Category Archives: Leadership

The Need for Student-led Leadership…

22 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by in Communication, Importance, Influence, Intentions, Leader, Leadership, Opportunity, Presence, Relationships, Students, Teachers, Useful, Value

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This past Wednesday was our school’s monthly FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Huddle meeting. As I sat in the back of the room with some other coaches, I realized we have a great group of students. Not just in FCA but all around in our school, belonging to other clubs, or just attending school. Yes, we have some great students.

However, what I realized sitting back, watching and listening, is the value of leadership and the opportunity these students have to be leaders in our school. So… that brings me to the thought of the need for student-led leadership in our schools…

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I believe there is somewhat of a direct correlation between the culture the school wants and the one that the student body embraces. One question that might have to be asked is how to get students to “buy-in” the culture school leaders want.

For this to happen, I believe it is essential for students to experience leadership opportunities that put them in positions to actually lead. Whatever, wherever, whenever that is, it must be an opportunity where the platform establishes quality leadership that coincides with the vision and the mission of the school.

When students are given the opportunity to lead, more relationships can be fostered. Our students are the best customers to sell the product of leadership that we want as educational leaders. They will reach far more than a single teacher ever can. If we want positive leadership to be a mainstay, our students are the best communicators, translators of our message. They are the ones who can “carry out” the leadership wants and needs of the school.

Just like quality adult leaders, students who communicate and lead effectively can be found to have many of the same traits; honesty, responsible, serving, open-mindedness, etc. But… they need examples, and we have to make sure we are doing and showing what we expect.

Having students who lead in our schools demonstrate an earned empowerment. In turn, they demonstrate and promote leadership at a level that encourages involvement and creates a positive atmosphere for the whole school setting. As the educational leaders of our school, let’s find ways to help empower our students to be leaders, and I believe it starts in the classrooms. Yes, they will need to be supported and encouraged, but is that not part of “jobs” as educators?

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

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Twitter @thebookchamber

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“Bee” The Educator and Leader…

15 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by in Actions, Attention, Connections, Decisions, Education, Educational Leadership, Effective, Leader, Leadership, Presence, Relationships, Teachers, Value

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One question I am frequently asked is where do I get my ideas for writing my blogs every week. Well, it usually depends on the week. Most of the time, I see, hear, or read something related to education or leadership in general, and as I have said before… it gets me to start thinking. As I begin to think on the matter, my mind starts processing… is “whatever” a good or bad representation of education or leadership? And then, I start writing.

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So… recently, I was reading John MacArthur’s book Why Believe the Bible and in one of the chapters, there was this graphic illustration by H. P. Barker (1896-1952), who was once a missionary who served in the West Indies….

As I looked out into the garden one day, I saw three things. First, I saw a butterfly. The butterfly was beautiful, and it would alight on a flower and then it would flutter to another flower and then to another, and only for a second or two it would sit and it would move on. It would touch as many lovely blossoms as it could, but derived absolutely no benefit from it.

Then I watched a little longer out my window and there came a botanist. And the botanist had a big notebook under his arm and a great big magnifying glass. The botanist would lean over a certain flower and he would look for a long time and then he would write notes in his notebook. He was there for hours writing notes, closed them, stuck them under his arm, tucked his magnifying glass in his pocket and walked away.

The third thing I noticed was a bee, just a little bee. But the bee would light on a flower and it would sink down deep into the flower and it would extract all the nectar and pollen that it could carry. It went in empty every time and came out full.

As I read that, I thought this is exactly what we see education and leadership should not and should be. The approach of each one, the butterfly, the botanist, and the bee exemplifies both educators and leaders. As we think on each one…

The butterfly educator or leader… They just fly around. Always being seen but never bringing or taking anything. Flapping their wings, wanting others to admire their colors.

The botanist educator or leader… They analyze everything. Always writing what they see, but never offering feedback, just keeping notes; using them only when needed (for their own benefit, of course).

The bee educator or leader… They invest. They get down in the flower. They work. Not to say educators and leaders are empty, but the bee draws from the flower, pollination takes place, and everything and everyone is for the better.

As we continue to lead, we know each type of educator or leader stated above. More importantly, though, is the question of… which one are you? If we are not the bee, then we are not helping others. Is that not what we are suppose to do first? When we invest, spend time, and form bonds, education and leadership are for the better. Be a bee.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

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An educational slide becoming a constant…?

01 Friday Oct 2021

Posted by in Circumstances, Connections, Culture, Decisions, Educational Leadership, Encouragement, Engagement, Leader, Leadership, Value

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Let’s start today’s blog off with questions…

Is our society becoming incapable of understanding what education should be? Can society think in terms of what is good or bad for education? Has relativism taken over?

