Punctuality

I am reading a book, Lighting Their Fires:  Raising Extraordinary Children in a Mixed-up, Muddled-up, Shook-up World, written by an award winning public school teacher, Rafe Esquith. He also... Read More »

Washing Our Hands

“America is re-learning how to wash its hands,” observed one reporter on a television segment on the possible impending outbreak of H1N1 virus cases in schools this autumn. As the school... Read More »

The Right Resources

It is a truism that good teachers don’t know all the answers, but they know where or how to find them. We try to do the same here at NAES, particularly when those uniquely “Episcopal... Read More »

The Nature of Relationships

In the continuing rhythm of each school year, August finds administrators planning for the return of faculty and staff, followed quickly by the arrival of students and parents. One of the things I... Read More »

Putting the Thaw on Polarization

In her sermon at the closing Eucharist of the General Convention in Anaheim CA, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori spoke in tribute to the reconciling temper of William White, Bishop of... Read More »

Home Is Where …

On June 19, I attended a Eucharist in observance of World Refugee Day officiated by the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of The Episcopal Church. It was a moving... Read More »

A Sense of Occasion

No matter what one’s leadership style may be, nor how one handles discipline in a school, it is hard not to feel for Suzanne Lukas, Superintendent of Bonny Eagle School District in Maine. At... Read More »

Embracing Adulthood

In the last posting of The Commons, Laura Walker wrote of the joys of summer reading. Taking her advice in stride, I recently took up Dan Heischman’s newly published Good Influence: Teaching... Read More »

Summer Reading

As a school administrator, I always found it amusing when parents threw out these words as the school year came to a close: “So, I guess you look forward to three months of vacation!”... Read More »

The Grace of Imperfection

Forget your perfect offering Your bell is cracked It still can ring That is how the light gets in. — Leonard Cohen Sometimes it can feel as though school life is all about the “perfect... Read More »