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The best damn advertisement
On Sunday, The Washington Post highlighted a great public school superintendent, someone I want everyone to know. I can’t take credit for anything Jack Dale of Fairfax County, VA has done, but I’m sure glad he’s a Harwood Public Innovators Lab Alum. Here’s what I mean.
Fairfax County is one of the biggest school districts in all of America – with 164,000 students, 187 schools, and a $2.1 billion annual budget, according to The Post. It’s a humdinger of a district: it’s huge, very diverse, with lots of vocal parents and competing interest groups. No move by the superintendent goes unnoticed.
So, consider those daunting numbers and politics for just a moment. Then consider the picture The Post ran with the article about Jack. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then all you need to see is this one.
Upon first glancing at the picture, which is of people in a classroom, I couldn’t really tell who the article was about. First my eye wandered to a gentleman sitting on a table at the back of the classroom. Then I saw Jack. Was that him? Get this: he was sitting among the students, in the middle of the classroom. But what was he doing? He was listening.
Jack’s predecessor was known for his blustery and highly politicized ways. He was a larger than life figure.
When you meet Jack, you know right away, in a kind of uncanny way, that he is a man who is unusually centered and focused. “I’m trying to make substantive change in the way we do business,” the Post quoted Jack as saying. “What I’m trying to create is the reason all of us went into education: a place to have kids explore their minds and the unknown and the future.”
Oftentimes with public leaders we’re not sure what they mean when they’re quoted. But Jack gives us an important window into his focus and centeredness in this single quote.
• Jack is a public innovator who seeks systems change – “change in the way we do business” – and not just change at the edges. Read the article and you will hear about some of those changes that target year-round teaching and closing the achievement gap.
• Jack taps into people’s aspirations, not their demands. That’s why he continually focuses on “the reason all of us went into education.” Notice, he said, “all of us” not just himself. When you read the article, you will see that Jack includes teachers, administrators, parents, the community and others. He believes that people share aspirations, and that it is possible to discover and build off of that common ground.
• Jack wants to create a “place” for kids, not just a new curriculum that sits in a binder or is pushed by teachers. He believes deeply that the role of schools and communities is to create safe and vibrant environments in which kids can learn and grow.
• Jack talks about kids exploring their “own minds” and the “unknown.” If you know Jack, then it wouldn’t surprise you that he used these words and in public! While he knows that kids must learn certain things, he also knows that learning and growing is about exploring your own thoughts and moving into the unknown. There is nothing to be afraid of.Some people in The Post article criticize Jack because he’s too laid back or he doesn’t move through the county imposing his views on everyone. I suppose there might come a time when he will kick-in other elements of his leadership style and step forward in ways people have yet to see.
But the essence of who he is will remain true, as it has throughout his career. He is about kids. He is about bringing people together. He is about tapping into people’s aspirations. He is about vigilantly aligning his programs with funding and capacity. He is about finding the best in people.
And he is doing all this as the leader of one of the biggest school districts in the US. My hat is off to Jack. Now, my next goal is to have him come back to help teach the Lab.
* * * “The thing I do well is getting people to work together,” Jack said to the Post.
“We have high aspirations for all kids, and I mean all.” -
MyCivicSpace – please no!
“MyCivicSpace”…you have to admit there’s a nice ring to it. It gives rise to the potential that you, me, and anyone else can create a civic space and own it; we can even customize it to reflect our own personal whims. Makes sense given the times we live in. We have been conditioned to believe that each of us should get what we want, when we want it. But is the idea of MyCivicSpace what we really want – or need?
When I talk with people in communities across the country they express a deep urge to create more connectedness and sense of community in our society. Too many of us are fragmented and isolated from one another. So much of what needs to be done to improve our individual and common lives, requires a collective response (e.g., strengthening public schools or improving safety).
But for every time someone raises this point, notions of MySpace, FaceBook, and made-to-order Starbucks drinks are invoked. The underlying belief: our response to current conditions must be personalized and customized – that is, “made just for you & me” – and that most of us may never pay attention, engage in something bigger than ourselves, or even care about others beyond our immediate close-knit circles or community of interest.
