------------------------------------------------------------
The Theme of this e-zine is the need for Educational Transformation and Inspirational Leadership. This e-zine written by Bruce. He would appreciate any feedback:
bhammonds@leading-learning.co.nz
------------------------------------------------------------

Introduction:

Ideas arise from people with passion. When passion is institutionalized it mutates into procedures, rules and policies. Schools too easily comply with distant authority rather than being driven by local innovation and creativity. Unfortunately the imposed bureaucratic curriculum and assessment demands of the past decade are now too often seen as 'barriers' to learning themselves. Sadly inspirational leadership to confront this situation is in short supply.

'The goal of education must be to create schools that have their eyes on the child rather than the bureaucrats above.'
Linda Darling- Hammond: 'The Right To Teach'.

All worthwhile change has always occurred when people get behind a powerful vision of a better world. The current vision of solving all problems through 'top down' imposed solutions, and has had its day. We are rapidly entering a more free flowing era of ideas and creativity. To thrive in this more dynamic environment we need to envision new schools that are able to realize the talents, dreams and passions of all learners. Our current system, designed for a 'factory era', is simply is not equipped to ensure all students success and never was. We still fail about 20% of all students which is just not good enough. On the positive side we now know enough about how people learn to ensure the success of all, but only if we change our minds first. We need to stop blaming teachers and students and start transforming schools!

Schools need to focus on the needs of their students and communities and not the demands of distant bureaucrats. Like the dinosaurs their time has passed.

'It is easier to count bottles than describe the wine'.

If the will were present to reinvent schools they could be the key element in developing a fairer and more creative world. Forget strategic plans, timelines and targets, we need to foster community/school integration by aligning people behind shared vision, beliefs and principles.

Bruce Hammonds

'All you who are dreamers too,
Help me make our world anew'
Langston Hughes
------------------------------------------------------------

While you are with us what about joining up two or three of your staff, or friends, to receive our free e-zine .It is a simple process. Just go to our site:
www.leading-learning.co.nz/newsletter.html and it is a simple process to join up. Currently our membership is just over 2500.

'Nothing is as powerful as a lost cause'
Fullan

------------------------------------------------------------
What is in this e-zine:
------------------------------------------------------------

1. Why do we avoid facing up to reality?
2. The 'McWorld' Curriculum takeover.
3. Do we have a NZ Vision?
4. A vision from the ASCD President
5. Exemplary Leadership wanted.
6. A Vision for you to customize.
7. Websites and Books
8. Feedback

------------------------------------------------------------
1 Why do we avoid facing up to reality?
------------------------------------------------------------

History teaches us that when societies ignore the reality around them they are in the final throws of collapse. How many times do we need to be reminded of school failure before we figure we need to stop blaming the students and invent new forms of schooling? At the recent Knowledge wave Conference Prof. John Hattie (Auck.Univ.) said we still fail 20% of our students. Some would say more. He believes schools simply fail to 'engage' with these students and that it is the schools responsibility to do so. To do so however schools will need to be transformed - particularly at the secondary level.

How long can we just tinker with the current system?

In NZ, youth violent crime, drug abuse and suicide is on the uptake, and our prisons are unnecessarily crammed full of people we have failed, but we have no real solutions except more of the same. Our fragmented social service system is simply unable to cope.. Even the smallest of towns reflect the terrible alienation of disaffected youth. NZ is slipping into a two class society - the 'have and have-nots'. And we haven't even mentioned the despoliation of resources and our natural environment. The old fragmented system, the product of a 'factory' orientated industrial era, needs to be replaced by new holistic thinking. We persist trying to prop up failing fragmented systems - living an elaborate lie, hoping it will turn out all right.

We all need to break the bonds of dependency we have slipped into and realize that leaving decision making to ruling elites at any level is not working. They seem to have no real answers except tinkering. There are just too many vested interests at play for them to lead dramatic change.

Every community, and in turn every school, if we are to reinvent society, will have to formulate their own answers. If this were encouraged a range of creative solutions could emerge. Whatever were to evolve could hardly be worse than the present mess.

Wayne and I believe there are plenty of new ideas to explore once the need for transformational change is understood by enough people - but we also appreciate there are no maps. This is why leadership is so important at all levels.

