I had a phone call yesterday from a young mother whom I know fairly well expressing concern about her 5th grade son. I also know the son and have had occasions to relate to him, to observe him in different situations so I am not without some hard data. Fifth grade boys are an anomaly
Karl Menninger, the founder and director of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, for many years, used to ask patients upon their discharge from the clinic, “How’s your spirit?” The reason Dr. Menninger asked about the patient’s spirit was Menninger’s understanding of the psyche. The psychiatric definition of psyche is “ the mind functioning as
Who knew that Tuesday, April 4, is National Healthy Schools Day? I heard it on CBS Sunday morning news on April 2 and rather soon thereafter sat down to offer up these thoughts. Since I spent the majority of my career working with schools, especially quite a few of the 130,000 K-12 schools in the
There are five dimensions of human activity that are inextricably interrelated and interdependent. These are present regardless of our chronological age and they are not only important components in adult development, they are also factors that become even more critical in the aging process. Each one affects one or more of the others in ways
Many of us go about our work without being concerned about the rewards of what we do. We have chosen a profession (or been chosen by it because it called to us) of serving others. What we do is because of who we are and not that who we are is defined by what we
I have been and continue to be a student of human motivation, human development and human behavior. I have worked in schools, universities and hospitals. I learned about organizational development and how systems worked. I also learned why sometimes they didn’t work. It seemed to me that a system worked because it was designed with
“Teaching may be the greatest of the arts because the medium is the human mind and spirit.” John Steinbeck The original occasion for this piece was a gathering of thirty outstanding teachers from all over the United States. They had been accorded that status by their district, county or state or in a few
Making a tough decision and making it stick is but one challenge of a leader in charge. An executive decision requires more than using that part of your brain called “executive functioning” which is officially defined as “a set of cognitive abilities that control and regulate other abilities and behaviors. Executive functions are necessary for
Schools are already in the “real” world. They just aren’t taking advantage of their external environments in creative and contemporary ways. Instead they are still using old models for new learning. Put new wine into old wine skins and what happens? They burst, wasting the wine. Too much energy, time and resources have been spent
