THE MINDFUL SCHOOL LEADER
(Hey Folks, A version of this post is currently running at Education Week, and is written by Kirsten Olson andValerie Brown.)
The work of skillful, mindful leadership in education has never been more challenging. Recently a visionary, Twitter-connected and forward-thinking superintendent wrote to one of us describing her sense that the pockets of innovation and exemplary teaching in her district, “aren’t even scalable to our 726 square miles,” although she has been leading the work for many years. She is considered highly successful, yet she often feels overwhelmed and burned out.
A recent informal survey of school administrators conducted by Jerry Murphy, former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (and our colleague in the exploration of self-compassion), showed that among his