talents of the staff.

Question 2: To make a difference for students that we are preparing for the "Knowledge Worker Age", we must teach students to learn how to learn. The need to process knowledge rather than simply know it is critical and should be our mission.

Question 3: The most important lesson that I have learned in this chapter is to view persons from the lens of the whole-person paradigm. Too frequently, I have not focused on the spirit and heart perspectives. The whole-person paradigm enables me to discover and grow talents in a more holistic way. The orgnization must have supports integrated into the system so the talents can florish intrinsically as opposed to extrinsically. The supports must target how staff are treated and opportunities for them to apply all four parts of their nature. Until all parts of their nature are tapped, their growth is limited. We must enable them to grow to thier maximum potential...who knows what that could be!