Culture by Design

Book excerpt: An eye-opening 2022 Gallup poll shows that a majority (55%) of American parents are “somewhat to completely dissatisfied” with the schools their children attend. Meanwhile, a 2022 CDC survey of 7,705 high school students found that 44% of them described persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness with 9% admitting to having made an attempt at suicide. After 45 years of teaching kids and leading schools, Malcolm Gauld offers a blunt explanation of how we got here: “We care more about what they can do than about who they are, and they know it.” The solution lies in a reordering of priorities where our schools come to value attitude over aptitude, effort over ability, and character over talent. This book offers a blueprint for how to do that. The first step in enacting this shift calls upon school leaders to look deeply and honestly at the quality of the cultures in their schools. The author pointedly observes, “Every school has a culture. Is yours by design or default?” After a thorough exploration of the nature of culture, the author introduces and describes a dynamic school culture improvement program called the Discovery Process, explaining how it has been implemented in both public and private schools. The program, aligned with national social and emotional learning (SEL) standards, is presented as a concrete approach to Culture by Design.