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The President's Briefcase is a collection of articles, presentations, quotes, suggested reading, and program overviews produced by Randolph's past President and Head of School Dr. M. Edward Krenson. Dr. Krenson relocated to Atlanta in summer 2005 to begin work as the new Associate Executive Director for Non-Public and Special Purpose Schools for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS-CASI).
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The most powerful way to awaken genius in the classroom has nothing to do with lesson plans, classroom environment, or learning materials. It has to do with you. And not you as an educator, but you as a human being. If you wish to spark the hidden light of genius that lives in every one of your students, you must first find and (re)light that spark in yourself. --Thomas Armstrong
Today I saw the dragon-fly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk; from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphires mail.
He dried his wings; like gauze they grew
Through crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew. --Alfred Lord Tennesson
Junah birdied 15, but bogied 16. He was overwhelmed. He couldn't get it. It was all too much, too fast. Vance continued guiding him quietly, but emphatically: "Hagen and Jones do not will the swing into being. They use their will to find the swing that is already there, that was there before they were born and will continue to exist through eternity. Then they surrender their will to it. Only when the knower and the field are one, do they swing. "The knowing is everything." Bagger Vance said. "It is the knowing alone that survives the death of the body. You are the knowing. The knowing finds the swing, and the swing is you..." --Stephen Pressfield, The Legend of Bagger Vance
Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe.
There is an inmost center in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
. . . And to know
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without. --Robert Browning, Paracelsus
The educator does not pour truth or untruth into the mind of others but draws out of others their latent abilities and stimulates them to be original and creative. --Emory S. Bogardus
We know how to find pearls in the shells of oysters, gold in the mountains, and coal in the bowels of the earth, but we are unaware of the spiritual gems, the creative nebulae that the child hides in himself when he enters this world to renew mankind. --Maria Montessori
Stone works with you. It reveals itself. But you must strike it right. Stone does not resent the chisel. It is not being violated. Its nature is to change. Each stone has its own character. It must be understood. Handle it carefully, or it will shatter. Never let stone destroy itself. Stone gives itself to skill and to love. His first lesson had been that the power and the durability lay in the stone, not the arms or tools. The stone was master not the mason. If ever a mason came to think he was master, the stone would oppose and thwart him. And if a mason beat his stone as an ignorant contadino might beat his breast, the rich warm glowing breathing material became dull, colorless, ugly; died under his hand. To kicks and curses, to hurry and dislike, it closed a hard stone veil around its soft inner nature. It could be smashed by violence but never forced to fulfill. To sympathy, it yielded: growing even more luminous and sparkling, achieving fluid forms and symmetry. Stone will speak to you. Listen as you strike with the side of your hammer. --Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy
But you have to agree that the work of art becomes noble in the degree to which it represents the truth. Then sculpture will come closer to true form, for when you work the marble the figure emerges on all four side . . . . His words usually so sparse, spilled over each other; the painter laid his paint on the surface and by use of perspective tried to persuade people that they were seeing the whole of a scene. But just try to talk around a person in a painting, or around a tree! It was an illusion, a magician's trick. Now the sculptor, Ah! He carved the full reality. That is why sculpture bore the same relationship to painting that truth did to falsehood. And if a painter blundered, what did he do? He patched and repaired and covered over with another lay of paint. The sculptor on the contrary had to see within the marble the form that it held. He could not glue back broken parts. That was why there were no more sculptors today, because it took a thousand times more accuracy of judgment and vision. --Irving Stone, The Agony and the Ecstasy
In Russell Conwell's classic tale, "Acres of Diamonds," a wealthy Persian named Ali Hafed becomes dissatisfied when he hears of something beautiful and unique that he does not have--diamonds! He becomes so enamored with the thoughts of beauty and potential wealth of these precious stones that he leaves his family and everything he owns to go in search of them. His travels take him through Kenya, Palestine, and Europe, but to no avail. Finally, despondent after years of fruitless searching--wretched, in rags and having lost everything of value, he casts himself into a tidal wave, "never to rise in this life again." The irony of the story is that all the time hidden only slightly beneath the surface of his own backyard was the diamond mine of Golconda, the most magnificent diamond mine in all the history of mankind. Often, like Ali Hafed, we miss what's right in our backyard. Most people are constantly searching for new and better ways to do things, but often, the most effective approach is simply to dig deeper in our own "backyard," and mine the incredible wealth we already have there. As human beings, we have a great gift and talent so marvelous that it seems almost magical. But for most of us, this gift is hidden almost in plain sight. It is a gift that you already have. It is the masterpiece within. --Eddie Krenson
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson |
The most powerful way to awaken genius in the classroom has nothing to do with lesson plans, classroom environment, learning materials. It has to do with you. And not you as an educator, but you as a human being. If you wish to spark the hidden light of genius that lives in every one of your students, you must first find and (re)light that spark in yourself. --Thomas Armstrong
A Thanksgiving Day editorial in the newspaper told of a school teacher who asked her class of first graders to draw a picture of something they were thankful for. She thought of how little these children from poor neighborhoods actually had to be thankful for. But she knew that most of them would draw pictures of turkeys or tables with food. The teacher was taken aback with the picture Douglas handed in . . . a simple childishly drawn hand. But whose hand? The class was captivated by the abstract image. "I think it must be the hand of God that brings us food," said one child. "A farmer," said another "because he grows the turkeys." Finally when the others were at work, the teacher bent over Douglas' desk and asked whose hand it was. "It's your hand, Teacher," he mumbled. She recalled that frequently at recess she had taken Douglas, a scrubby forlorn child by the hand. She often did that with the children. But it meant so much to Douglas. Perhaps this was everyone's Thanksgiving, not for the material things given to us but for the chance, in whatever small way, to give to others. --Author Unknown
