Reaffirming critical life values.

What do you send or give to graduating seniors who invite you, the superintendent, to their year-end open house? The perfect solution in my case is the short, but cogent (and reasonably priced) book by Marian Wright Edelman, The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours.

I read again her "Twenty-Five Lessons for Life" each time the book is given to others. My own life's journey of faith is renewed thereby, and my service to others is newly inspired. What I most need on my professional journey are answers to the "why" questions, not the "how" questions, because basic values flowing from the why are what give direction, meaning and reward in my life.

Four things about Edelman capture and extend my thinking. First, her values resonate with my own. As founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., she writes about ensuring every child has a healthy start, a head start, a fair start, a safe start and a moral start in life with the support of caring families and communities. When my own mission becomes blurred, her 20/20 vision restores me.

Second, she reminds me that opportunity comes to those who prepare themselves well for leadership and who grow on the job. Edelman worked in the trenches of the civil rights movement and directed the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund office in Jackson, Miss.

Third, the author exemplifies this truth: Respect for self and by others is earned when risks are taken for great causes, such as public education. Courage to act, to lead and to stay in the fray are powerful standards when my own energy, patience and vision are sorely tested.

Fourth, a well-lived life as a professional means not neglecting loved ones. Edelman pinpoints the importance of a support community including God, parents, spouse, children, family and friends. Her words help me remember there is great peril when self alone is the source of strength when working, leading and trying to promote what is good for society.

I easily identify with a highly respected superintendent nearby who lamented: "I am so bombarded these days by ideas, advocates and alternative persuasive arguments that I can barely remember what I truly believe for myself and why I came into education in the first place." He bespoke a value crisis, a pending loss of an internal gyroscope.

That is precisely how The Measure of Our Success helps me. Edelman's 25 simple, straightforward, life lessons reaffirm my own life choices.

Don Draayer is a retired superintendent who was the 1991 National Superintendent of the Year. He can be reached at 5906 Holiday Way, Minnetonka, MN 55345. E-mail: [e-mail]