'Life is the path you beat while you walk it. It is the walking that beats the path. It is not the path that makes the walk'.
Antonio Marchado

------------------------------------------------------------
2 The International Curriculum takeover
------------------------------------------------------------
Nothing will change in education until we get rid of our fixation on standardized curricula. Instead we need to value innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. For too long schools have wasted valuable energy and time trying to comply with restrictive and often incoherent bureaucratic constraints.

'Setting targets restricts your view'.

All the so called 'National Curriculums' are mutants of a standardized model established in the early 90s that are failing worldwide. Full of impossible strands and countless learning objectives they are what one writer calls an example of 'free market Stalinism'.

Gwen Gawith ('Good Teacher' Magazine) has called them the 'KFC Curriculums'. Another critic calls them 'stuffed - in both senses of the word'. Another, 'death by strands'! The ruling elites noting the discontent, are busy 'stocktaking' 'their' curriculums not appreciating that the patient is well and truly dying if not dead. A little like Nero fiddling while Rome burns!

Too many schools have allowed themselves to become slaves to curriculum and achievement demands and in the process have shortchanged students, students who have failed to develop their passions, talents and gifts. Worse still many students leave alienated and embittered.

In the meantime creative teachers worldwide are being 'burnt out', caught in the wrong system, while others sadly, just do their best to make sense of what they blindly imagine is sensible. How could the experts be so wrong, but, as Fullan says 'Central Governments are always wrong'. It has been as if schools have been asked to put together a jigsaw puzzle with a continually mutating picture.

------------------------------------------------------------
3 Do we have a NZ Vision?
------------------------------------------------------------

At the recent Knowledge Wave Conference NZ Prime Minister Ms Clark talked about the need in NZ for vision and leadership to create a country of 'talented and creative people'. What exactly is the Vision for NZ in the 21st C and who can articulate it? In particular what is the vision for education? In her speech Ms Clark said 'we' are beginning a fresh and comprehensive look at how we can 'improve teaching and learning'. We would ask who exactly are the 'we'? The same bureaucrats that have 'got us into this fine mess!' We hope not. Rather we need utilize the creative ideas that already exist in our schools.

It would be a great idea if NZ hosted an International Conference of recognized educationalists to inspire a national conversation about education. Evidently something similar happened in the 1930s under the first Labour Government which resulted in some positive changes.

'We don't have a vision right now and God knows we need one. Government aren't providing one, the media aren't, business isn't -so it looks like it is up to you am me to take a crack!'
Kevin Roberts www.saatchikevin.com
Presenter at Knowledge Wave Conference
Keynote Speaker NP NZPFF Conference 2003

------------------------------------------------------------
4 An alternative from the President of the ASCD.
------------------------------------------------------------

Peyton Williams, President of the ASCD says: 'We have spent too much time on imposing curriculum mandates for improving achievement and not enough on acknowledging and rewarding creative teachers who create ideal conditions for students to learn.' 'We need to focus on the art of teaching and its impact on transforming teachers so as to 'ignite' the passion for learning'. This, he says, requires a different path of thought than the current emphasis on quantifiable results'. He continues there is a need for teachers is to create in all students 'a love of learning' and that, 'if we choose, we can successfully teach all learners', 'we already know more than we need to know to achieve that'

Now the above would be a better 'target' for the Ministry to focus on than resuscitating their 'ailing' curriculums, but then they might have to admit they were wrong to impose them in the first place! Admitting responsibility has always been a problem with elites!

'To lead the people walk behind them.'
Lao-Tzu

------------------------------------------------------------
5 Exemplary Leadership - to inspire and challenge
------------------------------------------------------------

Link to this leadership article: www.leading-learning.co.nz/school-vision/exemplary-leadership.html

Exemplary leadership will be required if we are to move beyond the compliance culture that so many principals have learnt to accept. Beyond the horizon is a changed world very different from today's world. The current crop of educational managers (doing 'things right' rather than the 'right things') may have themselves unwittingly become 'barriers' to developing new insights. It is worth remembering that bottlenecks are always at the top!

