For the Fall, 2021-22 Semester, Duke students in the Lab were asked to draw on materials/experiences we looked at together over the course of semester and their own experiences to respond to the following prompt: “What is your theory or story about how change happens and what role–if any–do personal relationships play in your story or theory?” Here is
Introduction The COVID-19 crisis forced us to reconfigure the Lab in a cluster of ways. The number of Duke students who could register for our Tuesday night, socially distanced, in person class meetings was about half of the usual number. The decreased number of Duke students and the absence of a graduate fellow prompted me to place lab projects (focused
My daughters have a great guidance counsellor at their high school. She is kind and has enormous integrity—she really wants to do a good job. She acknowledges mistakes and then fixes them. She genuinely cares for her students. But most importantly from the perspective of a parent, she is responsive and does what she says she will do. When I
Sam Wells who used to be the Dean of the Chapel here at Duke (and now leads a large prestigious Church of England congregation in central London) contrasted two kinds of service– doing forand being with—in a sermon some years ago. Doing for is about helpingpeople who “need” it. Someone or some cause requires time, money, or food/clothing and we
When I talk about the Lab, I always emphasize how the two parts of the Lab fit together. That is, how the face to face friendships we have tried to coalesce over the years make it possible for us to address structural challenges related to resettlement. So, I often say something like this: “What we have learned from the many
Durham Public-School’s five-year plan begins with the conviction that “fulfilling every child’s potential” depends on the people of Durham “work[ing] collectively and intentionally to embody “the highest aspirations for our children.” So, I and the members of the lab took seriously the idea that the wellbeing of the children of Durham is the responsibility of all of residents of
School leaders never get tired of telling anyone who will listen about their single-minded commitment to the educational needs of their students. Here is what I think this generally means: Given the culture and organization of my District and its priorities and self-image, we are committed to meeting the educational needs of our students. Here is what a single-minded focus
Samantha Power’s new book, The Education of an Idealist, has me thinking about the difference between what might be called “deserving to be successful” and actually being successful. By any conventional measure, Power deserved to be successful in her role as UN Ambassador. She had the best humanitarian intentions—indeed, her commitment to human rights is relentless and without pause. She
For the past year or two several project teams here in the Lab have been thinking about a puzzle related to outcomes: How to describe their part in bringing about important policies or initiatives when they have played a significant role in collaboration with government? The Lab isn’t the only organization that is outcome driven. I recently had a conversation
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