Lay It on the Table

by Bill Bussey

I attended a fairly small public high school that graduated roughly two hundred or so kids every year. One of the more memorable moments at my graduation came as a result of a well-intentioned classmate, who, in honor of our departure, followed through with his regrettable urge to re-write the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkle’s “Bookends”. The Vienna Boy’s Choir are the only folks I can think of who could manage this tune, which, incidentally, possesses all the celebratory joy of Leonard Cohen at the dentist. Nobody could sing it. Nobody wanted to sing it. We didn’t even bother to mouth it. Most folks used the moment as a bathroom break. Another notable juncture occurred later when the seemingly endless awards’ portion overlooked me. They gave out awards for every possible character trait or career choice. Everybody received at least three scholarships or commendations, even the kids who had dropped out. To endure this, I convinced myself that what I was witnessing was really a raffle.

The end of the year for graduates is understandably pretty much all about them, but to be honest, sometimes we all can lose perspective down the final stretch. Any student who gets accepted into Nobles (many do not) and then successfully navigates the Sisyphean demands required to maintain their place in this school (not everyone makes it through) should realize that their diploma is in itself an honor. I cringe a bit on those rare occasions when I hear folks mutter that their son or daughter got the shaft because someone else got the nod. Anything beyond a Nobles diploma really shouldn’t be expected. Yet, I do expect every graduate to take the time and effort to express their appreciation, whether it be to classmates or faculty members, for all that they have been given. Truthfully, every student should do just that every year whether they are graduating or not.

But often it’s the parents of graduates who get overlooked in the waning weeks of the school year—mostly by their own children who are rushing happily from one celebratory event to another. In a perfect world, the run up to graduation would include a Mardi Gras of sorts in which the parents of Class I students could be given a well-deserved tip of the hat for all they have done. To be fair, there are moments at various events prior to graduation that parents get their due. That said, it is unrealistic for us to expect our seniors to fully appreciate all the anxiety, heartache, and sleepless nights that came with our unbridled joy in raising them. Nor can they completely understand how their departure leaves our world in some ways just a little less than what it was. But at this crucial transition it is imperative that each of you carve out a quiet moment with your soon-to-be-graduate and share with them in no uncertain terms everything that they have always meant to you, how they always will, and how that being their parent has been the greatest gift that you have ever known. Lay it on the table and give your child both the means and the moment to do the same.

What are your thoughts during this graduation season?

Can We Trust Goldman Sachs?

by Howard Gardner

Goldman Sachs is widely acknowledged to be a leader in its field and has certainly been successful by most commonly applied criteria.  But it has to decide what business or profession it is in.  If it is just a business, whose goal is to make as much money as possible for partners and shareholders, then it needs to make that clear. “We will do anything legal that we can,”–and, implicitly, cut as close to illegality as we can without crossing the line.

But if it claims to be socially responsible, if its partners claim to be professionals, then it has to apply much stricter standards to its own actions and take full responsibility for the consequences of these actions.  By most accounts, so long as Goldman Sachs was a partnership, it behaved in a professional manner and was justifiably respected for its behaviors. But it is clear from recent events in the post IPO period, that it is strictly a business, one that aims to make as much money as possible, by any and all means, including ones that involve deception of its customers.

Goldman Sachs does not need a new strategy or a new public relations gimmick. If it wants to become a respected firm, it needs to alter fundamentally its hiring, its training, its reward systems, its accountability, and its transparency. Absence a new leadership, with a wholly different set of ethical standards, that won’t happen– even if the firm claims to be doing “God’s work.”

Visit Washington Post Blog for additional perspectives.

Link: http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/2010/04/

Inspiring for Change: GoodWork for Mexico’s Children

by Yael Karakowsky

My name is Yael Karakowsky; I am from Mexico and have been a preschool teacher for the last 3 years. I often ask myself how many “dreamers” are out there … doing everything they can, walking that extra mile, never missing a chance and always seeking to do a little bit more. I consider myself a fighter, a dreamer and sometimes … a person that expects more than what is actually possible. Being a good citizen and a dreamer in Mexico can be a little hard, since we are dealing with a society full of contrasts. This could be even harder when you are working with children and pretending you can inspire them to change the world, since “children are the future”.

Mexico is a beautiful country full of welcoming, warm-hearted and family-oriented people who love to be surrounded by family and friends with high moral values. So then, what is wrong with this picture? The fact is that we always pretend to be the “perfect family” (everything happens behind closed doors), we love shortcuts and easy things, labor is cheap and there is a high lack of education. At the same time we face serious economic issues: money is concentrated in approximately 13-17% of our population, while according to some estimates, 40%-60% of the population lives below the poverty line (OECD) and 60% households are below 6 minimum salaries. This added to the actual economic worldwide situation ends up in educational backwardness, unemployment, sickness, and much more. All this results in: a) very successful parents – in business – with no time for their children; b) parents that have to work hard – many times in more than one job, since labor is cheap and not well valued; or c) unemployed parents that may end up sending their kids to work.

