I was engaged in a far ranging conversation with dear friends with whom I feel free to express my opinions. It was a  lively, complex, provocative discussion- until when it happened on the subject of abortion, it was abruptly aborted.  In the same room where we had been trading ideas, dealing in nuance, re-arranging our beliefs, there was suddenly only one permissible position. Every other position was excoriated and dismissed. Conversation over. Nothing new learned. Intellect trumped by emotion.   

What is telling about this experience is that even though we were not challenging each other’s beliefs (We were and still are ardently pro-choice) it was not permissible to explore the reasons why so many people ardently disagree with us. 

                After re-affirming my pro-choice stance, I started to point out that one does not have to be crazy or even slightly illogical to understand that if I abort a fetus I remove the actuarial probability of that fetus’ living as a human individual person for a given length of time – as accurate a definition of killing as most – and that we who are pro choice would be wise to respect that concern and understand that for some it carries heavier weight than the concern for choice. But I never got the words out, because I don’t try to keep on talking when everybody is shaking his or her head as if I were crazy. So the conversation ended right there.

                And we are friends. We care for each other! If friends can’t discuss profound issues with each other, who can?

Just in case you aren’t convinced of the wisdom of this, please take a look at this sample (and incomplete) list of contentious issues: abortion, affirmative action, the war In Iraq, environmental regulation, the role and size of government, capital punishment, gun control, taxes, health care, and ask yourself: Are any of them subjects you would refrain from bringing up at a dinner party for fear of ruining the evening? Or do you only hang out with people whose positions you share?  Do you avoid any of them at family gatherings for fear of discord among those you hold dear? Do you only read newspapers whose editorial bias supports what you already believe? Do you react to the words liberal and conservative as labels?

                If the answer for most of us is yes, aren’t we in trouble?

       Next Friday: The third and last post on this subject.

Post 3.

A proven ability to engage in respectful discourse with those with whom we disagree on fundamental issues; and a consequent openness to the possibility of changing one’s position.This ability has always been important in a democracy where each of us has the power of a vote. Now, as we grow more and more polarized, it is critical.

The courses, starting in middle school, ascending in complexity and ranging  through high school and college, would grapple head on with the most divisive issues – the ones that many of us don’t dare bring up, even with our friends and family members -such as: abortion, affirmative action, the Iraq war, environmental regulation, the role and size of government, capital punishment, immigration, and gun control.

Course designs would include such exercises and expectations as:

We will not debate. We won’t try to win.  We will cooperate in an effort to find the merit in each other’s position, and largest possible area of agreement.

                We will get to know one another as real people, not as conservatives or liberals or any other labels. Thus some class time will be devoted to telling: Who I am. This is my background. These are a few of the defining moments in my life so far- and the like.

                All positions( for example: I believe –or don’t believe- in the rightness of the death penalty) will be considered as a starting position, the one I hold now at the beginning of this exercise, at the end of which I will state whether or not it is changed, and if it has, my new position.

                We will never argue about facts. To the best of our ability, we will establish what is factual, statistical, confirmable, gathering all the relevant, factual information, not just what supports a particular position. We will refer to unbiased research and discard any research or argument that seems biased or factually questionable – especially that which agrees with our starting positions.

                In discussions, we will frequently stop and paraphrase what a classmate has just said and ask the question: do I paraphrase you correctly? Do I understand accurately? This forces close attention and makes it almost impossible to think up counter-arguments while the other person is talking.   

While some class members are engaged in a discussion, others will observe and judge the quality of the discussion and report that judgment to the class.

We will embrace complexity, nuance, and regard generalizations with suspicion.

Teachers will act as facilitators of the process – not as participants in the discussion.

Let’s imagine, for instance a congress and senate whose members are endowed with this skill put there by voters also so endowed who demand civil discourse, reliance on facts, true bi-partisanship from their politicians. Wouldn’t the results be a big improvement on the performance we are witnessing now?

I WATCHED A SCIENCE CLASS  for rising 8^th graders at Aim High this summer:

The teacher brought in an array of commercial drinks: Coke, Red Bull, Gator Aid, Five-hour Energy, Aztec Tea and others. He divided the class into groups and each group selected one of the drinks to study.

The assignment: Identify the ingredients of the drink and its container. Research and report on the healthiness or un- healthiness of the drink: is it good for us or not and why? Research and report on the environmental costs of producing and disposing or recycling the container.

