Defy gravity!
This past week I listened to Dr. Gene Carter, Executive Director of ASCD, deliver his opening remarks at our Leader to Leader conference in a crowded ballroom of eager ASCD leaders from around the world. He addressed many important themes for the conference, but one phrase jumped out of me in its startling simplicity: “Defy gravity!” I tweeted it out right away, and then let it sit with me the next few days of the conference to appreciate its full impact.Gravity…that force that pulls us down and makes us feel our weight…is such a constant in our lives we assume we have to operate under its impact all the time…not just our physical weight…but the weight of our experiences, too. If we believe we are weighed down with our lot in life, that we cannot will change to happen…it constrains us in everything we do…limiting our future.
I started my career in education in 1985 fresh out of the Ohio State University (Go