FoodSanity(11.0)

Well fed, but malnourished.  That pretty much described me, up until about two years ago.

Here's what I believed for about 30 years:

• If food or food-like substances were sold at the grocery store they must be healthy, or at least, not harmful.
• If I exercised enough, I could eat anything I wanted to; the exercise would offset the bad diet.
• "Low-fat" was the healthiest way to eat.
• Grains were good for me, whole grains even better.
• Sugar was OK, especially if I ate it absent from fats.
• Fats were to be avoided, at all costs; fats eaten would turn into body fat.

Turns out I was wrong on every one of those points.  Not only wrong, but 180 degrees wrong.  I swallowed, hook-line-and-sinker, what the food marketers were telling/selling me.

I was extremely well fed, but absolutely on a death spiral of malnourishment.

Once I abandoned and began eating exactly opposite of those faulty beliefs, and treating food as medicine, my body began to manifest the effects of wholesome nourishment.

And, I'm still well fed.  Better, actually.

Knowings'Forms

Epistemology is one of those high-sounding words that has a much simpler meaning than the formal definitions you can find for it.  In layman's terms it simply means ways of knowing.

Many learning theorists have crafted conceptions of the way knowledge is acquired, stored, and used by us humanoid types.  Examples are Bruner, Bloom, and Erickson.  I won't try to compete with those folks intellectually (because they're WAY smarter than I am), but I do have my own view of the way knowledge gets packaged and used by us learners.

I believe we can think of knowledge in three categories:

1. Remembered Stuff.  This is content we remember, like the multiplication tables, our favorite dessert, and our anniversary (well, some of us remember that one).
2. Skills.  This is procedural knowledge like how to bake a cake, or drive a car, or solve a quadratic equation.
3. Ways of Thinking.  This is the abstract application of knowledge that occurs when we craft solutions to problems new to us, when we make nuanced choices premised on costs-benefit analyses, when we make valued-based judgments, or when we interpret a piece of music.

A real-life example:  

• Some golfers know the game inside and out.  They know and can talk ALL the technical components. They're good at the Remembered Stuff.  
• Some golfers can really hit nice shots, but really don't know and can't tell you how the heck they do it. They've got the Skills part down pretty well.
• Some golfers can SCORE! - with a golf club or they can do it with a hockey stick, in fair weather or poor, on great courses or salt licks.  They may not know the rules and may not be able to replicate performance, but they've got that Ways of Thinking part down.

Ideally, we push ourselves to growth in all three areas, in a very intentional and disciplined way.  That occurs best when we're working and learning with others of similar aspiration, and under the guidance of mentors/teachers/coaches who have mastered all three categories of knowledge.

I would call those folks epistemological wizards.  Thankfully, I've been blessed to know and learn from several of those characters.

Worthiness

Worthy work is centered in the sacred pursuit of service.
Worthy thought stretches our mind to new levels of understanding.
Worthy intention is focused on leaving the world a better place than we found it.
Worthy worship is ever deeper communion with the God of our understanding.
Worthy learning affects greater skills and richer thought.
Worthy speech uplifts - others and ourselves.
Worthy love gives more than it takes.

Worthiness in any of those dimensions implies betterness, growth, building up.

Unworthiness in any of those dimensions lessens us, and thus, others.  

Always, ALWAYS, we get to choose.

Blokes&Sheilas

For several years now I have been striving to use more precise language in my communications.  I am painfully aware of how often those in leadership positions use nuanced language, abstractions, vagaries, and downright misleading language to either hoodwink others or to avoid accepting any sort of accountability for their decisions/positions. 

When we communicate with others, it is not only important that we be clear about what we are saying, we must also be diligent in using language that is understandable to the varying audiences we address.  

I once took a group of honor students on an outing, which included dinner at a nationally known chain restaurant.  One of the young men excused himself to go to the restroom.  He very quickly returned and discreetly sidled up to me, speaking quietly in my ear:  "Mr. Coulter, am I a bloke or a sheila?"

The signage on the restroom door was, in fact, simple and clear.  However, it was not easily decipherable to all of the intended receivers of the message (and this young man was very intelligent - he just didn't comprehend the language).

