I finally agreed to assume the role in the hopes of making a difference in
the lives of the students and a few teachers who were struggling to provide
a quality education for them.
I knew the first thing we had to change was the culture of the school.
This meant changing the behavior not only of the students but also of
teachers who were floundering hopelessly in a bottomless pit of apathy. I
was well aware of the enormousness of the task and that I would need all
the help I could muster. It was then that the superintendent requested
that I attend a conference in Park City, Utah, where Heidi Hayes Jacobs
was presenting her work on curriculum mapping.
I was reluctant to agree to attend the conference because I was aware
that Park City was known primarily as a site of the Winter Olympics and
as a ski area. I had recently lost a 16-year-old granddaughter in a snow ski-
ing accident, and she had, in fact, been my motivation for accepting the
principal position at Furr. Her expressed desire had been to make the
world a better place for all people, and I thought by going to Furr, I might
be able to do that in her stead. I was not sure I was emotionally ready for
a ski area.
I agreed to attend the conference but found it difficult to concentrate
on the sessions I attended, and I decided to leave early and return to Hous-
ton. I would attend one more session and then depart. It so happened that
session was being conducted by Bena Kallick. When she mentioned cog-
nitive coaching and Art Costa, my interest was sparked and I listened
intently because I had used Costa’s work as a superintendent five years ear-
lier. Then she discussed the work the two of them were doing with the
Habits of Mind, and I was completely enthralled. I knew I had found the
help I needed to change the culture at E. L. Furr High School.
Bena agreed to come to Houston to assist me, and we began a long
and enduring relationship as we worked to transform the school into a
professional learning community. Staff and students worked on the Habits
of Mind to become better, more productive human beings. The entire
school environment was saturated with the habits. They became an inte-
gral part of the curriculum; they were painted in bold, colorful letters on
the walls of the school; books on the habits were purchased, and staff par-
ticipated in book studies; Bena and Art and Marian Leibowitz conducted
344 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind