Читать книгу Breakthrough Leadership - Alan M. Blankstein - Страница 16

As this book demonstrates in the coming chapters, educational leaders have often beaten the odds stacked against even the poorest schools and their students. Their successes with “those children” were alternatively admired, extolled, or sidelined in the “turnaround” section of the educational literature, much the way Black history is relegated to the month of February in the United States. More recently, however, there is a greater spotlight on both the undeniable and the aching needs of perhaps a majority of our students and the extraordinary lessons of perseverance, adaptability, and courageous convictions the professionals who succeed with them have to share with colleagues, who are, by necessity, now thrust into the role of “transformational leaders” (Allen et al., 2015; Klocko et al., 2019, p. 9; Northouse, 2013).

▸ If we had been asked to move to distance learning under other circumstances it would have taken twenty years to do what we have done in three weeks. (Atkins, personal communication, April 9, 2020)

The opportunity to addresses systemic issues that advance equitable outcomes for all of our children is before us. Yet many will prefer going back to what they know, especially if it worked for them, their children, their clients, or their constituents: “Everyone who is happy with what they have now wants no change, and those who don’t have what they want rarely have a voice” (John Malloy, personal communication, April 14, 2020).