Leading Where It Matters Most

Returning to Palestine (the West Bank) later this week for a third installment of our work with 17 amazing and delightful people--the heads of the private schools in a Model Schools Network.  In the six days we have spent together since August, I am constantly astonished by how they manage to pull off school despite an array of resource constraints that would seriously daunt any Western school head.  While many of their challenges are typical of any independent or international school--too little money, struggles finding a keeping good teachers, and effectively integrating technology (one recent list-serve discussion concerned whether to allow students to have mobile phones at school)--others are unique to the region, such as periodic Israeli checkpoint closures, travel times to go even short distances on the West Bank, and working in such a politically and religiously charged place.  

The joy of our work is watching as the 17 heads, Muslims and Christians alike, grapple with the issues they share in common, despite running schools that range from an orphanage to a small day school to a giant for-profit school to a university lab school and a 125-year-old Quaker school.  I've missed my friends in Palestine.  It will be good to see all of you again.