We need leaders who passionately believe that dreams can become reality. Who believe in vision, trust, teamwork and the power of relationships. Leaders see their role as the need to create the conditions for new ideas to flourish. Leaders stand firm against forces of the 'status quo' and most of all leaders give all involved the courage to take the risks to continue the quest.

'Great leaders motivate others to improve the human condition.'
John Kotter Leadership expert

Leadership 'gurus' Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner analyzed the practices of successful leaders and found five common practices:

(1) They Model the Way: they establish principles concerning the way everyone should be treated. They create standards of excellence and set the example for others. They unravel bureaucracy and put up sign posts when people are unsure.
(2) They Inspire a Shared Vision; they passionately believe they can make a difference. They create an ideal and unique image of what the organization could become. Through their magnetism and quiet persuasion they enlist others in their dreams. They breathe life into their visions and get people to see exciting possibilities.
(3) They Challenge the Process: they search for opportunities to challenge the 'status quo' .They look for innovative ways and encourage risk taking.
(4) They Enable Others to Act: they foster collaboration and spirited team work. They understand that mutual respect, an atmosphere of trust and personal dignity is what sustains extraordinary efforts.
(5) They Encourage the Heart: Achieving extraordinary things is hard work. Leaders recognize contributions, celebrate accomplishments and share the rewards: they make people feel like heroes.

'If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea'.
Antoine- Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupery.

------------------------------------------------------------
6 A Vision and Five Points for Quality learning.
------------------------------------------------------------

Successful schools make it clear to all what they stand for and all involved can articulate this shared purpose. To develop a shared vision can be as simple as asking people what they want from their schools - teachers, parents and students? What attributes and skills do they think students need to thrive in the future? What do they think is really important? What doesn't seem to be working? How can we connect all the broken parts?

'The future is about the 'power of three': Parents, teachers and students'.
Michael Fullan

There are ideas to assist individual schools to create a powerful future vision and to develop quality learning/teaching strategies on our site www.leading-learning.co.nz/creating-vision.html

A vision we currently like is:
'To develop the talents for the future generation.'
   
For values we like: 'We Care, We Share, We Dare'.
'Learn to make the best choices you can - and then learn what you can from them'.

Five simple believes which we think 'attractive' and which `teachers can easily align behind and self reference their teaching against are:

(1) Ensure Foundation Skills are in place.
(2) Develop all students as Strategic Learners.
(3) Provide Challenging Learning Experiences.
(4) Expect only a Students Personal Best
(5) Create safe and celebratory Room Environments

See Te Ara Vision and Beliefs on our site for a model to customize.
www.leading-learning.co.nz/download-files/te-ara-vision-and-beliefs-number2.doc

------------------------------------------------------------
7 Some websites and books to explore
------------------------------------------------------------

'Learning By Heart' by Roland Barth Jossey - Bass 2001
'The Passionate Teacher' by Robert Fried Beacon Press 1995
'The Right To Learn' by Linda Darling-Hammond. Jossey -Bass 97. A book to be read by all Ministry bureaucrats.
         
These are my principles, if you don't like them I have others.'
Groucho Marx (spoken like a true bureaucrat!)

Websites:

www.teachers.work.co.nz Mark Treadwell's excellent site
www.newhorizons.org Great Links to innovative thinkers
www.TeacherMind.com Educational Transformation
www.in2edu.com A NZ Site with great resources and links
www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class About learning.

------------------------------------------------------------
8 We appreciate any feedback about any aspect of this e-zine or our website. Below a selection since last newsletter.
------------------------------------------------------------

'Stumbled across your site. Great to see some good NZ stuff' Warren/ ChCh
'Read your newsletter with some joy' Brian /UK
'Thank you for your wonderful and inspiring website.'
Lorna /British Virgin Islands
'Enough inspirational ideas to feed the soul for a while.'
Meryn/Tauranga
'Love the newsletter and the hopeful advice.'
Trish /First year teacher 2002
'Good stuff Poetic in places but mostly grounded in solid advice' Alan / Blenheim.
An excellent newsletter. Full of dry wit but with powerful messages'. Mark T /Coromandel

------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce and Wayne

Feedback to:
bhammonds@leading-learning.co.nz