Elmore argues that organizations and people seem to take on the characteristics of rivers or floods and that can dictate their effectiveness. He likes to tell the story of how, near where he grew up, a terrible flood hit a town where he had many friends and how that flood of merely water was so destructive to the families that he knew. It wrecked their homes and took years for families to recover from. The flood knew no boundaries. It was five miles wide and one inch deep, but had tremendous destructive power. The water was murky and muddy.
Rivers are different than floods because they have boundaries -- their banks. The water flows in one direction. And most importantly the water of a river has tremendous power. If you use the water flow wisely, a river can be tremendously useful. The power of the flow can provide enough energy to light up a city. As Elmore argues, where a flood is damaging a river is helpful and has purpose.
A river is a metaphor for a focused life and a a flood is a metaphor for a fuzzy or unfocused life.
It might surprise some people at North Shore (since I have been told by some I am an overly focused person) to know that I have struggled with this issue of being a river or being a flood in my life.
Partly as a family joke and partly as an observation of my early life, the above pennant was bought for me and hung in my bedroom as I grew up. If you cannot read the writing the pennant is Charlie Brown saying "I am suddenly overcome by a burst of wishy washiness." The pennant reflected that I had a lot of interests, but not much focus. I remember my 2nd grade teacher introducing me to her husband as the student in her class who had the most interests. I wanted to be a paleontoligist, an archarelogist an egytpologist, a writer, a fisherman, a painter, an architect, a musician, a baseball player, all in 2nd grade.
None of these interests seemed to stick for too long or were too deep so resulted the family joke. I would have a new interest for a couple of weeks and then I would move on. Everything interested me, but I had trouble committing and focusing.
That was quite different than my parents or my brother or sister. My father knew he wanted to be a doctor at an early age and never veered from that rigorous path. My mother was told by her father she had to have a focus before she could attend college. Inspired by Chicago's own Jane Adams, she decided she wanted to be a social worker and that's what she was. My brother knew he wanted to be a business man early in life and used to buy candy, bring it home and sell it to me and my sister for a profit when he was nine. He did not veer off that path either and has traveled the world making deals. My sister loved reading and writing and today she is a magazine editor.
I have always felt somewhat envious of people who had a clear early vision of what they wanted to do in their life. Clarity creates energy. The clearer you are with your purpose, Elmore even argues, the more energy you will have. In my 50th year of life, I love being a coach and an educator. But it took me a while to figure that out. Although I have few regrets in life, I wish at times my early life was more like a river and less like a flood. But that may have been just my nature.
How do we help kids be more like rivers and less like floods. It probably varies from child to child. I am a big believer in broad educational and athletic programs partly because I want kids to be exposed to a lot to figure out what they want to focus on. But once you decide on what you want to focus on, I do not think you can focus deeply on too many things at one time.
The first time I was told I really needed to make some choices if I wanted to accomplish something was on a college visit I made back in 1980. One of the colleges I visited had an accomplished track and cross country coach who I met with and he told me college students are always trying to figure out how to balance academics, a significant outside activity like sports, and their social life. He told his runners from his experience they could only do two of those things well. And he expected them to be academics and running. But it was their choice. He joked with me that some of his runners did pick running and their social life. But they did not last long at the college.
High School is different than College. I have always thought you can do more than two things well in high school. But it is hard to do more than three things well. I often worry about the kids who are doing multiple sports in the same season as well as other activities as much as the kids who seem to be unwilling or unable to fully engage in all the programs and activities available to them.
The students I have seen navigate all the potential opportunities in our community the best seem to follow a process. A process that starts with broad exposure to figure out what most interests them. That then progresses to a time of more and more focus on a couple of sports or activities. That seems to lead to a life of focus, clarity and energy.
If you are interested in reading more about Elmore's idea of lives of rivers and floods, you might like the link below.
Rivers, Floods and Disney
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