In Mexico, while schools can be doing great efforts, the entire society strives to keep on the traditional path – grow up, study something ‘good’ for your future, get married and have kids. It is rare to find someone who finds the time to actually analyze his future, his professional career and goals, as well as someone who wants to be a responsible parent, as opposed to just wanting a child. Years ago we faced authoritarian and chauvinistic families – women were supposed to stay at home and educate children, the father was the economic support and his word was the law at home. Children were not allowed to ask, listen or talk at every time. There were unlimited rules and “because I say so” was the last and -never under discussion- word. I wouldn’t dare to say that we are not chauvinistic anymore, but I do think that the Mexican society as many others, has passed to the total permissiveness, dragging a high lack of values. Since everyone is a parent and there is a high rate of unemployment, passion in life is lost and it is hard to transmit or inspire. So, many could have the opportunity to study a career, but as said before, there is a high lack of passion in each person’s own life and goals.

This is what I mean by saying there are great contrasts. Children may have the opportunity to attend good schools, but they would be dealing with ambivalence when facing a very different reality in their daily lives, at home, and when dealing with the entire society. We can inspire children to think and analyze, but if parents and outsiders act differently, stop their initiatives and get the same results, children will be affected and our future, too.

As school leaders, we should go further. We should involve parents, students and the entire society. It would be only this way in which we can make an effort to make it as a whole and not just as part of a change. Children should face real dilemmas and start analyzing, thinking and resolving them by themselves. We should encourage new generations to break with the established, to live instead of pretend, and inspire while doing so.

So,are we probably focusing too much in the results, without analyzing the way and the procedure it takes in order to get there? We are probably either:

-Too worried to teach, to educate, to set a good example… that we are missing our own goals, our own happiness, which could be a good option to follow in order to be able to reach what we are looking for and transmit and inspire others to do the same.

Or,

-Too immersed in ourselves, trying to get the results we are looking for; the child we are expecting to have, the medals on our shelves, and the “perfect society” … that we are forgetting how to be human, how to connect with children and with ourselves?

Good Work in Nursing

by Joan Miller

My name is Joan Miller. I have been a nurse for over 35 years. I currently teach in a baccalaureate nursing program at Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, PA. I entered the profession with a desire to provide excellent care for my patients. I wanted to be known as a caring nurse, one willing to work hard, listen well, and show that my patients were always my top priority. I’ve worked hard to foster professional growth and excellence among my students. However, much to my dismay, many new graduates become disillusioned when they enter the work place. In today’s changing health care environment, new graduates experience what many call a ‘reality shock.’ They lament the fact that they do not have time to listen, to be present to those who are vulnerable, and to achieve the level of excellence that they had hoped to achieve.

-What attracted you to the profession?

-Why do you think new graduates become disillusioned when they enter the practice environment?

While preparing for a sabbatical, I read a review of Wendy Fischman’s book, Making Good: How Young People Cope with Moral Dilemmas at Work. This book sparked interest in the research being conducted at Good Work Project at Harvard University. Using the Good Work Project research methodology, I studied the perception of good work among nurses at different levels of professional development. I explored how it is that excellent nurses ride out storms in the profession while remaining committed to excellence.

-How do you define good work in nursing?

Veteran nurses talked about the strategies they used to overcome adversity. A Chief Executive Officer for Nursing in a large teaching hospital told me she “had to be a risk taker.” She was asked to help stabilize an economic downturn in the hospital. She was unwilling to sacrifice the values that informed her identity as a good nurse and an excellent administrator. Her solution: build a team of leaders who share the same values and commitment to excellence. She stated, “If my nurses are good nurses who do the right thing, people will want to come here for their care.” She accomplished her goal and continues to lead nursing into the future at this medical center.

The young nurses I interviewed spoke of the dilemmas they face at the bedside when they are expected to produce more with fewer resources. Early one morning I met a new graduate in the hospital coffee shop after she had finished a 12-hour night shift. This new graduate, whom I will call Jamie, told me how she went home earlier in the week and cried for hours knowing she had not been able to comfort a troubled patient who simply needed a caring presence. When asked if she ever thought of leaving the profession, Jamie responded, “No, I will never leave. I just focus on the reasons I came into nursing. That’s what keeps me going.”

-What strategies have you used to overcome adversity in the practice environment?

Jamie’s experience is not unlike the experience of many nurses around the world. Nurses in every culture are dealing with the global nursing shortage and its impact on patient care, safety, and job satisfaction. It is important to consider reasons nurses enter the profession. What values prompt selection of nursing as a profession? How can we sustain those values? Why do nurses leave the profession? Some nurses, just as Jamie implied, become disillusioned as they transition from the academic to the practice setting.