Create an advertisement for the drink

Write a letter to the President of the organization that produces and markets the product, reporting on your findings.

All of the above is to be arranged on a cardboard 12” x 12”backing to be affixed to the class bulletin board for display to parents and others  on a special evening near the end of the  summer.

The teacher started the project by putting his own finished assignment on the bulletin board and asking each group to give it a grade based on thoroughness of the research, the efficacy of the advertisement, the cogency of the letter and the overall visual design.

Here’s a brief check-off list: benchmarks of excellence:

Relevance: Yes  we put this stuff into our stomachs!

Science: Yes:  identify the ingredients

Environmental responsibility and understanding Yes : the “footprint of the container.

Civic engagement Yes:  the letter to the CEO

Persuasion/communication: Yes : the art of persuasion : the advertisement

Critical thinking: yes – The art of judging the persuasion: what the ad emphasizes, downplays or ignores. How true/accurate.

Working with a group: Yes: teamwork, decision making

All this seamlessly integrated across a multitude of disciplines.

I VISITED THE St. Paul’s site in Oakland on Wednesday, July 6^, 2011

        As always the day starts as one community, gathered in a circle so that every person is visible and present to every other person.  The circle, with 2 staff members in the center facilitating and this day, leading a game – a version of Simon Says that allows grown-ups and children to be silly together – is a language that says much better than words can: we are a community in which each of us is treasured for who we are and a ritual that celebrates that fact.  That the children have caught on to this is obvious on their faces, and in their body language.  They are alert, glad to be where they are, expectant of the good things that will happen this day. The energy is palpable.

 I followed a science class of rising sixth graders and their teacher into the botanical garden across the street. The garden  is in itself a place of intense beauty, a marvelous place just to be on a summer morning,  exotic in the center of a busy city, not one that a sixth grader is likely to enter on his or her own. The assignment: to observe. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? And what questions do have about these?  How many of us ever actually stop, be still and notice? The students are making their own information, not being fed it, and of course are performing the fundamental scientific act of observing phenomena and identifying the relevant questions about it.

                Next I dropped in on humanities class of rising 7^th graders. The subject Pirates, but the deeper subject is the context in which pirates operated- how there wouldn’t have been piracy without the voluminous trade between Europe and the east which forced merchant ships to congregate as prey between Madagascar and the mainland. What were the working conditions and pay for sailors on merchant ships, or in the navies where the captain had absolute control over your life that might have induced you to become a pirate? It is hard to believe that the children didn’t emerge from this lively discussion more aware of context, of systems, connections.

                Then to a math class which the teacher starts by challenging the students to put an array of numbers on the whiteboard at the front of the room on a number line in 4 minutes , “Starting right now!” Immediate intense focus to win the race against time! Some of the numbers are positive, some negative, some whole, some fractional, and one is expressed by an unsolved long division problem.  There are the same number of numbers on the whiteboard as there are children in the class, and at the end of the four-minute race to finish, the teacher holds a stack of cards in her hand, each card with the name of one of the students and asks each child, as she draws from the top of the stack to come forward and place one of the numbers on the line. Thumbs up if you agree, sideways if you are not sure, thumbs down if you disagree, and why. Everyone knows he or she will be called on, so everyone is important, and because no one knows when, everyone’s alert.  Then, after everyone is sworn to absolute silence, each child is given a slip of paper with a number on it, again either negative or positive or expressed in a fraction or decimal. Now the class is challenged: “You have four minutes to get in a line in sequence, the lowest on the left, ascending to the highest on the right with no verbal communication.” Smart kids, they write their numbers on the whiteboard, labeling them with their names and use the resultant info as their guide and beat the deadline. Teamwork and math combined. Everyone intensely engaged, working hard, and having fun.  Next the class is divided in two, one teacher taking some of the children who need more help to a different room. In the room where I stay, the teacher hands out individual whiteboards and calls out numbers to be placed on a number line. As soon each child is finished he or she shows the answer to the teacher for immediate corroboration or correction. The process is efficient, brisk. Superb time management.  How much can you teach in one short class period? At Aim High a whole lot.

                 On the board of an Issues and Choices class for rising 6^th graders;  OBJECTIVE: “I will know how important it is to prioritize and manage my time.” The teachers and students work with a chart that when filled out identifies assignments to be fulfilled, due dates, etc. so as to identify priorities and manage time. Much discussion about this and other methods, specific examples from their current homework assignments, what works for some and doesn’t for others. Near the end of the class a FINAL Word: one of the students summarizes the class, tells what was learned. And to get out the door, each child hands in an idea or plan written on a piece of paper, an EXIT TICKET.  Another highly interactive class in which the skillful guidance of the teachers keeps the students engaged in very relevant material.

