Men are born soft and supple
dead, they are stiff and hard
Plants are born tender and pliant,
dead, they are brittle and dry

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken
The soft and supple will prevail

In education the hard and stiff seem to have prevailed for a long time. It is a vocation in which those who choose to work often do so because they prefer predictability of working on a school.  From The rhythm of the seasons to the familiar lesson plans and tests, teachers are in a unique situation in that they know and can control what is to come unlike any other profession. This can lead to ‘stiff and inflexible’ school climates, which put an emphasis on compliance rather on the education of the whole child (heart-mind-soul). Many of us have experienced this compliance heavy school, and not many of us would go back.

But, Lao-Tzu warns us that the ‘stiff and inflexible, is a discipline of death’. Indeed, those school climates that are stiff and inflexible, that focus on compliance, do kill… they kill creativity (Ken Robinson), they kill passion, they kill a sense of joy about the world, and they kill the sense of wonder in our learning that is so fundamentally important. If you find yourself at a school, where entire faculty meetings are taken up by the discussion of school rules… you are at a school that kills.

On the other hand, the ‘soft and yielding’ schools are ‘disciplines of life’. A life giving school is one…..

The Master has no mind of his own
He works with the mind of the people

He is good to people who are good.
He is also good to people who aren’t good.
This is true goodness. 

She trusts people who are trustworthy.
He also trusts people who aren’t trustworthy.
This is true trust.

The Master’s mind is like space. 
People don’t understand him.
They look to him and wait.
He treats them like their own children.

Chapter 49 is a great compliment to the previous post on Chapter 27. If you recall, 27 talked about the importance of not having ‘fixed plans’, therefore having no intention upon arriving and in thus adhering to Wu Wei (non doing). The idea here is that when fixed plans are present in the mind, then the path to those fixed plans becomes similarly fixed, and this selfish mindset ignores the ‘mind of the people’. The collective mind of the people is the Tao of the school, and it needs to be felt and listened to before any action is taken. Collaboration is the DH best tool.

A Division Head must trust all constituencies as well. Delegate to your team, listen to their ideas, allow them to lead along side you. Don’t be hungry for power, don’t be protective of your leadership. Flatten the structure, elevate teacher leaders and allow them to flourish. Their wins will be yours as well, and ultimately (and most importantly) will benefit the students in your care.

Finally, be good to all. With your team, be kind in the face of inevitable criticism. Meet stubbornness with kindness and meet kindness with public gratefulness. With students, play no favorites, make it a point to connect with every child in your care, and finally get to know them and listen to their stories.

If faculty and students trust you, if they are empowered by you, then they will believe in you and they will look to you, and wait.

_/\_

A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.

Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn’t reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn’t waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.

What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If you don’t understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.

When I first took the job as Division Head in the spring of 2017 I immediately began to craft the 5 Year Plan documentation that everyone says you need. I drafted a pie-in-the-sky vision for the Middle School I was soon to be in charge of, and then created year long steps towards this goal. Year One I would do this, and then year two I’d add this, etc., and by Year Five I would have molded this Middle School into some perfect version I saw in my head.

I was quick to realize, however, how foolish this attempt had been. How could I ever begin to craft a vision for a community of which I was not yet a part? If I brought with me a vision, it would be influenced and dictated by the school I was coming from, and therefore I would be acting in bad faith towards my future school. Yes, there are lessons to be learned from previous experience, but Division Heads run into trouble when they allow those past lessons and past school ‘currents’ to obscure the needs/wants/norms/currents of their new school. I have seen administrators come in with an agenda they intended to hammer through, and by doing so punched fatal holes in the culture of the school.

I have plans for my new Middle School, but they are not set plans, and I am not intent upon arriving at them. Instead, I will hold my vision loosely, open myself to the Tao of this community and allow my vision to shift and change with the currents. I will make my vision like water in a lazy river; Unassertive, but not directionless, sometimes serene, sometimes turbulent but never stuck. I will not be rigid and the right way forward will disclose itself.

_/\_

Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

The Master never reaches for the great
thus she achieves greatness
When she runs into a difficulty,
she stops and gives herself to it.
She doesn’t cling to her own comfort;
Thus problems are no problem for her.

I opened the Tao te Ching to this Chapter on the first day of school, which also happened to be my first day as a Division Head, and it seemed like providence. I was nervous, a little afraid, and arrived at school two hours ahead of time in a full sweat. The role I was stepping into was not one I had held before, and there were many unknowns. I had stayed up all night trying to visualize what they may be.

But, Chapter 63 seems to hold within it all the wisdom needed at the beginning of a Division Head’s career. It begins with the foundational idea of Taoism; effortless action. We have all known Division Heads who believe themselves to be deciders, to be hammers, and who see the rest of the community as nails. These Division Heads inflict blunt force trauma on their communities and damage the energy in the building because they act against the Tao of the school. I spent my morning meditation reflecting on those past Division Heads. I was able to see their motivations now that I had found myself in that role, cloaked with the anxiety that comes with it, but I also made sure I visualized how I would be different. I knew I wanted to change some parts of my new Middle School, but I also knew that it could only be accomplished by feeling the Tao of the school and ensuring that my decisions would flow with its’ current. I had to try and flatten the leadership structure, bring all voices to the table and most importantly listen deeply, intently and earnestly to the faculty. The faculty know the Tao of the school better than anyone else, and their words speak to it constantly. They may not be aware, but the Tao can always be found in their words.

While a chance to mediate on effortless action is always welcome, I believe the power of 63 really lies in its focus on facing difficulty. Anyone who has ever moved from teaching to being a Division Head did so with full recognition that many difficulties lie ahead. Angry parents, classroom conflicts, cliques, bullying, perhaps poor teaching, shirking of duties or a flat out refusal from a teacher to buy into a new initiative. All of these are “difficulties” we will face at some point. There will certainly be moments ranging from discomfort to sheer panic. But 63 has words of wisdom for us:

Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts

A Division Head can mitigate the difficult by chopping away at it while it is still “easy”, thus accomplishing “great acts in small steps”. As my father likes to tell me, “You eat the elephant one bite at a time”. Visualization, preparation and strategy are important tools for the Division Head to tap during while doing this work. I spent a lot of time over the summer trying to visualize the school year; how will it play out? where will my sticking points be? what if I changed this, added this, or subtracted this? how will my faculty react to a new Division Head? how can I address their concerns? how can I successfully make the difficult transition of entering a new community, in a leadership role?

The simple answer is strategy. I picked up an excellent book titled “Good Strategy/Bad Strategy” this summer, and it went a long way in helping me design a consistent and effective approach to all of my questions. The approach follows a few basic steps; 1. Recognition (my addition), 2. Diagnosis, 3. Guiding Policy, and 4. Concrete Action. It sounds simple, but it goes a long way towards stopping ones self from resting on ones laurels, or becoming a victim of over confidence.

The final stanza of 63 is perhaps my favorite, and contains the sage advice that when a Division Head runs into difficulty, they should “give themselves to it”. Don’t run from it, don’t retreat into your comfort zone, rather face the difficulty head on with the confidence that you have taken the small steps necessary to accomplish this great task. Difficulties are what push a Division Head into their “learning zone”. If you are spending your days in the comfort of your office, behind the safety of your computer then you are not growing, and you are not helping your division grow either. (That being said… I won’t go looking for difficulties just for the sake of it!)

I was meant to read this passage on day one. Every line gives me pause and I believe I will return to it often this year.

_/ \_