Navigating Change

By Roland S. Barth

Proponents of school reform, from all sides of the education debate, would like to see schools transformed into cultures hospitable to widespread learning and leadership. Such schools would foster, in students and adults alike, a disposition toward independent, insatiable, lifelong learning. But how to “walk the talk”? How to move in the real world of masking tape and worksheets toward this ambitious vision?

I believe the first step in reforming the learning experiences of young people is to reform the learning experiences of the adults responsible for young people’s education. As Albert Schweitzer said: “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It’s the only thing.”

I once helped put together an unusual activity on shared leadership and decisionmaking for a group of educators. We enlisted a sturdy sailing schooner, Bowdoin , which was then under the command of the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine. Teams consisting of teachers, principals, and superintendents representing school districts from throughout Massachusetts went to Boston Harbor and shipped...