Full Circle

 

This week I find myself on a 7th grade field trip in the Chapada Diamantina National Park, an extraordinary collection of waterfalls, caves, rivers, and mountains in the heart of Bahia, Brazil.

As I watch the students journaling about their experiences, I can’t help but think about how life comes full circle. When I was their age, my mother (a teacher) made me write detailed reflections after our family trips, especially if they had historical or geographical significance (and they usually did). At the time, I hated it. It felt like “schoolwork” was invading my time.

Ironically, the 7th grade teachers here have given the very same assignment to their students. And just to complete the circle, my Portuguese tutor gave me the same task assignment, but I have to respond in Portuguese.

So here I am, years later, appreciating what I once resisted. The discipline of reflection is an inportant mindset. It’s a way to anchor experiences so they don’t slip away unnoticed.

Life does come full circle. Sometimes it takes years (and a new perspective) to recognize the wisdom behind what once felt like an inconvenience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Global Competence in K-12 Education: Preparing Students for an Interconnected World

Image
  I read  The World is Flat by  Thomas Friedman sometime in the mid-2000s. While I had an appreciation for different cultures and a vague understanding of the world’s interconnectedness—I didn’t contemplate it much. I recall Friedman’s book stretching my thinking, detailing the rapid changes brought about by technology, global trade, and interconnected economies. Since then, we have witnessed an accelerated “flattening” fueled by advancements in communication and the rise of social media. What involvement should schools play in fostering global competence? Education is about preparing students for the future, which is undeniably global. By fostering global competence in K-12 classrooms, we guide the next generation in meeting the challenges of an interconnected world with confidence, creativity, and compassion.  By embedding global themes into the curriculum, students develop critical thinking skills to analyze issues from multiple viewpoints. Language learning enhan...
Read more

Reframing Organizations: A Personal Journey Through a Timeless Leadership Framework

Image
  I discovered Bolman and Deal's "Reframing Organizations" during my Master of Public Administration program in the early 2000s. At the time, the book was required reading, and I approached it with the typical student mindset—another book to get through for a grade. Little did I know that this framework would become a cornerstone of my leadership approach, particularly as a school leader and, eventually, a district superintendent. I was struck by the clarity and depth of the four-frame model: Structural, Human Resource, Political, and Symbolic. Each frame offered a unique perspective on organizational challenges, and together, they provided a comprehensive toolkit for understanding and managing complex environments. This was particularly eye-opening as I navigated the multifaceted world of educational leadership. In my early years as a school leader, the Structural frame proved invaluable. It helped me design efficient processes and clarify roles and responsibilities with...
Read more

The Paper Advantage: Why Physical Books Outperform Screens for Deep Learning

Image
I recently saw on LinkedIn a repost by Tony Zeikle of Lightspeed of organizational psychologist and author Adam Grant : "We learn more from reading on paper than on screens. 54 studies, 171k people: we process print more deeply than digital content as long as it's informational rather than purely narrative. The paper advantage holds across ages and has grown over time. Long live physical books." This statement resonated with me, as I've always preferred the tactile experience of physical books. This preference might be generational, stemming from my upbringing with printed materials. However, scientific research supports that reading on paper enhances comprehension and retention, especially for informational content. The Science Behind Reading Mediums A 2019 meta-analysis by Virginia Clinton reviewed 33 studies involving 2,799 participants and found that reading from screens hurt reading performance relative to paper, particularly with expository texts. Another me...
Read more