“in the pursuit of knowledge:
everyday something is added.
in the pursuit of enlightenment:
everyday something is dropped.”

– Lao Tzu

 

I think about this quote all the time when approaching my work as a Division Head.

I spent far too many years working for Administrators who focused too heavily on the first part of this quote. To them, the act of acquiring knowledge meant that they needed to continue to add; add expectations, add events, add requirements, add professional development, add programming, add meetings, add to the frequency/length of comments, etc., etc. It felt like a continuous onslaught of additions, the efficacy of which had no basis in research or strategic planning, but instead seemed to rely on the administration instinct or gut reaction. Eventually, the additions wore me down and burned me out. It became obvious that those who ran the school did not truly care about the only reason the school existed in the first place; to teach students.

In approaching education as an administrator, I believe that there needs to be a healthy balance between adding in the pursuit of knowledge, and dropping in the pursuit of enlightenment. Too much addition and school gets hectic, stressed and toxic… too much taking away and you lose out on valuable learning opportunities and school can feel bland.  One way to ensure you are on the right path is to perform energy audits with students and faculty. These energy audits should be done periodically, and the results can help illuminate any potential imbalances between “knowledge” and “enlightenment”.  If student feedback indicates that they aren’t feeling challenged at the moment, perhaps it is time to create some more structured advisory programming, or ask the teachers to think about increasing the expectations on upcoming assignments. If the feedback indicates that students feeling stressed, perhaps it is time to add in sometime for mindfulness/meditation work, or maybe schedule a field trip to change up the routine and venue.

Take Away

Avoid the impulse to add inherent in the pursuit of knowledge, while being careful not to take away so much that important learning opportunities are missed. The solution in the end it is much like the Tao, you will know when you have found it.

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