Another humanities class: Focus: mythology, this week, western, specifically Atalanta.  Objective: perform the myth as a play with active voices. Agenda/Do Now: identify story parts: characters, plot, setting, resolution. Homework: read the myth, labeling the story parts. The energetic discussion, largely Socratic in nature, during the first half of the period, fused the unlocking of this specific myth with developing the ability to derive meaning from all kinds of narrative.  In the second half the students perform the myth, each taking a part and reading it as in a radio drama. Again, total engagement. No perfunctory reading here! That the students are willing to be so animated, so out there in front of their peers,  is sign of their engagement, their understanding of the myth, and of the comfort they feel in this supportive community.

Summary: I came away inspired. I’d spent a fascinating morning in a very organized, happy, intensely busy community in which the students are fully engaged in highly designed, effective curriculum delivered by teachers who are stars.

Much of what follows is quoted directly from the Aim High website: www.aimhigh.org

Aim High: Overview

The mission of Aim High is to inspire a life-long love of learning and instill a sense of community, opportunity, and respect so that students are prepared for success in school and life.

Aim High is the largest academic summer program provider in the Bay Area, operating campuses in San Francisco, Oakland, Marin County and San Mateo County. The program combines intensive, engaging and challenging academic classes with activities and events that create opportunities for leadership development and community exploration. Students join after 5th or 6th grade, and participate for three or four consecutive summers – at no cost to them or their families. The organization has grown from one site, serving 50 students in 1986, to twelve sites in four counties serving more than 1,000 students.

Over the last 25 years, Aim High has changed the lives of over 5,000 low-income youth. By reaching youth during the critical transition from childhood to adulthood, Aim High instills a deep love of learning through an engaging, personalized and supportive summer school program. The key to Aim High’s success is the network of support built around young people over the course of their years in the program. The majority of the youth we serve come from low-income families, live in under-resourced neighborhoods, and will be the first in their families to graduate from college.

Aim High not only prepares students for success in high school and higher education, but is also committed to encouraging talented young adults to serve their communities and to consider teaching as a career. We hire and train hundreds of high school and college students to teach in the summer, and hire experienced teachers who mentor the younger, less experienced teachers in the program. Many of Aim High’s faculty members are graduates of Aim High and serve as powerful role models for our students.

The 2010 Aim High Summer Program served:

1071 Students
662 in San Francisco
184 in Oakland
137 in Redwood City/East Palo Alto
88 in Marin City/San Rafael

98% Students of Color
41% Asian/Pacific Islander
35% Latino
14% African American
8% Multi/Other
2% Caucasian

73% Poverty/Low-Income Level Households
Average Income: $34,300
Median Income: $23,400

91% Public School students
5% Parochial School students
4% Independent School students

60% speak a language other than English at home

66% will be the first in the family to graduate college

Why Summer Matters:

Middle school is a crucial juncture in making a difference in young people’s lives and the purpose of Aim High is to reach students at this critical crossroads and propel them towards success in high school and college. Research has shown that sustained intervention during the middle school years goes a long way to keeping students engaged in their education.

• Most students lose about two months of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills over the summer months. Low-income students also lose more than two months in reading achievement, despite the fact that their middle-class peers make slight gains (Cooper, 1996).

• More than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities. As a result, low-income youth are less likely to graduate from high school or enter college (Alexander et al, 2007).

• Children lose more than academic knowledge over the summer. Most children—particularly children at high risk of obesity—gain weight more rapidly when they are out of school during summer break (Von Hippel et al, 2007).

• Parents consistently cite summer as the most difficult time to ensure that their children have productive things to do (Duffett et al, 2004).

• For every 100 students in the U.S. who begin ninth grade, 67 finish high school in four years and only 38 go to college. (Mortenson, T. (2000). NCES-IPEDS graduation rate survey. Postsecondary Education Opportunity.)

• As they get older, poor children and children of color are left behind because of their lack of access to enrichment activities during the summer and after school. (Benson & Saito, 2000; Clark, 1998; Copper, Charlton, Valentine & Muhlenbruck, 2000)

• Only one in ten high school students of color in the United States today is likely to graduate from college within four years. (Scholar Jay Greene)

Aim High Results

Results from 2010 surveys of students, teachers, families and graduates indicate that students benefit from attending Aim High in five critical areas.

