Cultures of Excellence

“Culture is what enables teams of people to defy the odds and achieve the remarkable.” 

from the NfX Company Culture Manual

“Culture” and “Excellence” are two words that get tossed around so frequently that, at times, I fear they are in danger of becoming meaningless. Yet, I never tire of talking about school culture and how we can create cultures of excellence because I am convinced that (as stated above) it enables us to defy the odds and achieve the remarkable. Students and teachers can both perform at higher levels when working at schools with positive school cultures. Moreover, I have served in schools with almost identical characteristics and demographics that perform at distinctly different levels because of the school’s culture. We must not simply talk about excellence and culture; we must act intentionally to create and maintain a culture that is truly excellent, defining along the way not only what culture is but also what excellence means to us and what it looks like in our day-to-day actions and interactions. My good friend and colleague Jimmy Casas often implores us to, “Live your excellence,” rather than merely talking about it, I wholeheartedly agree and believe we must have conversations about what living our excellence sounds like and looks like.


Culture includes the norms, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, values, traditions, myths, and celebrations in place at any school. When working with educators on the topic of school culture, a good starting point is to examine shared values and explicitly create a list of core values that will guide subsequent beliefs and behaviors. I have seen this done successfully in any number of ways. I often start by suggesting that we all believe in excellence, obviously, and creating cultures of excellence.

However, the word “excellence,” as I suggested, is meaningless unless we drill down a bit deeper. I often ask teachers and administrators to fill in a simple blank, describing in single words what they would like their school’s culture to be known for. Whenever I pose this rather simple task, within seconds each person is able to share several compelling words that most everyone in attendance agrees would be laudable culture descriptors. I then share my own list on a slide (which varies regularly since there are so many enticing words to select):

What are some other words you would choose to describe the ideal culture you would like to be known for creating and working in? I would love to hear your thoughts. It is also interesting to look at one-word cultural values shared by non-school entities. Here are just a few examples I came across recently:

Cirrus Logic

• Continuous Improvement
• Innovation
• Integrity
• Communication
• Job Satisfaction

Clif Bar

• Connect
• Organic
• Restore
• Ethical

Adidas

• Performance
• Passion
• Integrity
• Diversity

Adobe

• Genuine
• Exceptional
• Innovative
• Involved

Of course, it is not enough to simply brainstorm one-word culture values; we must turn these cultural values into cultural commitments. We must create action steps to achieve them, moving, perhaps, from things we believe to things we will do. Again, there are an infinite number of ways to create these statements. I continue to favor the idea of “We Will” statements and limiting these to five total. At one school in which I served, we spent a significant amount of time debating these and then wordsmithing the final five Faculty Values Statements, which ultimately included the following:

• We Will promote and insist on a safe and orderly learning environment.

• We Will design and deliver meaningful and relevant daily learning experiences.

• We Will treat every person in our school community with dignity and respect.

• We Will innovate through experimentation.

• We Will recognize and celebrate our many successes.

Once again, even these "We Will..." statements are not enough. We must then identify specific actions we can take to make each of these statements  a reality. Finally, we must all hold each other accountable for adhering to these. When a person fails to uphold these core values (which will happen, not because people are bad, but because life happens and we are not perfect) another person must address it, not as an accountability “gotcha,” but simply as an accountability reminder. A reminder that we said we were going to do these things and that it is important for us to do what we say we are going to do. In addition to everyone holding each other accountable for living their excellence by adhering to core values, we must also carve out time to actually practice the culture and celebrate instances when we see the culture being lived out loud.

Excellent school cultures do not happen by chance; they happen by choice. In schools with excellent cultures, educators choose to create shared values. They choose to practice and celebrate cultural values. They choose to reflect on the culture and measure how they are doing in the eyes of staff, students, and parents. Living our collective excellence by intentionally creating cultures of excellence is another way we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!

Take the Hard Road

“What comes easy won't last long and 

what lasts long won't come easy.”

As we begin a new calendar year, many people make resolutions and set goals designed to positively impact themselves and/or others. Making such resolutions is relatively easy; sticking to them is often difficult. Some will no doubt succeed in adhering to their resolutions while others, inevitably, will fail. The difference? In many cases, those who succeed will take the hard road rather than the easy road when faced with difficult choices.