The true force that attracts others is the force of the heart. --James Kouzes and Barry Posner
If you want to feel secure, do what you already know how to do. If you want to be a true professional and continue to grow . . . go to the cutting-edge of your competence, which means a temporary loss of security. So whenever you don't quite know what you're doing, know that you are growing. --Madeline Hunter
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The nature of the relationship among the adults at the school has more to do with the school's quality, its character, and the achievement of its students than any other factor. --Roland Barth
Education is not a preparation for life; education is life itself. --John Dewey
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There are two major changes that occur in the lives of individuals who achieve personal power--the rise of intellectual independence and the need for simplicity. --R.L. Wing
Most men can handle adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. --Abraham Lincoln
We can make our minds so like still water that beings gather about us, that they may see, it may be, their own images and so live for a moment with a clearer, perhaps even with a fiercer, life because of our quiet. --W.B. Yeats
They that have the power to hurt and will do none. --Shakespeare
Leaders must learn to stand alone and can ever do so if they love enough. For the soul that cannot stand alone has nothing to give. --Anonymous
There are many paths to the mountaintop but there is only one mountaintop.
--Anonymous
School improvement is embedded in an ethos of empowerment and collegiality. --Robert Evans, The Human Side of School Change
Compulsion is not an attribute of conviction. --Anonymous
Where there is no vision the people perish. --The Bible
Helen Keller, when asked what was worse than being blind from birth, replied, "Having sight but no vision." --Anonymous
There is a Light in this world, a Healing Spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this Force when there is suffering--Too much pain--then suddenly the Spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways. --From a documentary on the life of Mother Teresa
Nothing is ever over. You thread things in your life and think you've finished with them but you haven't because it's like beads on a string and they come round again. When it comes round again then if it is possible you give what you failed to give before to someone else. You will have made reparation for we are all one person. --E. Goudge
What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything. --Vincent Van Gogh
A fit leader must attune to the variation sin persons. A gentle person may be led by persuasion, while the rebellious by more exacting means. The true leader should never value things above the value of attitude. The worth of right perspective is beyond measure. Those who choose to follow bear the responsibility for their choice of leaders. When any significant action is to take place, or any important decision is to be made, counsel should be taken in all cases where it is possible to do so. Our actions always affect others, and the persons affected should participate in determinations that influence them. We each see the world from divergent viewpoints and are equal participants in the cosmic game. For these reasons it is both efficient and right that consultation occur in all matters of substance. Those who have consulted should give their insights without argument and should accept the ultimate decision with good grace when it diverges from their point of view. Once the advice of those involved has been obtained, the person whose responsibility it is to choose a course of action should take counsel alone and then act as its best in circumstances. Frequently, all that can be done is to choose from several less-than-optimum alternatives. In both cases, we must accept the limitations imposed on us as the natural result of things as they are and avoid the paralysis that comes from wishing for different circumstances. In all things be governed by the sense, not the letter of that principle. --John McQuiston II
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Leading without pulling makes the process of learning gentle.
Urging without pressing makes the process of learning easy and
Opening the way to the students without taking them to the place makes them think for themselves.
Now if the process of education is made gentle and easy and if the students are taught to think for themselves, we may call the person a good teacher.
--Confucius
A Leader is Best
When people barely know that he exists
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worst when they despise him.
Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you.
But of a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, "We did this ourselves."
--Lao Tzu, Sixth Century BC
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We are confronted by insurmountable opportunities. --Pogo
Every wall is a door. --Emerson
We grow through the medium of our own recognitions. --Anonymous
We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are. --The Talmud
Where you stumble there your treasure lies. --Joseph Campbell
Compulsion is not an attribute of conviction. --Anonymous
School improvement is embedded in an ethos of empowerment and collegiality. --Robert Evans, The Human Side of School Change
The advice of Brutus to Cassius in Julius Caesar captures the moment we now have at hand: "There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyages of their life are bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves or lose our ventures." --Shakespeare
To create and sustain for children the conditions for productive growth without those conditions existing for educators is virtually impossible. --Seymour Sarason
The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. --Albert Einstein
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul. --General Douglas MacArthur, age 78
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| Gratitude is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all others. --Cicero |
Plans are nothing. Planning is everything. --Dwight B. Eisenhower on the eve of the D-Day Invasion
Thus it happens in matters of state; for knowing a far off the evils that are brewing, they are easily cured. But when for want of such knowledge they are allowed to grow so that everyone can recognize them there is no longer any remedy to be found. --Machiavelli
The great thing in the world is not so much where you are but in what direction you are going. --Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Excellence is not an act; it is a habit. --Aristotle
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