Every now and then I come across a phrase that kinda stops me in my tracks. Like the other day when I was reading an essay about the reasons behind the war in Ukraine and the author mentioned “toxic nostalgia” as one of the main causes.   It’s not hard to suss out the meaning: […]

This fall, at the end of one of our first in-person conference presentations, amidst the buzz of actual human interaction and reunions among colleagues from various cities finally seeing each other in person, one woman hung back until after all the other participants’ questions were asked. Then she confided: “I’m struggling because people at my school […]

If there’s one small bit of good news emanating from the chaos of this pandemic and politics moment, it’s this: a markedly growing number of schools are engaging in more existential discussions about what school needs to be in an age of growing complexity and change.   We know this not only from our work […]

“When will this year be over?”   “I can’t wait to go back to normal.”   As we head into the last quarter of 2020, natural disasters, social calamity, pandemic, and a general malaise of sadness and isolation don’t seem like they will be going away anytime soon. We are living in a cycle of […]

(NOTE: This is a cross post of an essay that Will wrote for the Association for the Advancement of International Schools (AAIE) member newsletter. He has been working with AAIE international school heads for the last six months facilitating weekly conversations and has also led a working group to create a new vision for AAIE […]

In a recent podcast interview, Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger said the main reason he was able to make his famous emergency landing of Flight 1549 into the Hudson River in 2009 was because he had “situational awareness,” meaning he was aware of what was happening, could understand the meaning, and project the potential outcomes into […]

At a recent Big Questions Institute professional development workshop for educational leaders, one of the participants honestly reflected that she felt uncomfortable using the word “radical,” even if it was stated in the context of “radical kindness,” “radical acceptance,” or “radical empathy” at school. “The connotations seem too strong and polarizing,” she said.   We […]

Last month, Will had the opportunity to create a short response to the prompt “If you could change any one thing about education, what would you change?”   Here’s his reply:  

Of all of the millions of words that have been written by thousands of authors trying to make sense of this historic moment we’re living through, none have had as big an impact on our thinking and on our work as a powerful essay by the Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy titled The Pandemic […]

As institutional and social change seems to be accelerating, something that is becoming more and more clear almost by the day has been seeping into our work here at The Big Questions Institute.   It’s the sense that all of this, the pandemic, the racial unrest, the looming environmental and economic disasters, all of them […]