For example, many self improvement plans center on exercise, diet, or finances. In each instance, success depends on choosing the hard road on a consistent basis. Waking up early to run five miles is taking the hard road. Sleeping in and skipping the run is the easy road. Cooking a meal with healthy food can be a hard road while ordering a pizza to be delivered is an easy road. When it comes to finances, spending $100 is an easy road; saving $100 is a hard road. Unfortunately, it seems as if we humans are generally wired to take the easy road; the default position seems to be the status quo or to create as little stress, work, or discomfit as possible. On the other hand, it takes discipline and intentionality to do what is hard. 

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Here is the good news, however, that we must keep in mind: Easy roads eventually become hard, while hard roads eventually become easy. That morning run, that daily meal, and the consistent saving of a few dollars? Eventually these acts become routines and these routines ultimately become habits. It no longer becomes a question of whether to run, save, or eat healthy; it has simply become what we do and who we are. It was hard, but over time, we simply became people who exercise, people who eat healthy foods, and people who are financially stable. It is no longer a choice of whether we do it; it simply becomes who we are. What was once a hard road has become an easy road because we are now more healthy or wealthy. Conversely, had we taken the easy road in the beginning, we would eventually be on the hard road, forced to deal with difficulties in terms of our health or finances.

In our personal lives, there are scads of examples proving the easy road/hard road concept. I suspect this phenomenon is equally applicable in our professional lives as educators. What are some hard roads we must take now in our classrooms and schools so that our lives (and those of our students) eventually become easier and we achieve our goals? There are likely endless examples, but one that comes to mind is addressing the underperformance of a student or staff member. Perhaps a student continuously misbehaves in our classroom. Perhaps a teacher in our school is not adhering to our cultural norms. In both instances, the easy road might be to overlook the underperformance or to address it, but only in a cursory way. Perhaps we talk to the student, but fail to contact the parent who has proven difficult to deal with in the past. Maybe we mention our concerns to the staff member, yet still provide a satisfactory formal evaluation. This easy path will eventually become hard as the underperformance will continue and likely worsen.

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The hard road in these scenarios involves making the time to learn why the behavior is occurring, having potentially difficult conversations with those involved, creating a plan to change the underperformance, and continuing to monitor the situation throughout the school year, providing feedback and possibly consequences along the way. Left unchecked, the undesired behaviors will not only continue, but will likely get worse. Taking the hard road is (obviously) hard--at first. In this example, it takes a great deal of time and requires us to engage in uncomfortable conversations. However, this commitment to taking the hard road at the outset pays dividends over time as the student’s behavior improves or the staff member’s commitment deepens. In the end, because we chose the hard road, our work became easier.

What are some other instances at our schools in which it behooves us to take the hard road now so we can enjoy the easy road further down the line and reach our ultimate destination as smoothly as possible? Do they involve grading, assessment, data, and pedagogy? Teacher evaluation, parent/community relationships, standardized testing, and implementing change? I would love to hear your thoughts. Knowing that hard roads become easy and easy roads become hard and choosing, therefore, to take the hard road is another way we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!

Cultures of Accountability

“To me, the best-run clubhouse in a lot of ways is a clubhouse where the players hold each other accountable. I think it always means so much more.”

Joe Girardi

As a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan, I follow the team closely and have written several blog posts relating situations with the Cubs to issues in education (e.g., Why Joe Maddon Should Be a School Principal). So, I followed with great interest recently the decision to part ways with their manager Joe Maddon and the process of selecting a new leader for the 2020-21 season and beyond. The front office eventually settled on David Ross, a hero to many Cubbie fanatics, but my personal choice was former Yankee manager, Joe Girardi, who also interviewed for the position. During the interview process, an apparent perceived negative of Girardi’s candidacy was his reputation as a strict disciplinarian. When asked about this reputation and his thoughts on holding players accountable, he responded with the above quote. 

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Having never played for Giradi, I cannot confirm his managerial style, but I certainly support his stated belief that the best clubhouse would be one in which everyone--not only the manager--holds each other accountable. Not surprisingly, the exact same sentiment holds true for schools:

“To me, the best-run school in a lot of ways is a school where the educators hold each other accountable. I think it always means so much more.”

