In 2012, educator Grant Lichtman made a three-month, 10,000-mile road trip around the nation visiting public and private schools and talking with hundreds of educators. In his article about his travels in this issue, "Zero-Based Strategic Thinking: Real Innovation Shifts the Focus to the Future", he writes, "When I'm asked to sum up my journey, I find myself balancing boundless optimism with deep concern about our industry." This dual sense of optimism and concern also just about sums up this issue of the magazine. But I don't think it applies only to our industry. I see hope and worry everywhere. It may well be the defining characteristic of our times.
Ever since I heard the editor of Fast Company refer to our times as "the age of flux" two years ago, I've been attentive to the flux, to the ways in which our society feels both full of potential and out of kilter. The challenges are laid bare for us daily — from political divides and stalemates; to continuing and problematic environmental degradation; to social and cultural issues unspooling the fabric of our democratic ideals; to all the personal, professional, and societal challenges crowding under the tent named "economy."
The optimism is there, too. It may simply be part of our DNA — a belief in our can-do ability. But it's also bolstered by real change. On one hand, we're witnessing the extraordinary potential of technology to make our lives both high quality and sustainable. On the other hand, we are witnessing the rise of equally extraordinary creativity in the nation — in just about all fields. We have a lot of smart, inventive people dedicated to our shared national project: "A Better Future."
The pessimist in me (which I admit occupies more space than it should) sometimes thinks the flux is a symptom of a world wobbling toward bigger problems to come. But then I talk with passionately engaged educators and I breathe easier.
Among those who are leading us toward a better future are our educators. I know they are not portrayed this way in most of the media. But I find so many of them to be among our clearest and most optimistic thinkers. They are, without exaggeration, among our best strategists for a better world. Along with the rest of us, they wade through the good and bad of our societal flux — a tide that can't make up its mind to ebb or flow — but unfailingly see the essential role education plays in moving us all to that better place, particularly in helping the next generation be wiser, smarter, and more capable than…... well, than we are. They scaffold knowledge upon knowledge, wisdom upon wisdom, hope upon hope — a day at a time.
This issue on school leadership in an age of flux is full of such forwardlooking, dedicated voices. The work is never easy, but I hope you'll agree that these writers represent a clear path forward as they examine key challenges of contemporary school leadership — how we measure success locally and globally, how we support increasingly anxious parents, how we adapt to a technology-fueled busyness we've never seen before, how we nurture talent in the field, how we improve our knowledge and understanding of what it means to be leaders, and how we keep our eyes on the ever-important matter of our vision for ourselves and our schools and our nation.
Michael Brosnan
Editor