17/5/13 – Harvard Day 3

This morning we looked at the leadership of change. We were treated to a presentation by a ‘panel of experts’, Anthony Bent (Superintendent Shrewsbury, Mass., and president of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents), Ken Kay (CEO of EdLeader21) and Temba Mequbela (new Head of Groton School Mass.).

It was a productive session with a frank exchange of ideas – be warned these three guys don’t mince their words when answering questions about what it means to be an effective leader of change. At the end of my time at Harvard, I got a cool certificate and Peter got a Harvard Rugby cap and t-shirt! My mind is still processing the information, which bits are useful to Wesley and to me, and how this global education program can be useful to the young men we teach. 

I got back to our hostel at 3.30 and, after collecting our stuff from the hostel, we took a walk through town to pick up the Limoliner bus from outside at the Hilton Hotel in Dalton Street. Boston is a nice town that recently had something horrible happen to it. The people here were genuinely hurt that someone would detonate a bomb at one of their sporting events, particularly an event where the world was invited.

They are passionate about the Marathon and their baseball team (Red Sox) immensely proud of Fenway Park (the ancient and characterful ball park where the team plays (it is, reputedly, ‘America’s favourite ball park) and very proud of their ice hockey team (The Bruins). They dress rather conservatively, make great coffee, have interesting little restaurants and speak with a somewhat gentrified accent. All in all, our visit here has been an interesting, informative and most enjoyable.

Even though we had enjoyed our time here both Peter and I were keen to be heading back to NYC. But as things turned out, getting back to the City was to prove to be no easy task. As we were waiting to board the bus we learned that two trains had collided on the track somewhere between Boston and NYC and that the line had been closed for an indefinite period while the wreck was cleared an investigation was carried out. We felt very lucky to have taken the bus rather than the train, but the subsequent traffic snarl caused by all those commuters who had had to take to the roads when the train line shut down saw crawl into town two hours behind schedule at 11.30pm.