ABSTRACT
At first glance, the notions of reading organizations and using those readings to create school change and a pedagogy of promise may seem to have a great deal in common with the tale of the neighbor, the young boy, and the ax. In short, the Taoist tale goes something like this:
Once a man found that his ax was missing and suspected his neighbor’s son of taking it. Observing the youth walking around, the man became convinced that his was the walk of a thief. The youth looked like a thief and talked like a thief; everything he did pointed to his having stolen the ax. A few days later, the man happened to find his ax leaning up against a tree in a far orchard on his property. After that, he noticed that his neighbor’s son was not behaving like a thief anymore.
