Timeout for Leadership-your one-minute leadership idea

Tip Sheet #30

Is there no place like home?

For educators, once we find a district we rarely leave.  Of course, securing tenure has a great deal to do with that decision.  I get it.  We become comfortable in our surroundings, we get secure, and we get blinded.  We get blinded because we forget that there are other ways to do things. If you do not believe me, join a group of educators from a variety of districts at a conference and I can almost guarantee you that each educator will talk about how they do things where they work.  I am not condemning these conversations, they can be wonderful if one has an open mind, but I can also almost guarantee you that each person in that conversation believes that their way of doing things is the only way.

I recently had a very enlightening experience.  I had the opportunity to visit a neighboring school.  My preconceived notion about this school was that it was not as good as my school.  I was blown away.  Their culture and climate were better.  Their teacher and student engagement were better. Their parent engagement was superlative.  I could not believe my eyes or what I was feeling.  I knew what we were doing and believed that this school that I was visiting could no way be doing things as well as we were operating.  Boy was I wrong.  This school put my school to shame.

You see, I was blinded.  I was proud of my school and proud of my work and I had false preconceived notions about others.  I think that this happened because I led a sequestered life in my district.  I did not get out to other schools to see what they were doing.  I had isolated myself and came to believe that my way was the only way.

As a profession, educators spend collectively millions of dollars on professional development. And the best professional development might be right next door.  If I had the power, I would require each principal, each year, to visit three schools from neighboring communities.  The same professional development could be required of teachers.  These experiences would be financially inexpensive but would yield the greatest results.  If they visited with an open mind, these visits could be transformational.

For Dorothy, there was no place like home.  But for me I learned that home maybe was not all that I had thought it was.  As the years flew by in my career, I became blinded.  I was blinded by my isolation and by a preconceived mindset. I thought that there was only one way to do things.  And that way was my way.

Of course, home can be wonderful.  Home is where you are comfortable.  You know the people and you know how “we do things”.  At home, there are no lions, tigers, and bears. It is safe.  But you can learn, without a trip over the rainbow, that there is a big world out there and you need to go out and see it.  Go out and experience it, for when you return home, just like Dorothy, you will be a different person.