On becoming a hope pusher.

When my children were young, one of them asked me, "Daddy, what does a superintendent do?"

Tough call. I started talking about all the responsibilities that I had--taking care of the buildings, hiring the principals and teachers, and making sure the classrooms have books and materials. Her cute little eyes started glazing over.

Then I mentioned calling school off for snow days and that registered big time. As my kids got older they weren't so happy to be the superintendent's kids because of that. It seems I never closed school often enough as far as they were concerned, and they had to hear about it from their friends. Being the superintendent's kid was the kid equivalent of having leprosy.

Now, as I was explaining to my child what I did, I was technically right but really quite wrong. It wasn't about the stuff of the work that was important. It was about the relationships and the hopes and dreams that I instilled in others. That was my true vocation.

Liberating Others

Leading is always people work. And educational leadership is even more people centered than other callings. I am always amazed that as leaders we are constantly trying to figure out what structures and frames we can create to make an organization move where we feel it should go. If we thought about it, we would soon realize that since we are really talking about people you can't structure and frame the human spirit. You can't even contain it. Nor should you.

This has become particularly obvious as superintendents have struggled to find the right course on implementing No Child Left Behind. While the emphasis on accountability and achievement is appropriate, superintendents must find ways of preserving the humanity of those engaged in the learning process. It is important to count how well kids are doing, but it is even more important to make sure that what we are doing to them counts where it counts--in their long-term success and in their human spirit.

Leadership is about liberation. It is about taking lids off, turning lights on and getting out of the way. Leaders have to be the source of possibility in their organizations--"hope pushers" if you will. Certainly you have to help your people chart the course for their own liberation, but being a leader of people is part inspiration, part cheerleader and part referee. You make the future possible. You support their getting there, and occasionally you provide the adult supervision to sort out the bumps and collisions that are inevitable in a human organization.

I have been struck lately in conversations with school leaders how often the term "hope" turns up. It seems more precious than a unanimous school board. One of my staffers mentioned the other day that on a recent visit to Europe she had heard a commentator say the difference between America and Europe was that Europeans didn't believe they could change anything and yet they were hopeful. Americans believe they can change everything and yet they are hopeless. Now I don't know how true that is, but what I do know is that hope is rooted in the belief that you can change things, that you can make the world a better place.

I enjoy engaging school leaders in the question of why they entered the profession. Almost without exception they say because they believed they could make a difference. That is hope at its core--making a difference, making things better. Making the world a kinder and gentler place to dream dreams and pursue possibilities.

In a recent discussion with John Goodlad, we were talking about the superintendency and John posited that superintendents must be the intellectual leaders in their community. By that he meant that they needed to be the most curious and most thoughtful folks around. They should read widely, have multiple interests, and be willing to look behind the obvious and then share that urge to learn with others.

I agreed with John, but I added that they also needed to be the moral leaders in their community. By that I didn't mean they should be leading the singing of "Bless Be the Tie that Binds." But they do need to understand that there is a tie that binds their people to each other and the leader's job is to make sure that tie is maintained and strengthened. The strands that create that tie are made up of hope and maybe even dreams.

Beyond Optimism

Optimism and hope differ. I seem to be one of those people who possess natural optimism. No matter how much horse manure is around, I am always looking for the pony. But frankly, optimists can get on your nerves. We can be annoying. We're always humming, "The sun will come up tomorrow," but we rarely consider the possibility of sunburn. More than optimism is needed. Optimists can have their hearts broken because they think the world is more benign that it sometimes is. It is necessary for a leader to move beyond optimism to hope.

Optimists think things will get better. People of hope know they will get better, perhaps not quickly or easily, but they know it will happen because while the world is not always benign--it is always good. And goodness always will win out in the end. So, in addition to being intellectual leaders and moral leaders, we have to be hopeful leaders, not so much for ourselves but for those around us. We have to know that even if the sun comes up tomorrow all covered with clouds, that its warmth and light is still available and certainly preferable to the darkness of the night.

So when your child or grandchild asks you what you do--say that you are a source of light and possibility to others. Not a bad calling.

Paul Houston is AASA executive director. E-mail: [e-mail]