Category Archives: Leadership
How Innovative is My School? (Updated)
How Innovative is My School? Update: This questionnaire is now less than 30 actual questions in place of over 70. This should provoke some interesting debates! Give it a try and let me know what you think. It … Continue reading
The Good Employee Guide
Want to be a good worker drone? Want to get that promotion to middle management? Want to fly beneath the radar and avoid stirring up controversy? Want a dull and uneventful working life? Then this guide is for you! … Continue reading
Be The Knight
The knight is unique. It is the most nimble piece there is. It alone can bound over others and it moves in unusual and interesting ways. Properly placed, it can defend and attack multiple other pieces at once. It is an essential (and hugely under-valued) component of any properly executed strategy. Even the queen, who relies so much on brute force, is incapable of doing what the knight can do. Continue reading
Why Not Do It Differently? A New Organisational Recipe for Schools
Almost anywhere in the world, schools follow a fairly predictable management recipe which goes something like this: THE TRADITIONAL RECIPE Take 1 x Principal Add 2 or 3 Deputy Principals to taste Mix in a dozen Head Teachers or Heads … Continue reading
Why Success Leads to Failure (Steve Jobs & the End of the World)
Let’s talk about Steve Jobs. I think enough time has gone by since his passing that we can move beyond the mystique and be brutally honest. What Jobs teaches us, on a fundamental level, is that to be successful in … Continue reading
An Unlikely Hero: Reflections on John Taylor Gatto, Sir Ken Robinson and the Education Revolution
It may seem untenable to some that a school teacher can hold someone like John Taylor Gatto in high esteem. After all, he was the inspiration for the ‘unschooling’ movement – advocating that schools do so much damage to young … Continue reading
Who Stole My Goals? (Why Corporate Mumbo-Jumbo May be Threatening the Education Revolution)
A while back, I discovered a hilarious ‘education jargon generator’ – at http://www.sciencegeek.net/lingo.html It allowed me to generate phrases like: · Maximise integrated interfaces, or: · Empower impactful convergence, or: · Mesh competency-based synergies, or even: · Recontextualise meaning-centred engagement … Continue reading
50 Things I’m Tired of About South African Education
This list consists of just a few things that irk me about education in South Africa. It is intended as a think-piece. Some of the ideas might be a little close to home for some, and they will either bury … Continue reading