November 2023: School Administrator
Advertisement
Staff
Editor's Note
Tensions That Spark Creativity
When I was starting my career in journalism almost 50 years ago, the career destination for many budding reporters was The Washington Post, where the legendary editor Ben Bradlee maintained a newsroom culture of creative tension for his writers and editors. A few years later, Peter Senge gave the concept greater visibility as an organizational catalyst for facilitating creativity and change.
We explore the application of the concept in this month’s issue through a contribution from Wendy Smith, co-author of Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems. She writes for us about how she has worked with educators in Australia to make it a positive force in schooling.
Creative tension is a loose thread running through several other offerings, including Allan Mucerino’s “Caught in the Crosshairs” and a piece by superintendents John Malloy and Colleen Russell-Rawlins about leading reforms of student discipline amidst polarization.
Even our cover story plays off the dimension of creative tension. It details Maria Libby’s account of gaining approval from her school board in Camden, Maine, for a recent six-month sabbatical that enabled her to recharge and renew. As our coverage indicates, she’s not the only superintendent coming out of the pandemic to seek better work/life balance through sabbaticals before returning to their posts.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about this coverage and how it relates to your own work circumstances. Please comment on social media and directly to me.
Jay P. Goldman
Editor, School Administrator
703-875-0745
jgoldman@aasa.org
@JPGoldman
Advertisement
Advertisement
