What People Are Saying About The New Book!
When school leaders are stressed, their tensions radiate to their staff. When teachers are stressed, their students reap the turbulent ripples. When students’ brains are stressed, optimal learning is unlikely. This book offers inspirational and practical advice to school leaders for calming their waters and spawning ripples of clarity and serenity throughout the school pond.
—Jay McTighe, Co-author, the Understanding by Design® series
Leadership of any sort is demanding work, and nowhere more so than in our schools. What do school leaders need if they are to lead well? Technical knowledge and skill, of course. But equally critical to good leadership is a capacity for “mindfulness” which helps leaders see more clearly what’s going on around and within them so they can navigate complex terrain without getting lost. This important book—beautifully written, illustrated with case studies, and full of practical guidance—can help school leaders find their bearings in ways that allow them to serve the urgent needs of teachers, students and the larger society.
—Parker J. Palmer, author of “Healing the Heart of Democracy,” “The Courage to Teach,” “A Hidden Wholeness” and “Let Your Life Speak”
A “must-get” book for school leaders looking for help to handle the daunting stress of their work. Brimming with hope and practical advice, this inspiring book combines fascinating portraits of real leaders with down-to-earth mindfulness practices that work. Brown and Olson—longtime practitioners of mindfulness, seasoned coaches and wise observers of the education scene—offer balm for the soul of school leaders who today are giving their all to realize their dreams.
—Jerome T. Murphy, Howe Research Professor of Education, Dean Emeritus, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Leaders looking to reach higher or who feel like they are drowning amidst conflicting responsibilities often feel like they have no time to grab a ladder or a lifeline, even though they know those tools would help them achieve their goals. This book is both ladder and lifeline, and I would encourage all leaders to take the time to reach for it.
—James E. Ryan, Dean of the Faculty, Harvard Graduate School of Education
This is a book with deep wisdom on every page. While it draws its examples and targets its practical recommendations to educators, there is so much here of benefit to people in all manner of pursuits, pedagogical or otherwise. For me, this profoundly necessary book serves as a guide to being human in a world that seems determined to sap the humanity from us. And imagine the impact on our future that a more present and aware population of educators will make. Pay attention to this book, and it will teach you how to truly pay attention.
—Steve Heller, Program Director, Leadership Coaching Certificate Program, Georgetown University
The art of being a mindful leader requires just one thing, and that is cultivating the art of living mindfully. Truly being there for ourselves is the best way to bring positive change to our family, our colleagues, and our students—the future of our planet. I am convinced that happy teachers will change the world. This book offers simple practices for nourishing mindful leaders.
—Thich Nhat Hanh is a monk, poet, and peace activist. Author of Living Buddha, Living Christ, Peace Is Every Step, and The Miracle of Mindfulness.
Finally, after serving for fourteen years as a school leader and reading everything I could find, this is the book that I’ve been searching for. By deftly weaving together mindfulness theory, poignant personal portraits, and imminently practical advice regarding specific methods, the authors provide the antidote to the frenetic and oppressive toxins of contemporary education; they remind us that we should stop “Racing to the Top” and take the time instead to plumb the depths of our own hearts and souls. This is a book that will join a select few on my shelf, as one I know I will return to again and again.
—Paul Freedman, Founding Director, Salmonberry School, Eastsound, WA
The Mindful School Leader stitches honest stories from everyday school leaders with practical guides and the most up to date research on mindfulness. I saw much of my own struggles and learning in its pages, and I suspect many educational leaders will find resonance and helpful guidance for the ongoing challenges of growing our own souls and skills.”
—Scott Nine, Former Director of the Institute for Democratic Education in America
This inspiring book makes a strong case for school leaders to include mindfulness in their personal and professional lives. Based on solid research and enhanced by compelling examples of real people, it shows how school leaders can feel more grounded, connected, clear and focused. Mindfulness makes leaders more effective with relatively little effort, but be advised that the benefits can be contagious, transforming your school from the inside out.
—Christopher Germer, Clinical Instructor, Harvard Medical School
This book is a must read for all school leaders. Given the high stakes testing environment and shrinking budgets of schools today, educators are under more stress than ever. This book will help school leaders find the equanimity needed to lead with calm, clarity, and effectiveness in the midst of the storm.
—Kristin Neff, Associate Professor, Educational Psychology Dept., University of Texas at Austin
How can K-12 schools possibly thrive today without wholehearted leadership? With The Mindful School Leader, Brown and Olson offer a sourcebook for bringing the age-old wisdom of mindfulness to current school leaders with compelling stories of people at work, current research, and simple, specific practices to apply. This book delivers an essential resource to the courageous school leader.