I’m a big fan of educational cartoons. One that I often use in my college class is the pic for today’s blog. Yes, it is dated, but the idea from 2010 has not changed any, I believe. Can you see the slide? Has society taken education out of the hands of educators?

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The most gloomy aspect of our educational slide is that the problem continues to feed itself. This past week, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) released the 2020-2021 District and School-level Assessment Results, and in it was the 2020-21 Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) Executive Summary.

When I dove into the findings, the two areas that caught my attention were comparing the top ten and bottom ten schools of 2020-21 and preceding years of reported results. Guess what? Not much changes. While there is a resorting, per se, the top ten and the bottom ten are usually the same schools. Now, let me say that I acknowledge that the last quarter of the 2019 school year and the 2020-21 school year were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Just think, we have students who did not set foot in a school building for almost 18 months. However…

Now, here is the interesting part… If you take the map of Mississippi – Census Low Response Score that predicts the mail return rate of the 2020 census based on the return rate from the 2010 census, you will find that the top ten schools are primarily in communities with a high self-reporting census rate. The bottom ten schools are primarily in communities with a low self-reporting census rate. Connection, correlation, thoughts? Is it, or the lack of, leadership, money, teachers, students, parents, community buy-in? It has to be something, right? Is blame even the right word to use?

While each one of you, I’m sure, will have conclusions of your own, I suggest that no community wants their educational setting to be low-performing or in the bottom ten. Why would they? The money winning questions has to be, though, what has to change? What needs to happen? Talk about hitting your head against the wall enough times to make your head hurt and then saying you don’t have a headache… Maybe the better question is, why is it happening? For change to occur, hard questions must be asked, and answers must be found to say that we want a fair and equitable education for all. The notion of “the better we all do, the better we all do” works.

As educators, what we do and do not do matters. As for educational leaders, teachers, students, parents, community, the same is true. Remember, the slope of a slide only goes downward. Let’s find ways to help everyone climb and reach for what education should be… for all.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

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Don’t Let Your Conscience Disappear, Especially If You Are A Leader…

24 Friday Sep 2021

Posted by in Actions, Character, Choice, Clear, Conscience, Consistency, Deciding, Decisions, Leader, Leadership

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On Friday, April 16, 2021, I wrote on the conscience in my blog titled: The Conscience… It’s For Others As Much As It Is For You. Since then, it has been on my mind somewhat and even more lately that I wanted to say more. The other day I made the statement, “I find it very disheartening that we even have to put the words ‘weak’ or ‘bad’ in front of leadership. Leadership should always be measured as positive. That is why it is so crucial that we have leadership with a clear conscience. If we do not, then we will continue to fail society.”

So, here are some new thoughts… 

The conscience. Your conscience. That “thing” that each one of us is supposed to have. Labeled as good, bad, or not having one at all. Our conscience, an essence of warning that triggers and monitors our lives. The “inner voice” that speaks to us when our minds need confirmation that something is wrong, out of place, weird. An intuition per se.

While I would say most people will equate their consciences with their hearts… then our hearts know our motives, our true selves. Lying to others becomes more manageable when we get comfortable lying to ourselves. And when that happens… like a magic trick… poof, our conscience disappears, and the audience sits with amazement, wondering where did it go?

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When it comes to leaders in our society, their consciences are not any more or less important than others, but I am beginning to see leaders’ consciences leaving them as quick as they can run away from it. It just disappears, or they hide it where it can only be found when they want it. Why? What has happened to a person where we wonder, “When did they start to think a certain way?”

I see the issue not so much growing more popular but more evident. Blame-shifting is so easy to do now. Especially with the anonymity of social media and hiding behind a keyboard. Imagine everyone being made a scapegoat because leadership will not hold themselves to the same standards as everyone else.

We live in a culture where the conscience of leaders is elevated to be valued as medal-worthy due to pride. Leadership has also reached a level where others need to be blamed for a leader’s failure instead of responsibility taken for personal faults. Leadership deflection is so prominent that it is now seen as the norm, and leaders are escaping wrongdoing by claiming that they are now victims of other’s misunderstandings, even accusatory. When leaders shun responsibility, they set rules that only acknowledge self-entitlements.

Our conscience is a part of who we are. We cannot escape it. It does not and will not disappear, regardless of how many times we put it aside. However, the more times we do, the more numb our consciences become; stifled, muted, callous, eventually dead at the end.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

Want to share this leadership thought with others? Click on one of the social media sharing buttons below and help spread the good…