Thanks for sharing the information about Appreciative Inquiry below, and
your thoughts on the difficulties facing leaders in your other post. As
usual, you provide much wisdom.
I'm wondering if we could return to my original question.
What do you think about the information in the article I shared at the start
of this thread?
NAIS, under your leadership, has been at the forefront of addressing many
serious and difficult issues such as diversity and sustainability.
In last Sunday's New York Times book review section, in an article titled
"The State of Liberalism", Jonathan Alter wrote: "The collapse of the
American middle class and the huge transfer of wealth to the already wealthy
is the biggest domestic story of our time..."
We can have a good discussion about the validity of this statement, but for
arguments sake let's say it is accurate. Let's also for arguments sake say
that the information in the Moyers interview is accurate.
So if it is the case (as Lloyd Blankfein would say, "just as a
hypothetical") that economic inequality has grown substantially, and that
significant economic inequality is a root cause of many social justice
matters, would NAIS work on addressing this issue even though, as you write,
we are "dependent upon great wealth financially"?
Fred
On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:23 AM, Bassett, Patrick <bassett@nais.org> wrote:
> I've long been an advocate of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the most
> pragmatic way to get to the point of solidarity and action on social justice
> matters, transcending the name and blame and shame approach that seems to in
> some cases set the cause back rather than move it forward. In its essence,
> AI's starting point is, "What strengths, tools and values do we have that
> have served us well to tackle problems?" Once identified, then next
> question is "How can we use these same strengths to tackle these (social
> justice) problems?" Third question: "Who is ready to start now?"
>
> Cheers.
>
> PFB
>
> "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a
> habit." (Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)
> "What we learn to do, we learn by doing." (Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)
>
> Patrick F. Bassett, President
> NAIS - National Association of Independent Schools
> 1620 L St., NW, Washington, DC 20036
> 202.973.9710 (office) 202.746.5444 (cell) 202.973.9709 (fax)
> bassett@nais.org www.nais.org www.twitter.com/patbassett
> www.facebook.com/NAISnetwork
>
>
>
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