The Hedgehog and the Fox

In a recent Thomas B. Fordham Institute article, Chester E. Finn, Jr. asks, “Do we view the world through the lens of one defining idea, or do we draw upon many experiences and conclude that the world that matters to us [...] is indeed complex and changing and calls for more than a silver bullet?”

According to Finn, the idea of the Hedgehog and the Fox comes from the Greek Poet Archilochus who wrote that, “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Finn has been a standard bearer for education reform for over six decades and speaks to his own transformation from a ‘hedgehog’ to a ‘fox’. Public education is a seemingly intractable behemoth - full of complicated and sometimes intractable problems. The author concedes that there is no silver bullet.

How about you? Hedgehog or Fox? Interestingly when I began what would be three decades in education and two decades as the founding superintendent and leader of a burgeoning charter management organization - I was often pressured on what was ‘the one’ answer, configuration, philosophy, school structure, etc. Having been a teacher for over a decade as well as the mother of four very different children and guardian to my nephew - one thing I knew for sure was that there was no ‘one’ answer or way. At a time when many of my peers in both traditional and charter leadership were dedicated to and applying their one ‘hedgehog’ answer, I was committed to creating an organization that provided many solutions, many paths, differentiation with collective autonomy. It was one of the most messy, complicated, shifting, and rewarding of journeys.

Maybe the truth is, there is a space and a time and a ‘lane’ to be like a hedgehog. Choose the immutable ‘one thing’... for me that was and will always be the students we serve. This world of necessity with all its shifting and changing and transforming also really needs leaders who can ‘draw upon many experiences …. for more than a silver bullet’.