Tuesday, March 30, 2010

"Failure is not an option." - Gene Granz

My planner has daily quotes about leadership and one this past week really hit me as we are working hard at meeting the current and future needs of our students in the S-O Schools...

Gene Kranz said "These three astronauts [on Apollo 13] were beyond our physical reach. But not beyond the reach of human imagination, inventiveness, and a creed we all lived by: 'Failure is not an option.'

I think about this quote a lot in my work as the superintendent of our school system...failure is not an option for any students (and I don't mean the occasional paper, project or test...I'm thinking larger scale failure as we all need to learn to deal with smaller things as well as life is full of setbacks) as there is no future with failure. Failure of the school system to successfully prepare our students for the future is not an option either. We must make some changes in the way we engage students in thoughtful, critical thinking ways if they are going to have any chance to succeed in their lives after high school. The world has changed exponentially and we must do what we can in our schools to meet the changes head on. Your children are worth it!

If you have a comment about Gene's quote or my comments about failure not being an option for our students or our school system, please hit the comments button below and join in this on-line conversation.

Have a great week,

Supt Herzberg

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