From time to time I publish articles. Mostly these articles have been for newsletters that I have been asked to pen. I often make formal addresses and more often than not, these addresses begin as a formal paper. I also make quite a few presentations for civic organizations, administrator and teacher professional development activities, and for the board of education. Usually I include a some kind of multimedia presentation to provide a visual for audience clarification.

On this page I am providing some of the articles and presentations that give the reader a better understanding about me, my beliefs, and the collective vision for the district that I have helped craft.

“I Heard the Knock”

The first article is one published in The CT Association of Board’s of Education (CABE) Journal in 2005. I was asked to write this article on the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education because I am a southerner–born, reared, and educated in Louisiana. I found the request somewhat offensive but after talking with the executive director of CABE, whom I greatly admire, I agreed to do the task, explaining that my article probably wouldn’t be what he expected. I wrote from the heart and finished the piece within an hour and a half, which is quick for me. The name of the article is, “I Heard the Knock”. To access the article, click I Heard the Knock (.pdf).

“Schools As Organizations”

A peeve of mine is that many people express sentiment that they want schools managed as a business, but many of these same people don’t seem to understand that a school system is an organization just like any business. I wrote an article for a newsletter that is mainly read by corporate folks. In it I tried to explain how a school system is a formal organization like any other organization and must follow quite similar practices to corporations to be successful in meeting its mission. Click on Schools as organizations (.pdf).

China Experience Presentation

I went to China the first week of November 2007 to establish relationships with schools in Shandong Province. I created a multimedia presentation that is twenty minutes long. Prior to my starting the presentation each time I show it, I give the following introduction:

Daniel Pink asserts in his book, A Whole New Mind, that leaders in the 21st Century must be collaborative, “animated by a different form of thinking who have the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities . . . and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new.”

Why, because it is a whole new world. If knowledge is indeed the social capital of that new world, then successful schools cannot remain mired in yesterday’s curricula and pedagogy.

Knowledge creation and delivery, too, must change. A graduate’s competitor is no longer the graduate from the next town over. Today, competition is international.

We went to China to establish relationships to better prepare our students to assume the leadership roles in the 21st Century and be able to become international competitors. China, itself, is just a very empahtic metaphor for this new world.

China Experience Presentation click HERE (flash video)

This address was given to the faculty on the convocation day at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.