I suspect it is not easy to create and maintain a baseball clubhouse culture in which the players hold each other accountable. I know from actual experience that it is definitely challenging to achieve this in a school. Too often, holding a staff member accountable becomes the sole responsibility of the school principal. Even when a teacher knows a colleague is not adhering to shared cultural norms and values, and even though it may upset that teacher, the response too often follows along the “I’m just a…” line, one of the most dreaded (and inaccurate) statements some educators seem to believe: “I’m just a teacher; it’s not my job…” In some schools, however, educators have worked together to establish a different type of school culture, one in which no staff member is “just a..” and one in which all staff members in the school hold each other accountable. Importantly, they hold each other accountable not as a “gotcha,” but simply as a “pick-me-up” reminder that we are all in this together. 

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Obviously, some aspects of individual staff member performance are the domain of the principal, such as formal evaluations. But other aspects of individual performance are behaviors we should all expect from each other and for which we should each hold others accountable, regardless of our role. Stated simply: We should all hold each other accountable for doing what we said we were going to do. This requires us first, of course, to have explicit conversations about what we value and what actions we are willing to take collectively and individually to uphold these cultural values, expectations, norms, behaviors, and beliefs. Once we have such conversations and commit to specific action steps, it then becomes easier to remind each other of them throughout the year. Inevitably, staff members will at times fail to adhere to these commitments. Almost always, these instances are not due to any malicious intent or woeful incompetence but, instead, simply as a result of competing responsibilities or circumstances beyond our control. Perhaps an irate parent in the school office prevented a principal from being in the cafeteria interacting with students and staff like she said she would. Perhaps an upset student in a classroom prevented a teacher from being in the hallway during class transitions like we said all staff would do. These things happen. When they happen regularly, it is important for one colleague to remind another that we said we were going to do something and it is important for every staff member to follow through on the commitment. It may be a principal reminding a teacher, but in truly productive school cultures it also includes teachers holding each other accountable. In addition, it also includes teachers holding principals accountable--again, merely reminding each other that we said we were going to do something and that it makes a difference when everyone does what they said they were going to do.

I suspect the most successful baseball teams have extremely talented athletes. I also suspect their clubhouse culture is one in which these amazing athletes hold each other accountable for doing certain things consistently, whether that includes showing up on time to team events or running out a ground ball. Likewise, our most successful schools are staffed with highly effective educators, folks who also have intentionally built a school culture in which every individual has the authority--and even responsibility--to hold every one of their colleagues accountable...for doing what they said they were going to do as members of the organization. Creating a culture in which we hold each other accountable for doing what we say we will do is another way we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!

Promoting Positive Student Behavior

“Teacher growth is closely related to pupil growth. Probably nothing within a school has more impact on students in terms of skills development, self-confidence, or classroom behavior than the personal and professional growth of their teachers.”

Roland Barth

This July, I took part in what has become an annual educational event and a highlight of my year. Along with nine respected friends and colleagues, I gathered in Boston prior to the National Principals’ Conference and wrote a collaborative book in just over 48 hours. This is the third year we have undertaken this project called #EdWriteNow (Officially, Education Write Now). This year, we wrote about educational challenges and solutions, resulting in the upcoming book: Education Write Now: Solutions to Common Challenges in Your School or Classroom.

As I approached Year 3 of #EdWriteNow, I assumed there was little chance of matching the work of the inaugural team (linked here) or the Volume II team (linked here) but I was wrong. This year’s crew was just as awesome and I believe our final product may well be the best book yet!

Once everyone arrived at the hotel, we met as a writing team. First on the agenda was sharing information about the Will to Live Foundation, a non-profit foundation to which we donate all proceeds from book sales of each #EdWriteNow edition. Will to Live is an organization dedicated to preventing teen suicide by improving the lives and the “Will To Live” of teenagers everywhere through education about mental health and encouraging them to recognize the love and hope that exists in each other. You can learn more about their work by watching this compelling video that our team watched to kick off our own work.

Our next task was to decide what to write about and how to turn ten individual 5,000 word essays on education into a single cohesive book. We quickly decided on an overarching theme of “Educational Challenges and Solutions.” Each author wrote about a specific problem, or challenge, we face in our roles as educators. My own contribution was to write a chapter about challenges we face in classrooms with student behaviors and how we can best plan for and resolve such issues when--or even before--they arise.

