Sunday, April 02, 2006

Let Everyone Have Ideas

One of my areas of interest is in educational leadership and how as a educators we can leverage technology as a force for change within our schools. So it was with great interest that I read an article from the New York Times this past weekend—Here’s An Idea: Let Everyone Have Ideas. The article isn’t specifically about education, but focuses on a technology company and how their executives lead instead of manage their employees.

“We’re the founders, but we’re far from the smartest people here, “—these words spoken by the company’s CEO. And what wise words. The article goes on to detail how the company’s successes have been due largely to the way they encourage everyone in the company, from top level management to receptionists to develop ideas. You can read the article here. I imagine there are lots of companies out there that establish this sort of productive culture—places like Google and Apple.

Why haven’t our schools? I am sure there are some schools that operate this way, and they are probably very successful. But I’m afraid most do not. We are entrenched in such a hierarchy that belittles and degrades one of our greatest resources in education—our teachers. Pop culture contributes greatly to this through movies and music. And adminstrators just reinforce it. Until our adminstrators realize that they are not the smartest in the system, and that they don’t have a lock on all the ideas, we’ll continue to have an educational system that is stuck in the 20th century, a system that manages people instead of leads them through vision.

Does anyone know of schools that operate like the company referenced in the article?

Posted by Randy on 04/02 at 11:00 PM
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