-Is it possible to arrive at a common definition of good work in nursing across cultures?

I have been using the GoodWork Toolkit® as a curricular strategy to help student nurses focus on the values and vision that initially brought them into the profession. The GoodWork Toolkit® provides an opportunity for beginning students to reflect on themes and strategies that will support good work in nursing. Students learn about the meaning of values, beliefs, and integrity. They reflect on the influence of role models in their lives. They learn a new vocabulary. I believe that students who engage in a dialogue around the concept of good work will be better prepared to cope with the frustration and difficulty they may experience in fulfilling the goals that prompted nursing as a career selection. Dialogue is needed to identify interventions and/or practices that have supported the development and sustaining of values essential to good work in nursing. I suggest that educators consider integrating the GoodWork Toolkit® into the curriculum as a means of promoting good work in nursing.

-What tools do you think new nurses need to overcome adversity?

-How best can we prepare the next generation of nurses for the challenges they will encounter in the work place?

Success in Teaching

by Wendy Fischman

Today is the second day of the Expeditionary Learning (EL) National Conference 2010, in Kansas City (where the temperature outside seems to be “warming up” to a whopping 30 degrees!). The conference has been inspiring and powerful thus far, and even more so for us on the GoodWork Project because of its focus on “good work.”

Lynn and I are facilitating two “master classes” in which we have about 40 participants in each—teachers, administrators, and counselors at schools engaged with EL practice. (For more information about this organization, please visit their website, link below). We planned a similar course outline to others we have facilitated in the past. In the course, we ask educators to reflect on their own work lives and to consider their own goals, objectives, and interests in education. Participants pair-up and interview each other with 5 questions:

– What initially attracted you to your work?

– What kinds of things are you trying to accomplish in your work right now?

– What are you hoping will be the greatest impact of the work you are currently doing?

– How do you define success?

– What direction do you see for the future of your own career?

Although each course takes different shape, participants share similar feedback about this activity. Specifically, they report that considering these questions is a helpful and rare opportunity to think about their own work, and that the question about success is the most difficult. This is not a surprise to us, we hear this from most participants.

Why is it that it is so hard to define success in this domain?

We frequently hear educators struggle with the definition of success. For most educators, it is defined through the actions, behaviors, and performances of the students, and rarely about themselves (even though educators’ work is focused on students). So, for example, students’ improved test scores, engagement of students who are not usually “present” in the classroom, or students coming back to thank their teachers for the impact they had on their lives —are all indicators and signs of success for educators. But what about the educators themselves?

One participant in the EL conference talked about a personal dilemma he faced in teaching. At one point in his career, he taught individuals who were going into teaching. There was at least one student that he felt was not ready to become an independent teacher—he was concerned about his lack of skills for future students. This participant was faced with the decision about whether to pass this student or to confront him with honesty and hold back his career plans. This dilemma reminds me of the story of Steven in the Toolkit, an engineering professor that faces a dilemma about grade inflation. Even though he was in a university setting that supported grade inflation to move students swiftly through the program, he refused to compromise his values of honesty and integrity—and only gave students the grades that reflected their work and progress, even if these grades were not always favorable. We’ve heard similar pressures from other educators who have participated in our courses. For example, an administrator told us she was pressured by a superintendent to fabricate attendance records of students in an inner city school. And a teacher, who when she covered for a colleague on maternity leave, discovered that students were not being graded fairly. She struggled to decide whether to make other administrators aware of this (and jeapordize her colleague’s job) or just let it go.

In all these cases, the stories are complex. One EL participant stated that she likes to let students know that lives are complicated—there are not always going to be easy “right” and “wrong” answers, but that students should be equipped with experiences and skills that help them make the best choices at that time. This is exactly the purpose of the GoodWork Toolkit. And we believe that with these genuine, real complexities, thinking about tough choices in terms of levels of responsibility is helpful: responsibility to self, responsibility to others (colleagues, peers), responsibility to workplace, responsibility to domain, and responsibility to society. These different responsibilities do not necessarily make decisions any easier, but they do provide a framework that can be used to think deeply about the choices with which we are confronted and the consequences of our decisions.

All of this gets me back to that pesty topic of success. I believe it is hard for educators to talk about success because there is no alignment in the domain about this issue. In general, politicians believe success is favorable numbers (test scores, attendance numbers, etc.). Students strive to excel and move to the next grade. Parents may define success as having their children get into top colleges and eventually get good jobs. For teachers, it is different. At least for teachers involved with EL, success is about thinking deeply, being able to solve problems, being a “good” citizen, and pushing the boundaries. We have a lot to learn from this group.

Link: http://www.elschools.org/