Once we determined our writing topics, the rest of our time was spent writing alone, coming back together as a whole team to share our work, meeting with writing partners to provide critical feedback, and gathering after hours for great food, conversation, and much laughter. When we came together as a whole group, we actually read parts of our chapters aloud. It was a bit scary, reading our work aloud to nine friends we all respected not only as amazing educators, but also as excellent writers. However, when we did so, we were thrilled to learn that our individual efforts were coming together nicely as a unified book, with our voices sounding much more alike than different from chapter to chapter.

For my chapter on promoting positive student behavior, I wrote that teachers who work to explicitly create a positive classroom culture at the beginning of the school year and work intentionally throughout the year to maintain, reinforce, and even practice their classroom culture tend to have less instances of student misbehavior than those who do not. Here is a short excerpt from that part of the book:


“...The most effective teachers I have observed take time at the very start of each school year to establish a positive classroom culture. Each subsequent school day, they intentionally reinforce and even practice cultural norms and values. It is a culture co-created with the students they teach and lead, whether in a first grade classroom or a high school biology class. In classrooms with clearly established and consistently reinforced cultural norms, values, behaviors, and beliefs in place, students behave much better than those in classrooms in which teachers have, instead, left this vital piece of the “classroom management” puzzle to chance. In some instances, teachers create a shared culture in their classroom with fierce intention; in others, teachers insist they were not even aware they were doing this, yet it happened almost intuitively. Regardless of teachers’ self-awareness of their culture-building actions, I suspect that in classrooms with the most positive and productive cultures--resulting in much more positive and productive student behavior and much less student misbehavior--these teachers have much in common. They may teach Kindergarten or they may teach Advanced Placement Environmental Science. They may be veteran teachers with many years of experience or they may be a first year teacher. They may be gregarious, extroverted, charismatic individuals or they may be much more reserved. Yet despite the many ways in which they differ, these culture-building teachers all possess certain mindsets when it comes to promoting positive student behavior in their classrooms…”


Next week, please look for David Geurin’s thoughts on our writing process, as well as an excerpt from his chapter. I was honored beyond words to partner with David and eight other amazing writers and thinkers on the Education Write Now project. Of course, we could not have hosted this education writing retreat without the support of our sponsor, Routledge, who will publish this book, due out in December.

Next year will be the fourth year of the #EdWriteNow project; after serving as co-editor for the first three versions, I will be rolling off this noble project, but Sanee Bell will continue to lead the work as co-editor and she will invite nine different educational writers to join the team next summer. Please let her know if you would like to be considered as a participant.

Huge thanks to the third Education Write Now team for donating their time and energy to this project. They are all outstanding and passionate educators. More importantly, they are just about the nicest friends a person could ever hope to have and I am humbled to have had this opportunity to work with them. Discussing real challenges we face as educators and brainstorming possible solutions is another way we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!

Sometimes Things Happen

“When you base your life on principles, most of your decisions are made before you ever encounter them.”

Not long ago, I read that the most underlined sentence in all of Kindle is the following, from the wildly popular book, The Hunger Games:

“Because sometimes things happen to people and they are not ready for it.”

What might it look like to be ready? One way we can look forward proactively is by looking backward reflectively, learning from our past experiences, including both our successes and failures. Another way we can “be ready” even when we have no idea what is about to happen is by basing our lives on principles, as the above quote suggests. In our book, The Principled Principal, Anthony McConnell and I make the case that educators, including all school leaders, are more apt to respond well to the unexpected when the way they operate professionally is guided by core values, or principles.

When our day-to-day actions as professional educators are grounded in core principles, it results in a kind of comfortable predictability that those we lead (whether students or colleagues) come to recognize and appreciate. We are not acting one way today and a totally different way tomorrow. We do not say yes to one person or idea in one instance and no to a different person with a similar idea in another. We also are careful to not say yes to one idea and yes again to another idea that completely contradicts the first one. Indeed, principled educators are consistent in their decision-making processes and, ultimately, their decisions, ensuring a culture in which all staff and students become aware that “this is the way we do things around here.” Such a culture dictates that we base our decisions not on whimsy, nor the flavor-of-the-month, nor on the person asking; rather, we base these decisions on what is best for our students and our school as a community.

Spontaneity can be a good thing, especially in schools and classrooms. Over the course of a long school year, it is important for both teachers and administrators to find ways to break from routine and allow for spontaneous joy. Surprising our kids--or our staff members--with lessons, meetings, celebrations, and events that break with tradition or the daily grind is an excellent way to keep teaching and learning exciting and of reigniting passions. Yet, there is also something to be said for predictability. The word--at least in my mind--carries with it connotations of boring and dull. Yet, at least in certain ways, being a ‘predictable” teacher or administrator can be quite comforting to those we teach and lead.