Students have a positive attitude toward learning.

• 91% say that they feel more confident about next year’s schoolwork.
• 95% report that Aim High helped them become more excited about learning new things.
• 96% of parents say that their students are excited about learning at Aim High.

Students are confident, motivated and engaged in school and have strong learning skills.

• 90% of students report improvement in math at Aim High, 90% in science and 85% in reading and writing.
• 95% of parents report that their students are better prepared to learn because of Aim High.
• Over the course of 5 weeks, Aim High students increased their math assessment scores by 15%.

Students feel a sense of community belonging and healthy, valued relationships with peers & adults.

• 95% of students feel safe at Aim High and  91% of students feel respected by other students.
• 94% of students report that they made new friends.
• 93% say that they found a positive adult role model.

Students make a successful transition to high school and graduate on time.

• 97% of Aim High alumni completed high school on time.
• 95% of Aim High alumni are enrolled in college.
• More than half of alumni credit Aim High with impacting their on-time graduation from high school.

Aim High increases students’ understanding of the path to college.

• 84% of students and parents report that students learned why California’s A-G requirements are important.
• 83% learned about new careers that interested them.
• 92% of students say that Aim High helped them understand the relationship between High School and going to college.

Benefits for Teachers

Veteran and novice teachers at Aim High benefit from teaching in an environment that is collaborative, creative and highly supportive.

• 75% of teachers say that their site directors gave them valuable feedback about their teaching.
• 96% report that resources provided by Aim High helped them teach effectively.
• 96% say that Aim High has helped their personal and professional growth.
• Because of Aim High, 46% of TAs and Interns say that they are considering going into teaching.

Awards & Recognition

• The Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University selected Aim High as one of three 2008 recipients of the Excellence in Summer Learning Award.
• Bank of America awarded Aim High the highly competitive Neighborhood Builders Award. The award consisted of a $200,000 grant over two years and professional development opportunities for senior leadership.

A hundred years from now, we will still be arguing about monetary policy. There will be forever conservatives and liberals and the confusion about the meaning of those terms will be just as enduring.  The one economic policy that we can all agree on – simply because it is so obvious – is to invest whatever it takes to make American K-12 education the best in the world.

Some numbers, quoted by Thomas friedman in The New York Times, April 22, 2009, “Swimming Without a Suit” say it all:

#The 2006 Program for International Student Assessment ranked American 15-year olds 25th out of 30 in math; 24 out of 30 in science:

#Friedma’s quoting from The Economic Impact of the Achievemant gap in American Schools, a report by MCKinsey, a consulting firm. “If we had raised the 1983 achievement gap between 1983 (When A Nation at Risk came out)  to the level of Finland and South Korea the GDP in 2008 would have been between 1.3 trillion and 2.3 trillion higher.

My knees were shaking, my heart was beating much too fast and I was on the verge of tears. My meeting with a woman whom I respected and admired, the founding head of an extraordinary school where I would have been delighted to enroll my own children, was to begin in five minutes, and I had steeled myself  as her consultant to tell her I thought she should resign. Otherwise, in another year, two at the most, the board which she had recruited would fire her. I was prepared to go on and admit that the board might not have the heart to save the school from the very person who had made it so worth saving – in which case the school would falter and soon not be as worth saving anymore.

Imagine my exhilaration when, before I opened my mouth, she told me she had come to the same conclusion. “It hasn’t been an easy decision,” she said. “I’ve done more than a little grieving. I’m still in love with the school, and with the idea of being its head. But I’m not in love with, nor particularly fit for the kind of leadership and management the school needs now that it is three times the size than when we started.”

The core of the leadership this brilliant educator had provided the school had been in the classroom. She’d focused on recruiting great teachers and leading them in the development of exemplary progressive curriculum. That’s where her talents lay and where her heart was, and the superb program that drew the families to the school in rapidly increasing numbers was the result. Thus the paradox: her success as a leader had created the need for a different kind of leadership: more global, overarching, delegating the work she was best at to someone else. Yes, in a fantasy world, she could have taken on that work as the Dean of Faculty and reported to her successor, but she knew her continued presence as everyone’s hero would drain the authority from the new head.

