Foreign exchange: school leaders find tangible benefits in their overseas educational study missions - Cover Story

School Administrator, Jan, 2004 by Carol Brzozowski

All of the viewing points were needed to enable us to experience the richness of Vietnam. We really did need that global view from the bus. It also was crucial to get into classrooms and relationships face-to-face.

Further, our going with the flow was not enough. We had to be in the flow of traffic to appreciate it fully.

Leadership Lessons

Our world of schools and schooling in the United States requires the same mobility for us. We might ask: In what ways do we need to afford ourselves a big, comfortable vantage point comparable to that bus? What can we learn as we use that point for viewing? At what stages must we join the traffic--that is, the day-to-day life inside schools--to understand directly what that world encompasses right now? And when must we, perhaps fearlessly and perhaps fearfully, become a direct participant in what is going on?

We are quick to develop and announce our points of view. Perhaps we need to be just as energetic about trying out and diversifying our points for viewing.

Cheryl Sullivan is an educational consultant and the author of How to Mentor in the Midst of Change (ASCD). She con be reached al 2221 Fair Oaks Road, Decatur, GA 30033. E-mail: cgs99@bellsouth.net

Carol Brzozowski is a free-lance education writer based in Coral Springs, Fla. E-mail: brzozowski @aol.com