Change the world. Save it. Destroy the world. Make it anew. Make it like it used to be. Be a disruptor. Be bold.

Not for me. I recall a class on school administration. Held in the instructor’s living room.   Designed to discuss anything but school administration. Designed to sneak up on ideas about leadership.

I talked, in that class, about jogging. I lived on a half-mile long dead end street. I jogged from my end of the street to its beginning and back. Not enough. I jogged the same route twice. Still not enough. I jogged the same route and also the dead end street a block away.

As a school superintendent, I was no more adventurous. Propose a bold new idea? Stick a hat up from a fox hole so someone could shoot at it. Try out a new idea? Quietly. No big announcement. Let people get used to it. Let people grow to like it. Then spread it.

Here’s an example. We started an early childhood program in one school cooperating with Head Start. We started one in another school rejecting cooperation with Head Start. A third principal surprised me. Learned from me? In response to a special education need for one child, he started a pre-school program. Inclusion. Good for him. Within a few years, we had universal pre-kindergarten – thirty-five years before it was a bold new idea in New York City.

Cautious Leadership