Summer is a great time to think about something like school structure. Anthony Hurst is our speaker on this week’s episode. Anthony taught for many years and more recently has been interacting with dozens of schools as a rep for Christian Light and as a speaker at educational events. He brings a wealth of experience to the subject of structure in a school.

Anthony begins by distinguishing between healthy and unhealthy motives for school structure and challenges us to focus our school structure on serving our students and patrons and not projecting a lofty self-image. Our structure needs the guidance of clear vision, says Anthony. And not just the vision of one person but that of the community.

Structure provides consistency across staff changes and grade changes and across time. Structure provides a sense of security. It offers some protection to us on our bad days and keeps us from falling to the level of our flaws.

In the conclusion of his talk, Anthony also touches on some specific elements of structure that will help you get started evaluating the quality of the structure at your school.

Links

• This talk was first published as “Intentional School Structure” https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/intentional-school-structure
• Educational Events: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/event
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn

One generation starts it, the next enjoys it, the third loses it. There’s some truth to this. We’re over three generations into the Christian school movement in North America. Of course, at the level of individual communities this is very uneven. Maybe you’ve just started a school. Regardless of where you are, it’s important that you ask yourself: am I content with a 3 generation Christian school movement? If not, you have some challenging work cut out for you to bridge whatever generation you’re in, to the one following you and the one before you.

This episode has 2 parts: perspective of an older man and the response of a younger man on what it takes to continue a vision for education across generations. How can an older leader effectively hand over his responsibility and a younger leader take it up?

Edwin Eby has served on the CASBI committee and also speaks as a pastor. Mark Miller has experience in the school board and administration at Legacy Christian School in Ohio.

Speaking for the older generation, Edwin emphasizes that each generation must in some sense start over. And while an older person can’t just package his values and vision in a neat bundle and give it to a younger person, he believes that one generation can purchase the values of another through their own labor and investment. This transfer of ownership is vital to the continuity of a vision and leadership. To say this another way, we can’t repeat another’s experience or just assume their sense of responsibility; each man must hold his own baby before he knows the meaning of being a father.

Edwin outlines a process for older men to walk ahead, walk beside, then walk behind leaders in training. For younger men it’s reversed. They first walk behind, then walk beside, and finally walk ahead, taking the lead into the future.

Mark responds by recognizing that owning responsibility and vision as a younger person requires overcoming selfishness and gaining a perspective larger than your own. Become a student of history, both of your organization and the wider history of the world, says Mark. Without this you run a high risk of leading in the wrong direction. In addition to understanding the history of your organization, you need to understand the people you’re leading. You need to know their culture. Once again, this calls for attentiveness and patient learning in a young leader. Mark highlights servant leadership as key to both the effective transfer of leadership and to the fruitfulness of any leader. In addition, there are numerous issues that Mark sees as important for school leaders to tackle including working with homeschooling families, business as mission, and excellence in academics.

Links

• This talk was first published as “I Must Decrease; You Must Increase”: https://www.thedockforlearning.org/content/i-must-decrease-you-must-increase
• Contact us: https://thedockforlearning.org/contact-us/
• 3-minute feedback: https://forms.office.com/r/1G564EGQkn