Educators Take Their Education Back To Core

For 76 years, the annual A.A. Cleveland Conference at Washington State University has been something of a barometer of contemporary issues affecting public education.

In the past, the conference - sponsored by WSU’s College of Education and attended by school superintendents and principals - has taken multi-year looks at topics as varied as school facilities, legal issues involving education and the nature of teaching and learning.

This week, the approximately 100 participants inaugurated what will probably be a new cycle for the conference. The topic was “Values and Ethics of Leadership.”

“I suppose we’ll come back and revisit this topic in various ways and formats in the coming years,” said Dennis Ray, director of the Center for Educational Partnerships at WSU and co-chairman of the conference.

“There are a lot of other conferences where we can talk technical issues and legal issues. But there are few opportunities to sit and talk about the underlying ethical issues,” Ray said.

“It seems to many of us that more and more these ethical issues are coming to the fore. There are more and more dilemmas for people in leadership positions.”

In an era when schools can rely less on students, teachers and parents coming through the schoolhouse door with coherent and deeply grounded ethics that reflect the values of the communities the schools serve, administrators are challenged to step into that breach.

“You can deal with trifles or with real questions this generation faces,” said Bill Grace, director of the Center for Ethical Leadership in Seattle, and a featured conference speaker.

Participants debated - without resolution - issues such as the conflict of confidentiality vs. public safety where potential school violence or student suicide is concerned.

“A willingness to wrestle with gnarly issues is a blessing,” Grace said. “It seems ironic, but your happiness increases. You are dealing with things that you know are important.”

Grace said the conference provided participants with “a safe place where people can practice some skills and look amateurish if need be, and it won’t cost anything.”

Grace led participants to identify their core values. The other featured speaker, Bob Howard, executive director of Democracy Ethics and Educational Principals at the University of Washington, followed up on Grace’s theme and encouraged the school administrators to create environments that promote core values.

Grace urged administrators to live those core values.

“My behavior will tell you more about my ethics than my rhetoric. My rhetoric will tell you about my philosophy,” he said. “If you want to know what I believe, watch my feet.”