Book Club: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

One of my big, hairy, audacious goals in life is to start a public, Montessori charter school in Austin, TX. For those of you who aren't too familiar with charter schools, the short story is that they are free, public schools that receive per/pupil funding just like schools in districts but they are not part of the school district. They do not have to use the same curriculum, the same hiring and firing procedures, the same technology, etc. They are still held accountable by the same state assessments that the children take each year, but beyond those required tests, they are pretty much free to innovate.

There's a lot of anti-charter sentiment out there, even in circles I admire (like academia). Many people argue that charter schools represent an abandonment of the public school system. They argue that charter schools "skim the cream off the top" and recruit the highest-performing children away from their zoned schools.

My support of the charter school model (notice I didn't say "charter schools," since there are a lot of bad ones out there) comes from the past twelve years of working in education for economically-disadvantaged children. I've worked with AmeriCorps, Teach For America, KIPP, YES Prep Public Schools, Teacher U, Achievement First, and three school districts. I have experienced firsthand--over and over again--how difficult it is to shift the direction of the bureaucratic behemoths that school districts can be. I have wasted tons and tons of energy fighting the system--energy that would have been better spent on creation and innovation.

As I understand it, the original purpose of charter schools was to create "incubators" where new ideas could be implemented and tested on a small scale and then shared back with school districts. That's why I believe in charter schools. I don't want them to take over and cause the dissolution of school districts, but I do want them to show districts that there is a better way.

So anyway, you may have noticed this post is about a book club--not a manifesto about charter schools (did you think I just titled it incorrectly?). If I'm going to be an effective leader of a public Montessori charter school, then I have a lot to learn, and I'm going to start by rereading a book that revolutionized my life six years ago: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

I'm going to talk about one chapter a week. I'd love it if you'd join me!

Here's how it's going to work:

• If you want to join us, please leave a brief comment (something as simple as "I'm in!"), so I have a sense of how many people are interested. It's fine if you comment anonymously.
• I'll post my discussion of the first chapter "Inside-Out" (which is approximately 30 pages in my copy of the book) on Monday, April 25 and we can discuss it in the comments. We'll do one chapter per week (gotta keep it manageable!).

P.S. Mica, I got your awesome e-mail message. Thank you! This book is definitely on my list of books that shifted my paradigm. I'm going to start another book list in the left sidebar of my blog, as I think of other ones.

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