Continuing the Journey

I can hardly believe it has only been one year since I started this journey! I have learned so much. I have changed so much. I have read amazingly transformative books and journal articles and watched/listened to a great variety of speakers on TedTalks, You Tube, Podcasts, Conferences, and Webinars. What I have found is that I have more questions than answers, but knowing more makes me ask these questions. I hope, if you are reading my blog, you will comment on my questions and ask questions of your own.

My passion for education, literacy, and children has been fueled by all I have learned. During this year I was told I was "too passionate and too hard-working" but I have become convinced that passion is what makes us human. I believe authentic passion is a key ingredient in the development of empathetic innovators, artists, leaders, and entrepreneurs.

This is an exciting time in education and a critical time for educators and leaders to collaborate to make informed and thoughtful decisions. There is wisdom in diversity and in global perspectives. There are lessons to learned in reflecting upon the trends and patterns seen in years gone by. Problems and challenges of the future need creative thinkers who are flexible and open-minded. The time has passed for dictator style leaders; the most successful leadership models are collaborative and multi-faceted. Today's leader must be a listener, a critical thinker, and a problem solver. I have read about many effective leaders who are humble, who value the words of others highly, and who can change lenses and see other perspectives.

One of the subjects I have researched during this year is poverty and the shocking inequality in the lives of people on this planet. Why must some struggle to put food on the table in a world where others are filling landfills with leftover food? Why do some communities suffer from devastating floods when others, not so far away, lose acres of food to drought? I can't help thinking we must learn how to move water. Our modern society must be able to think of something beyond rain dances by now.

My dissertation topic is resilience. This motivation to understand resilience has come from own challenging life experiences, yet my desire to investigate this characteristic connects to my concerns about others, especially children. How do some people rise up and escape generations of poverty or other terrible hardship, while others seem destined to a life filled with defeat. It makes me think of one of my favorite verses from Macbeth, "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty deaths. Out, out brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

We have but one life and this one life signifies everything to each and every one of us. Do we accept the hand that has been dealt to us, or do we gather all of our hopes and aspirations, assemble our talents, and fire up the drive within to reach beyond our boundaries? Are we going to sit back and accept the decisions others make that govern our lives, or will we think of more possibilities? Will we muster our courage to challenge what seems to be? This is what must be living in the heart of today's leaders, from the day they are born.

In my heart, I am not satisfied with influencing only my own inner circle of self and family. We must step 'to the balcony' to watch the interaction between peoples all around the world. We cannot limit our goals to tomorrow; we must 'telescope the years' to think about sustainability and value. What are the long-term effects of the decisions we make today? How will our choices change the lives of our grandchildren, and their grandchildren? Do we want to be responsible for the end of humanity? What if we think of ourselves as one person in a long chain of a water brigade? If I decide to pass less water in my bucket, perhaps because I was a little less invested in the process, how will this affect the last bucket in the water brigade? Will it put out the fire? Will it quench a child's thirst?

In our current competitive model of education, why must we be so concentrated on the selfish goals of ensuring that American students are positioned and prepared to take all of the best jobs? Can't we think more globally, more humanely, and aim for a diversity of people around the world who can ALL achieve, who can completment each other, and who can all obtain gainful and prosperous employment? What if we thought about the well-being of every child born today? Every child deserves this chance! Why does any single person in our modern and connected world today die of starvation or thirst? Why is there even ONE child in this world who dies from measles or is inflicted with polio? This is what I am passionate about!

Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope you are nurturing your passions and following your dreams.