Last year, I served as an interim school administrator for a few months. Something happened on my second day working at the school that was, honestly, the most elevated situation I have come across in over 35 years of public school service. I walked into the office from morning bus duty and was confronted with a potentially explosive and dangerous situation involving a disturbed and distraught adult. To be honest, I was taken by surprise and for just a moment could not even comprehend what was happening. In a way it was like the line from The Hunger Games: Something was happening and I was not ready for it. Yet, in another way, I was prepared even though the situation was completely unexpected and quite unsettling. I was prepared (as were the few colleagues who were also there) because I had already adopted principles which guided the way I behaved whenever coming across such situations and we immediately acted according to these principles (de-escalate, try to connect, enact all emergency procedures, stay calm, etc.) once we realized what was happening. Although it took awhile, everyone involved behaved based on core principles and eventually the situation was resolved as smoothly as humanly possible.

Schools, on the whole, are some of the most joyful places on Planet

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Earth. There are times, however, when our schools and classrooms are places of stressful, even tragic, situations, often when “things happen for which we are not ready.” We cannot prevent every such situation from occurring, but we can prepare for the unexpected, in part, by basing our lives on principles so that when the unexpected does happen, we can respond in the best possible way. Several years ago, clinical psychologist Meg Jay delivered one of my favorite TED Talks in which she discusses another event one can prepare for well before it happens: getting married. She makes the case that, “The best time to work on Alex’s marriage is before she has one.” Just because marriage, work, and kids are happening later in life doesn’t mean you can’t start planning now. Another example that comes to mind is the infamous incident in which pilot Chesley Sullenberger (Sully) miraculously landed an airplane on the Hudson River in New York. Although he could never have fully anticipated this situation, in actuality, he had spent a lifetime preparing for it. Sully had made the decision of what to do well in advance of the 208 seconds during which he had available to him to act. Likewise, just because we can never know when something unexpected is going to happen in our classroom or school, we must still prepare for the unexpected by basing our lives on principle. Making decisions well in advance of having to actually respond to the unexpected is another way we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!

Learning By Doing (and Planning to Do)

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend 

the first four sharpening the axe.” 

Abraham Lincoln

“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that 

I may learn how to do it.” 

Pablo Picasso

The above quotes are both important when it comes to learning. As learners, we must spend time preparing to do and also engage in the actual doing. It is popular to proclaim that we learn best by doing and I tend to agree with the spirit of this sentiment. In fact, when speaking to educators about learning, I often start by defining learning as, “Doing what we can’t,” meaning that it is not until I can do something which I previously could not do that I have learned. At its essence, learning results in a change within us; when we learn, we are changed in some way: we now think differently or we possess new knowledge or we can now do what we previously could not. As important as doing is to the learning process, we must not discount, however, the importance of planning to do. I am reminded of the importance of both learning and planning to learn when I travel and have reflected often on the differences between my travel planning today and my lesson planning when I served as a classroom teacher for nineteen years.

I have traveled to all 50 states and 30 countries. Early on in my life as a traveler, I realized that the more I learned about a destination prior to actually traveling there, the more I would see and could do once I actually arrived. A good example is my trip to Pamplona, Spain several years ago to run with the bulls. I was a Hemingway fan as a young man and running with the bulls had been on my travel bucket list for many years. When I finally decided to make the trip, I also made the decision to learn as much as I possibly could about running with the bulls prior to actually arriving. I read several books on the topic, perused scores of online resources, watched a number of videos, and spoke with a few people who had already made the journey.

The background knowledge I gained from this research helped me immensely once I arrived. By acquiring this knowledge prior to my arrival, I knew where I wanted to stay, what I needed to wear, at what point along the path I wanted to start my daily run with the bulls, proper running etiquette, what would happen once we entered Plaza de Toros de Pamplona, and even what to do should I fall while running. Had I not arrived in Pamplona armed with all the knowledge I now possessed about running with the bulls, I would not have been as confident about what I would be doing and I may not have achieved my goals.

