Throughout our lives, we are told--and we teach--that you have to take intelligent risks to achieve greatness. Following convention guarantees mediocrity. Ironically, the industry that enjoys the greatest freedom in the United States--independent schools (anything but mediocre,) is relatively paralyzed by fear of innovation and change. Perhaps it is in response to this that the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the National Association of Independent Schools invited more Proctor people to speak at their annual conference (CASE/NAIS, which ended today) than any other school. On Sunday, Steve Wilkins and former Board Chair John O'Connor joined Jay Goulart presenting on revolutionary approaches to development. Then, Lou Moses spoke at another session on innovative thinking in annual giving. This morning, I delivered a thing on communication in real time--the present tense. It took a little while for people to get it:

I showed several examples of Chuck's Corners and parent pages. When we viewed the recent "Photo Contest" page--with the picture of the "Die-in," I revealed, "You know, the leaders of the Die-in came to faculty meeting and asked permission to demonstrate against the upcoming war. We faculty members looked at one another and said, "When we protested against war, we didn't ask permission. If you know it's the right thing to do, just do it." Somehow, the audience suddenly got it.