Consider this example: at a recent meeting on the future of libraries in the U.S., the argument was made that libraries must transform themselves in ways that enable people to see the library as their personal library – “MyLibrary!” as a number of people put it.
But not so fast: for libraries are one of the last truly public institutions that remain close to people. The focus of libraries is on knowledge and learning. They ought to be what I like to call “boundary-spanning, catalytic organizations” – entities that help us in our communities to transcend dividing lines, bring people together, hold up a mirror to ourselves, and see our own experiences and the possibilities for the future in the context of understanding the past.
There once was a time in my work, maybe 15 or so years ago, when many people I encountered often wanted to erase or expunge any notion of self-interest among individuals, as if each of us could be altruistic angels. Now, we see a move toward the other extreme, where the impulse is to personalize and customize people’s engagement. Every situation is open to becoming branded and fulfilled as MySituation.
Thus the public library turns into MyLibrary; the local United Way is MyUnitedWay; the community foundation becomes MyCommunityFoundation; the public broadcasting station evolves into MyPublicBroadcasting. None of this is that far fetched; just listen to all the promos, ads, and solicitations from various groups. You’ll hear echoes of this point.
Like many of us, I am worried that too many people have retreated into close-knit circles of families and friends; that for many people, public life and politics is not relevant to their lives. I believe that if we want people to engage in community and public life, then we must start wherever they start. But our work doesn’t stop there.
For if our goal is to forge a common response to individual and collective needs, then the measure of our efforts is not simply whether we have built audience, generated buzz, created more name recognition, or even enticed more people to volunteer once-in-a-while. Our task is to foster conditions in which people can create their own pathways back into community and public life – where they can connect, work with others, find meaning, and engender authentic hope. And these pathways need to be sustainable over time.
I was once asked if I believe there is an enemy of engagement. Yes is my emphatic answer. Indeed, one such enemy is the seemingly growing belief that when people retreat from public life and politics our impulse must be to engage them as atomized individuals who hold a single-minded consumer orientation. But that will only lead to one sure outcome: each of us occupying our own individual spaces.
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Listen to the voice from Iowa
This past weekend, as I drove up to my house, there on the radio was Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack being interviewed on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos. I put the car into park and didn’t move for the next five minutes. Vilsack is the first Democrat to announce his candidacy for U.S. president. His voice is refreshing – and needed.
Listen to him and you hear someone who is not so polished and practiced that you’re wondering what he just told you or whether he believes it. Nor does he pretend to be the “anti-politician” from outside Washington, D.C. – with all the usual blustery rhetoric, finger-pointing, and tough talk.
Instead, look at his announcement speech and you will find phrases and words such as “let us face the facts” and “let us speak truth” and “that is why I am here today.” He is plainspoken, but not offering up simple solutions.
Nor is he simply interested in tilting at windmills. Acknowledging his standing in what will be a crowded Democratic field, he stated: “I have always been the underdog and long shot. And I have always been inspired by stories of ordinary people who struggled, but ultimately succeeded.”
Look again at his words and sentiments which I just quoted. Nowhere in this speech does Vilsack tell the typical story of the man who overcomes all adversity to become a hero; or, the story of the ordinary person doing extraordinary things, as we so often hear from politicians, pundits, and media-types. Rather, Vilsack understands that it is in everyday life that we must step up and engage and do everyday tasks.
He knows this because of his own story. As he said in his speech, “I began life in an orphanage in the arms of a stranger” and then, as an infant, he was adopted into a home with parents riddled with addictions and strife; but it was there that he found the ability – from his own parents – to struggle and adapt and find redemption.
In Iowa, where so many people may think of a homogenous Midwestern society, Vilsack said in his announcement speech, “You do not have to be raised behind a white picket fence to understand the power of community. Some of America’s strongest communities do not have any white picket fences or even yards for that matter.” Amen.
In his second to last paragraph he stated: “Most of all, I am running for President to replace the anxiety of today with the hope of tomorrow and to guarantee every Americans their birthright: Opportunity.”
Well, Governor Vilsack, only time will tell how your continuing story unfolds. But I sure am glad your voice is in the mix. I hope more and more people can hear it.
To see the video of Governor Vilsack on This Week click: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/ To read his announcement speech click here: