HAVING DOUBTS

I was born in 1947, which places me as an early boomer in Deal's typology of generations. After thirty-two years as an educator and executive manager in North Carolina's public schools, in 2001 I left to join CCL's faculty. When the results of Deal's seven-year study were published in 2007, I reacted with a healthy (I hope) skepticism. I was certain that as a longtime educator, I had been confronted on a daily basis by the effects of generational differences.

Near the end of my years in public school work, one of the most critical challenges for the school district in which I worked was what appeared to be an approaching perfect storm of two realities generated by demographics. This district (along with many others) was facing an ...

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