The third edition of the Cognitive CoachingSM text is scheduled for publication in July. For the next three weeks, Sustaining the Journey will offer a sneak peak into Cognitive Coaching: Developing Self-Directed Leaders and Learners. In a concluding chapter of the book, Costa and Garmston provide a vision for the future where the principles of Cognitive CoachingSM live as norms of the cultural life of the school.

What is our higher purpose? It is that schools are communities in which self-directedness is the dominant value, that learning, not teaching is the central aim, that developing the cognitive capacity of each inhabitant is a realized vision, that leadership is distributed throughout the system, that the States of Mind inform the life, direction and values of the school, and that teachers find schools as communities of support, inspiration, individual and collective inquiry.*

How do these words inspire you? How close do your schools align with this purpose? How might you lead for this higher purpose? As you look toward a new school year, these words may be helpful in finding your way.

* Excerpted with permission from Chapter 15, “Agile Organizations.