Enlightened management is one way of taking religion seriously, profoundly, deeply, and earnestly. Of course, for those who define religion just as going to a particular building on Sunday and hearing a particular kind of formula repeated, this is all irrelevant. But for those who define religion not necessarily in terms of the supernatural, or ceremonies, or rituals, but in terms of deep concern with the problems of human beings, with the problems of ethics, of the future of man, then this kind of philosophy, translated into the work life, turns out to be very much like the new style of management and of organization.
– Abraham Maslow, Maslow on Management, 1998; via Dave Smith’s MulliganStewBlog.com.
Image: Maslow leading class at Brandeis University; Brandeis University photo
Maslow’s theory of self-actualization is a favorite topic of teacher training programs, but unfortunately, a topic almost never addressed in educational administration nor by school boards doing their work. Too often in American education, religious freedom is regarded as freedom to pass judgment on the morals of others, rather than the freedom to educate children well. It is ironic that people who otherwise pay attention to Maslow do so little to manifest his theories in actual practice.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 