Views of an Aspiring Educational Leader

Virtually every school is committed to graduating all students college and career ready. Teachers are asked to help students meet higher standards than ever before to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Standardized test scores hover ominously above the entire educational community, ready to label a student as exceeding standards or needing support and a school as exceeding expectations or in need of improvement. In the current high-stakes educational climate, few stop to take the temperature and ask how students are doing. Are they attentive, persistent, and committed? Do they value and find meaning in school work? The Schlechty Center  argues that if schools want to graduate all students college and career ready that students must be engaged in the classroom. As a teacher, I acknowledge that much of what I do in the classroom does not engage all students at high levels all the time.  Using the continuum of engagement provided by the Schlechty Center, I have to admit that

“You would do the same if I were a guest in your country,” said a middle-aged Chilean man to me as we stood along a busy highway at night waiting for a bus to arrive that would take me back to Santiago from Linares, a city four hours to the south. You see, when I bought the round-trip bus ticket in Santiago to travel to visit a host family with whom I had lived some months before, I thought that I would be departing from Linares at 7:00 p.m.; however, the bus was starting its route at 7:00 p.m. and would not arrive in Linares until closer to 9:00 p.m. Now, my host dad was waiting outside in the cold with me for the bus to arrive even though I told him that it was not necessary because he felt an obligation to take care of me, seeing as I was a foreigner in his country. I still remember that night over a decade ago as if it were yesterday. At the time I felt a sense of guilt because, quite frankly, I was not sure that I would be doing the same if our roles were reversed in the United