Being succinct, crisp, precise, and understandable to those who would give us their ear, their attention, perhaps even their time and effort, is extremely important.  

That is, if we actually want to be understood.

UnderTheLights

Having charaded as a football coach for 15 years early in my professional career, I found it amazing that thousands of young men show up for two-a-day football practices in the Texas heat each summer.  Even more perplexing is the number of those young men that do so knowing full well that the deck is stacked against them.  Many of these teams know their prospects of having a great season are nil, and even of having an average season are minimal.

Yet, show up they do.  Work they do.  Sweat, bleed, struggle, they do.

I once posed the question of why all those youngsters undertake such a daunting task, with such high risk of failure, to a large high school faculty.

After several awkward moments of pondering, the old offensive line coach signaled to me that he thought he knew the answer.  His response:  "They do it for Friday nights.  For the chance to perform under the lights."

Of course they do!  Whenever we give students the chance to somehow display their work in front of an audience, the level of engagement goes up, the level of work goes up, and the quality of work goes up.  

Same goes for us old folks.  Our game improves when we know others will be watching. 

Somebody turn on the lights.

TheSpiritualDimensionOfLeadership

I recently read The Spiritual Dimension of Leadership: 8 Key Principles of Leading More Effectively by Houston and Sokolow (2006).  

In this book, the authors articulate eight principles they believe can and should drive the thinking, the talk, and the behavior of those in leadership positions.  They assert that those principles are grounded in a spiritual understanding and can only be optimally practiced from a spiritual mindset. 

Those eight principles are:

1. Intention
2. Attention
3. Unique Gifts and Talents
4. Gratitude
5. Unique Life Lessons
6. Holistic Perspective
7. Openness
8. Trust

Resonating takeaways for me from this book:

• Our "energy" follows our attention.
• The most powerful messages are the simplest ones.
• Improvement is a daily undertaking.
• Expressing genuine gratitude is both an enriching and an empowering act.
• In life, the lesson follows the test. In school, the test follows the lesson. School should be more lifelike.
• Leadership is about connecting dots, seeing patterns, being open to other perspectives, understanding the whole and the parts all at once, and, somehow, enabling others to do the same.
• It's ALL personal.
• Biases, preconceptions, prejudices, anger, and resentment disable us.
• Build floors under others, not ceilings over them.
• WE get to choose the level of interaction on which we engage others.

My favorite quote:

^{“In a real sense all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” – Martin Luther King, Speech from Birmingham Jail}

Stumped

I had one of those moments this week in which I got stumped.

A local newspaper reporter asked to interview me after hearing that I was leaving superintendent work to re-direct my energies in other pursuits.  He pitched the expected questions having to do with my motivations for the decision and my plans for the future.

But then, he stumped me.  He asked for me to identify three and only three accomplishments that I thought notable from my service as superintendent of Guthrie Common School District over the last six years.  Hmmm.  I was bumfuzzled because I don't at all think of OUR accomplishments as my accomplishments.  I told him I could identify some very worthy undertakings we had engaged in as a professional team and as a school community, but that I felt that I only played a small role in the process.  I view myself as only one player on a rather remarkable team.

Furthermore, I prefer to use the word undertakings because the word accomplishment suggests that something is completed or finished.  Our collective undertakings are but works in progress, nothing near completion.

With those qualifiers,  three things loom large in my mind as significant undertakings WE are engaged in at Guthrie CSD:

1. We are deliberately fostering a Culture of Learning, that centers on students, what they know, what they can do, how they think, and how they behave.  Our culture frees teachers from the pathology of standardized madness, and gives them the autonomy to teach well, teach deeply, and teach ways of thinking/behaving (none of which can be measured by standardized tests).
2. We developed the Guthrie Graduate Profile to codify what we value and what we aspire for our children as they spend 13 years moving through the Guthrie CSD version of "schooling."
3. We have embarked on a journey of Holistic Wellness, for our students, for our school staff, and for our community.  That wellness-centric focus encompasses the physical, intellectual, and spiritual/emotional health of our entire community.

What a blessed man I am to have gotten to "play" on such a team and to participate in such a community!