So, how does this relate to education? I think background knowledge still matters. Ultimately, the most enduring and impactful learning we experience comes from doing rather than knowing, yet knowing as much as possible before doing still makes sense. When speaking to educators, I often share the following on a slide:

Make no mistake: We need to intentionally push our students to act as the learners described on the right hand of the slide. At the same time, there remains a place in all classrooms for students to engage in the learning behaviors listed on the left side of the image. Our ultimate goal must be that students “make meaning,” “produce,” and “do” as learners. Yet, they are more likely to accomplish this when they “gain meaning,” “know more,” and “consume” what we have to offer them, so that once they begin “doing,” their chances for success in terms of enduring skills and knowledge are strengthened.

When traveling to any new destination, I believe that the more you know about the destination before you arrive, the more you will experience and learn about the destination once you are actually there. Ultimately, we learn by doing and, at times, it suits us--and our students--to simply jump right in and start doing. Yet, planning to do matters also and it is more often the case that we will do more and do better when we are thoroughly equipped to embark upon the doing. Empowering our students to actively "do" learning matters. Preparing them to "do" by building their background knowledge and equipping them with necessary skills also matters. Ensuring that our students are learning by doing and planning to do are two important ways we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!

When Is It OK To Break the Rules?

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them.”

Robert Heinlein

The majority of educators I know tend to be rule followers by nature and there is certainly something to be said for establishing guidelines in our schools to ensure safety and optimize student and staff performance. There are other times, however, when we must serve as disruptors, recognizing that a rule we may have in place serves no legitimate purpose or is even counterproductive to what we are attempting to accomplish. Recently, I found myself reflecting on two such instances that are of a totally different nature but equally representative of rules gone awry.

One instance related to school safety. At a school I visited this past year, I was walking down a busy hallway during a class change. As I turned a corner by a stairwell, a door opened suddenly and struck me. A student had come down the stairs and flung open the door, inadvertently striking me as I passed by. The school counselor, who also happened to be walking by, stopped to make sure I was OK and said, “This happens all the time. We have a sign on the door warning people to open the door carefully, but it doesn’t do much good.” In examining the area, the solution was rather obvious: keep the stairwell doors open or perhaps remove them entirely. I suggested as much to the counselor. She agreed that this was the logical thing to do and informed me that they had already tried to make that change only to be told it was against the safety code. School and local fire officials had designated the stairwell as some sort of safe haven in the event of an emergency which, for some reason, dictated that the doors remain closed. I raised the issue myself with these people and was rebuffed. I pointed out that students and staff members were getting hurt on a regular basis by following this rule. I also inquired as to whether any emergency had ever occurred in the fifty-plus years of the school’s existence which resulted in the stairwell being used as a safe haven. Not surprisingly, the answer was no, but the doors were to remain closed all the same, just in case. If not so maddening, it would have been humorous: in the name of “safety,” we followed a rule which made the school much less safe for the students and staff walking the halls of the school on a daily basis.

A much different--and possibly even more important--example has to do with grade acceleration. Although it may not be a formal “rule,” I have found that allowing a child to skip a grade or subject is generally frowned upon and rarely allowed. Every student we serve, it seems, must pass through every stage of the PreK-12 journey without skipping a step in the process regardless of their social, emotional, academic, and physical status. In over thirty years of public school service, I can count on one hand how many students I came in contact with who were allowed to skip a grade. In each instance, the recommendation to do so was initially met with stern opposition; yet also in each instance, the student who was allowed to skip a grade thrived once they were moved ahead. The argument for keeping a student in, say, second grade, when all indications are that the child would be better served by moving her into third grade are no more compelling than the argument for keeping stairwell doors closed even when it means that students and staff are regularly clonked on the head by an opening door. In fact, the argument pretty much boils down to: “But, that’s the way we have always done it.”

I am generally not opposed to rules. In our schools, especially, it makes perfect sense to have clear rules in place to ensure student safety and to maximize student and staff performance. Yet, there must be a purpose behind the rules we establish. And the purpose must be something larger than, “That’s just the way we have always done it.” If the “way we have always done it” is getting the results we desire, we should probably keep doing it. If, instead, “the way we have always done it” is harming people or holding them back from performing at their optimal level, we must heed the words of Heinlein and break such “obnoxious’ rules. What are some other rules we should break in our schools? I am interested in your thoughts. Knowing when to follow the rules and when to be a disruptor and break the rules are important ways we Teach, Learn, and Lead with Passion!