This declaration, written with the input of a team of passionate educators around the US, lies at the heart of the conversation we’ll be launching on February 2, 2012 aboard the USS Midway in San Diego.
It is, of course, closely related to the broader Declaration of Extreme Leadership that I posted a while back, but focused on the specific mission of lifting up our kids to magnificent heights.
Please sound off in the comment section below and pass this declaration along to every educator in your life.
The cynics will disregard it out of hand (and, frankly, I’m cool with that), but wait till you see what the rest will do by taking this to heart:
Declaration of Extreme Leadership in Education
I, one of the undersigned educators of today’s youth, recognize that my students are greater than the test scores they achieve, greater than their ability to master the required curriculum, and greater than their grade point averages.
And I also understand and accept that I am more than an administrator, staff member, teacher or professor—I am responsible for helping my students grow to become our world’s future leaders.
And to that end, I believe that the principles of Love, Energy, Audacity and Proof, when applied to the way I lead and teach in my school, university, college or community, will help all of us not only improve the world of education (which is a noble mission), but transform it into something magnificent.
I agree that big, broad, systemic changes need to happen in our field: policies need to shift, pedagogies need to evolve, and priorities need to change—and I’ll do whatever I can to contribute to those transformations over time.
In the meantime,
Regardless of what is or is not happening "out there", and regardless of what other people are or are not doing to change my students’ education for the better,
I commit to making a difference in the way I lead TODAY in my district, school, university, college or classroom; I am an Extreme Leader, committed to taking a Radical LEAP,
Right now,
For our students, our youth, and, therefore,
For all of us
Steve Farber, author of Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership, the president of Extreme Leadership, is a leadership consultant and speaker, and the author of the national bestseller The Radical Leap, and The Radical Edge, and the newly released The Radical Leap Re-Energized: Doing What You Love in the Service of People Who Love What You Do.