March 15, 2003

Publications

Rothman pens article on how poetry can help school leaders become more effective

"A Place for Poems," an essay by senior writing lecturer Don Rothman, has been published in the March/April 2004 issue of Leadership, a publication of the Association of California School Administrators.

"The essay describes what happens in the Central California Writing Project summer institute on the teaching of writing when poetry enters our collective work," Rothman says. "I discuss how poetry helps teachers and administrators who intend to be effective school leaders learn to name the world more accurately and more memorably. My point is that educational leaders should use poetry's power to draw out others' creativity and intelligence."

Drawing on Walt Whitman's The Wound Dresser, Bertolt Brecht's Praise of Learning, Il Postino (a film about Pablo Neruda), and Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts, Rothman urges educators to write, as well. "The leader who writes, I propose, and who invites others to join her, sustaining both courage and humility in the process, celebrates the value of creativity and honors her colleagues' humanity," adds Rothman.

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