LEADERSHIP SHINES A LIGHT IN DARK TIMES

摘要

When I told a colleague we were focusing our fall issue of The Learning Professional on how leaders can thrive in stressful times, she astutely asked, "When is working in schools not stressful?" Constant stress notwithstanding, she recognized what we all do: School and system leadership is especially challenging right now. Even as we try to regain some semblance of normalcy, education leaders are finding themselves in situations unimaginable even a year ago. Many of last year's challenges remain, but they are compounded by new ones. Amid staffing shortages, principals and superintendents are substituting in classrooms and filling in for cafeteria workers and bus drivers. They are working to accelerate students' learning while dealing with ongoing absences due to illness and quarantine. Many are also caught in heated debates over whether and how to implement COVID-19 mitigation measures. Meanwhile, fear, loss, and trauma are still very real.