—Terry Chadsey, Executive Director, Center for Courage & Renewal
Masterfully practical, rich with wisdom and the heartfelt experiences of scholars and leaders in the field, this is the handbook to keep at your side if you wish to become more evolved, insightful, nimble and better prepared, in general, to address the challenges of teaching and leading.
—Dianne E Horgan, Associate Director, Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, UMASS Medical School
In The Mindful School Leader, Brown and Olson offer with remarkable clarity and depth a thorough introduction to the practice of meditation, the science behind its benefits, and many firsthand accounts of lives and work situations transformed through this practice. Although this book was written for those in leadership roles in education, it will be inspiring for anyone interested in understanding their own minds and finding more ease in life and work.
—Joseph Goldstein, Co-Founder, Insight Meditation Society
An important support for school leaders, this book is comprehensive, and well thought out. The personal stories within are compelling and encouraging. The Mindful School Leader is a tremendous asset to leaders worldwide to foster greater understanding and compassion within themselves and within schools.
—Sharon Salzberg, Author of Lovingkindness and Real Happiness
Well-researched and beautifully documented, The Mindful School Leader is a wonderful addition to the growing literature on mindfulness practices applied to the many sectors of modern societies. This book is unique in its many vignettes relating the personal stories of education leaders from around the world who talk about their experience with mindfulness. The authors also provide simple meditations that can be used even during busy workdays. This book will appeal to leaders in education and other fields who are interested in mindfulness but may not know where to start or how it can be applied to their lives.
—Athinoula A. Martinos, Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School
Leaders and changemakers actively transforming the educational system to reflect the values of justice and equity frequently suffer from frustration, a sense of overwhelm, and burnout. These leaders need practical ideas and stories that nurture the self-compassion and mindfulness that can help them, their colleagues, and their students work in community to meet the challenges of education today. In this book, Kirsten Olson and Valerie Brown have provided just that.
—Dana Bennis, Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer, IDEA: Institute for Democratic Education in America
It’s hard to imagine school leaders surviving (or thriving!) in today’s often stressful teaching and learning environment without a process of regular self-reflection and other mindfulness practices. The Mindful School Leader offers an important set of practices and exercises that should be added to your personal/professional toolbox immediately, used regularly and shared with colleagues and friends.
—S. Kwesi Rollins, Director of Leadership Programs, Institute for Educational Leadership
Courageous, visionary, caring leadership is crucial to building and sustaining positive learning environments in schools. Such leaders recognize that to promote optimal social-emotional and academic learning, collaboration is essential, and ongoing. Given the unrelenting, complex demands of our education system, The Mindful School Leader is anindispensable resource for all who exercise leadership in schools. From school leaders with formal authority (e.g. principals) to pre-service teachers, this book presents compelling evidence, and specific practices (e.g. Mindfulness Practice Aids) that can help all educators to both develop resilience and cultivate optimal learning in schools.
—Deborah Donahue-Keegan, Co-Founder and Lead Organizer, Massachusetts Consortium for Social-Emotional Learning in Teacher Education, Tufts University
In June of 2013, as I was leaving Baltimore City Public Schools, I wrote a letter to all students in which I paraphrased Tolstoy’s beautiful parable, “The Three Questions:” Now was the most important time, because it was the only time when we have power. The person with you was the most important person, because you didn’t know if you would ever have the chance to be true to that person. And the most important thing was to do good in the moment, because that was our fundamental purpose in life. This immensely wonderful book, full of practical lessons and next steps, as well as of stories by practitioners in the field, kept reminding me of the lessons in that parable, and why I had chosen them as my final words to my students—leadership, like all life, demands mindfulness, not only for the sake of ourselves as individuals, but in order to be true to the purpose of making life better for those we work with and those we lead. I recommend it enthusiastically for those seeking to lead in our increasingly difficult school and community settings.
—Andres A. Alonso, Former superintendent of Baltimore City Public Schools and Deputy Chancellor of New York City Public Schools, and currently Professor of Practice, Harvard Graduate School of Education
In school environments where thick tension and palpable stress levels are all too common thanks to the pressures of high-stakes accountability, administrators struggle daily to navigate challenging terrain. This practical and hope-filled book by Kirsten Olson and Valerie Brown guides school leaders on a path toward transforming their practice in meaningful, mindful ways–and, in so doing, transforming their schools. The message here is simple yet powerful: To promote equitable and lasting change in America’s classrooms, we have to begin within.
—Gregory Michie, Author of Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students