In June of that year, she told the board she would resign, effective July 1 of the following year. During her last year, I served as consultant to the search committee for her successor, and had constant contact with the school. I watched her steps get lighter and lighter and serenity imprint on her face as she realized how smart she had been to resign before anyone had to suggest that to her, and what a fine thing she had done. She had caused a great school to exist. Now she was giving it away to the world!

Here’s another, but different, success story:  Twenty-three years ago, a young man, Ben Holmes (full disclosure: he happens to be my son-in-law) started The farm School in Athol, Massachusetts. He didn’t have a nickel to his name, but he did have several credit cards – as did the friends he gathered around himself to be the board of trustees. He rented a small family-run dairy farm from a retired farmer whose children had chosen other professions, made repairs and improvements with his own labor, and invited local public elementary and middle schools to bring groups of children and their teachers to participate in the life and work of a traditional family farm, thus  connecting kids to the land, inspiring conservation and instilling the concepts of sustainable agriculture. And, of course, he was raising funds for, among other things, a bunkhouse (built out of lumber from local sustainable forests, milled by a local mill, constructed  by local workers) to house approximately 30 children and their teachers who would come to the farm for a program which lasts three and one half days. Now, in addition to all the work of operating a farm, raising funds, hiring, inspiring, supervising staff, leading the development of the curriculum, he was recruiting the children in public and independent schools from as far away as Boston and Providence.

The Farm School very rapidly became a success. Its calendar is entirely booked. Last I heard, not one participating school has opted out. It owns the farm, the mortgage paid off. And it has expanded. Three miles away on another farm rented for a very small sum from a retired farmer delighted to preserve her land as a farm, The Farm School operates an intern program for people who want to learn organic farming. The program earns good revenue selling the produce of a thirty-five acre organic garden to local subscribers and high end markets in Boston. On that farm in what was once a very large chicken coop, The farm School operates a one-room school house for 6^th, 7^th and 8^th grade children whose parents want a more progressive education than the public school offers. Two of my grandchildren received a superb education there.

Thus, like my friend’s elementary school, The Farm School has become a much more complex organization than when Ben started it, requiring a different kind of leadership to sustain it. But, unlike the elementary school’s founder, Ben is still at the helm. His decision, equally self-aware and disciplined as hers, was to give away operations  to competent others. Now, if he milks a cow or weeds a garden, he does so for therapy or to relieve someone who needs a break. Likewise for teaching. There was some sadness in saying goodbye to activities that are the source of his passion, but his willingness to delegate to competent others has left him free to see the organization as a whole and thus guide it so as to sustain it. To say nothing of sustaining himself.

Both of these successful founders were able to separate their own identity from the organizations they brought into being. Not easy to do. And they understood that when they recruited a board they were creating an authority greater than their own.

Too bad these two successes aren’t what usually happen.

What too often actually happens instead is a brilliant, charismatic person with a compelling idea for making the world a better place makes an irresistible  pitch to prospective board members who agree to form a board and start an organization to implement that vision- and then proceed to act not like a board, but instead a loyal rubber stamp to the founder. Most often, the board doesn’t even ask the question whether the founder should be the Executive Director. For, after all, the whole idea is hers, the thinking goes; our organization wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for her brilliant vision, her passion, and commitment to this marvelous idea which has given us the chance to be good servants and brought new meaning to our lives. Thus the board’ relates to the founder as if she owned the organization, and inevitably after awhile, the best board members drift away, leaving the weak ones behind to be even more reverent of the executive director. Why would a strong board member want to continue attending all those meetings to hear what has already been decided? Without a strong board, no non-profit organization will ever emerge from immaturity to reach its potential.

And if the founder/director does not perform well, there is no way to stave off dysfunction. As the organization grows, there is the predilection for the founder/director to stay too closely involved with all the functions, including those for which she has the least talent – or if she does delegate to others, to undermine their authority by changing their decisions when they don’t agree with the way she is thinking – which is often a secret because she “owns” everything. Secret also are the internal problems because the board takes her reports at face value, never asking tough questions, let alone doing 360 degree evaluations. Valuable employees, tired of waiting for the board to do its job, resign. Soon new hires and resignations resemble a revolving door. Ultimately the dysfunction is so pervasive the organization dies – or the board finally does step in and remove the Executive Director.

Therein lies another paradox: the pain of forcing the separation of the creator from her creation is engendered by the same phenomena which makes doing so necessary: reverence on the part of the board, a sense of ownership on the part of the founder/director.

How much more victorious the outcome if, at the first instant, boards and founding directors would think through to the true nature of their work and their relationship to each other.