Archive for the NotYourFathersSchool Category

A school must always be a set of undiscovered possibilities in the realm of the human spirit and a community devoted to their exploration and realization. We’ve come to the end of the exercise here, perhaps fittingly as I watch the Rhode Island shoreline rush by en […]

A school is a laboratory for the human experience in the context of a distinct, intentional, and internally consistent mission and set of values. I’ve probably worked over the concepts of mission, values, and intentionality to the point of saturation, but it has occurred to me—especially during […]

A school is a place whose environments must practically and aesthetically serve students and staff. When I was a kid I wanted to be an architect, but the profession fortunately dodged that bullet. It’s more than just as well, because every year the whole idea of designing […]

A school is a legal and corporate entity whose structure, operations, and management must conform to legal and ethical standards of multiple jurisdictions. More nuts and bolts, but strangely the requirements that these jurisdictions place upon schools will necessarily have more than a small effect upon their […]

A school is an economic entity whose operations must be prudent and ethical. Okay, this should be short and sweet. It’s about governance and money. Historically governing bodies have a simple role—to determine the course the school is to take (i.e., “set the mission”) and then make […]

A school is a community resource to the extent that it is willing to share. There’s a good deal of buzz these days (even here) about payments and services in lieu of taxes (the infamous PILOTs and SILOTs), charges and demands for services that communities are attempting […]

A school is a workplace whose product is personal experience and growth. Widget factories make widgets, and insurance companies sell and service policies. While the business wisdom of the moment would focus on the “people” aspect of these enterprises, in point of fact you can hold their […]

With seven “verses” down and seven more to go, this seems like a good time to stop and reflect on where I’ve been so far in the current project. I’ve had a couple of revelations and probably should have had a few more getting to this point, […]

A school is a set of intentional and unintentional learning experiences for students. We have come almost half way through this exercise before getting around to academics, you might say. But I am not even thinking specifically about academic learnoing here, although I am thinking very much […]

A school is a set of intentional and unintentional learning experiences for students. We have come almost half way through this exercise before getting around to academics, you might say. But I am not even thinking specifically about academic learnoing here, although I am thinking very much […]