If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.
In my day the principal concerns of university students were sex, smoking dope, rioting and learning. Learning was something you did only when the first three weren’t available.
One of the dangers of the American artist is that he finds himself almost exclusively thrown in with persons more or less in the arts. He lives among them, eats among them, quarrels with them, marries them.
In both our personal and professional lives, there are times when reality dictates that we must stand up and ‘end’ something. Either its time has passed, its season is over, or worse, continuing it would be destructive in some way.
Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game – and do it by watching first some high school or small-town teams.
When you begin to do things that raise the achievement of the poorest and disenfranchised students, you may not always get applause. You need to be ready for that.
