What I Learned in Driver Training

Long ago and far away in the place where I grew up, driver training class was required to get a first license. Almost everyone took it as part of their high school curriculum, and because my school was small and private, we took it at a nearby larger public school. I already knew how to drive, as did most of my classmates, so there wasn't really much to learn apart from some of the legal parameters that might be on the state exam. One thing I do remember, even now, was the lesson about where a driver should fix his or her gaze while at the wheel.The point was that where one looks should be calibrated according to how fast one is going. Concentrating on the roadway too close to the from of the car, especially if driving at speed, meant that you would constantly be making jerky corrections one way or another with the steering wheel. Looking to close to the hood meant missing the big picture of where the car was heading. Likewise, looking too far into the distance, especially when driving slowly, risked running over pedestrians who might go unseen.As another board year ends for the school in Los Angeles where I am a trustee, I am reminded of the aptness of this lesson for those charged with governing independent schools. We are not governing effectively when our gaze is fixed on what happened in our child's class last week, or when we ignore flashing warning signs because we are looking too far down the road. Looking in the right place is 80% of governance, at least.I can think of no hard-and-fast rule for deciding exactly where to look. Any rubric I can imagine breaks down at some point. Maybe the best it gets is for trustees to constantly be asking themselves whether they are looking at the right point on the horizon in order to govern smoothly.