What’s Baseball Got to Do with It? How about those Cardinals! (Remember, this is coming to you from St. Louis, MO.) On August 24th the Cardinals were 10 1/2 games behind in the Wild Card race to make the playoffs for the World Series. From that date to the last day of the season, over the month of September, they won 20 games and lost only 7.  They won the last game of the season to win the Wild Card berth. Then, in the playoffs, in a best of five games series with the Philadelphia Phillies (the team with the ... read more...

I (Ashley) have been reflecting on my work with teachers and administrators over the past 40 years and have discovered that I have been and am, not so much a teacher, advisor or consultant, as a coach.  A recent article, Personal Best, in the New Yorker Magazine by Atul Gawande stimulated this “ahah” for me. It was useful to me to hear Gawande’s description of what a coach does and why so many of us need one…regularly. Apparently coaching is indigenous to the U.S.  (Yale University is the first institution to use a coach for its football team.)  And, perhaps ... read more...

Reading about Steve Jobs this past week has been strangely affirming for me, Ashley.  Strange, because I’ve always LOVED every Apple product I’ve owned (since 1984), and yet I’m a bit intimidated by someone so creative that he could actually produce things so useful AND elegant.  Affirming, because the articulated tenets of Job’s aesthetics and creations are provocative and inspiring to the core values of innovative education. Job’s was primarily concerned about culture and aesthetics.  Business was a by-product of creating dynamic culture and inspiring aesthetics.   His burning questions included: How would this “thing” improve our culture?  How would ... read more...