Teachers are always emotional: by default if they bore us, and by design when they excite us.
We need standards with flexibility, not standardization with force if we are to get the best from our teachers.
We must never return to the Julie Andrews curriculum where we teach “a few of my favorite things”!
High performance leaders capitalize on crises to galvanize the motivation and actions of people in the organization.
High performance leaders create an inspiring future by connecting with a classic and honorable past.
High performance leaders know they have to breathe out when they are coming up for air.
Sustainable leadership does not compromise the future by expanding and accelerating too quickly in the present.
Implementation of technological change must involve critics as well as advocates.
Courageous leadership is not fearless leadership. What makes you a leader is how you deal with your fears.
A successful school has to engage all the people, all the powers, and all the capacities within it.
On teacher education: induction into current mandates must not turn into seduction away from best practice.
Mentors turn into tormentors if they believe they are always right.
When the purge of teacher individualism is unrestrained, eccentricity, initiative and individuality become the casualties.
Physically, teachers are often alone in their own classrooms with no other adults for company. Psychologically, they never are.
The bags that teachers carry home symbolize their guilt about the endless care they have to give.
Teaching is a never-ending story. The work is never over; the job is never done.
Teaching is a passionate profession.
The most important emotion in classrooms is surprise.
If we’re all on the same page, no one’s reading the whole book.
On data: We are the drivers, not the driven.