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How will you measure your life?

By Ray Diffley posted 02-01-2015 05:15 PM

  

 

Ray Diffley
Director of Admission
Choate Rosemary Hall, CT
Member of AISAP Board of Directors

 

Until last Sunday this was simply the title of one of my favorite books by Clay Christensen.  In fact since I have, for better or worse, become known as an “expert” on assessment; I’m often approached by people asking if I’ve read a book or article on assessment.  Often I have, but plenty of times I haven’t, and it’s humbling.  A few years ago, a mom in the waiting room of the Choate Admission Office said to me, “Oh, we love what you talk about around character education. You must know Clay Christensen or at least his work?” To which I replied, “Tell me more.” (A good line, by the way, when you don’t really know much about what she was saying!)  This mom went on to describe his book and said something to the effect of  “You two really would align.” 

Well, I read that book the next weekend, and if you were at the AISAP Institute a couple of summers ago you heard me reading from it as a way to bring assessment to the highest pedestal by overlaying it with your life. 

However, after this past Sunday, I have a new view on “How will you measure your life?”

On Sunday well over a thousand people attended a service and celebration of a life taken by cancer way too soon.  Good friend, colleague, and incredible family man Andy Noel died at the age of 46.  He was Choate’s Director of Financial Aid and Associate Director of Admission by title, but he was so much more.  When I think about how I will measure my life, I now have a new standard to consider and lens to look through.

I’ve always said assessment should start at “the end.”  Look at the end of successful lives and work backward to kindergarten (or sooner, will say Nancy Hayes, Beginners through 9th-grade Enrollment Manager) to see where and how we should teach, and assess for, the skills and abilities that will allow one to live as Andy Noel lived.  This blog is far too short to tell Andy’s story, but I hope it gets you thinking along those lines. Andy’s life had such an impact and was extra special because he lived in two wonderful worlds:  the world of independent school as an admission and financial aid professional and the world of sports—youth and prep school.  His influence was wide because he possessed and modeled all the things I’ve been studying and talking about for the last 15 years around assessment and character skills.

He was an iconic symbol for character education espousing hard work (with a smile); team was always number one. Optimism; he was intrinsically motivated (somehow), even if he didn’t necessarily like the task at hand—he simply liked the challenge.  Andy always believed the job could be done (growth mindset!). Andy was fair; he would not sell his values short for any reason.  In his coaching, Andy was always willing to lose a game to teach a value.  But Andy was also the first to hug the athlete who may have cost them the game, only to be thanked by that same athlete some time later for teaching that lesson.

As our world of assessment evolves, I encourage you to consider the good question Clay Christensen put to us: How will you measure your life? Or perhaps better, as school leaders, your students’ lives. The legacy Andy Noel left for us provides a pretty nice roadmap. 

And to think, he was only an office away from mine for the last 15 years. 

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