Capacity to Support

Growing up as an electricians daughter one tends to pick up on certain things, like how to switch out sockets or add a grounding plug to an old lamp.  The serious stuff I leave to my dad.  So I automatically thought of the power capacity needed for an engine or building to support the amount of electricity used.  According to my dad, the electrician, a 5 horse powered motor would need 6 or more horse power to keep it running. He said the loads need to have equal or greater amount of power to the function of capacity of the power source. Got it? Then he explained it this way; if a building needs 200kw to work, turn on lights, run the appliances, then the source of power (the power company like PG&E or SCE) needs to be greater then the 200kw.  If the demands exceeds the capacity then the results of brown outs or black outs occur. The power need to have the capacity to supply the power.  I, being a teacher, thought how this is a wonderful way to explain the capacity of leadership within schools.  If the need for support and leadership is there but there isn't the capacity to support it failure begins. But if the capacity does support the change and the leadership is present then the school can function properly and growth can be obtained.  This is why schools have different teams and groups to distribute the support. Just like an engineer at a power company watches the grids to make sure that the power is being distributed through out the area, principals can use their engineers, or teacher leaders, to have them on the look out for potential failures.  The engineers then re-route the power to the areas needed and all is well for the night. Capacity building within schools can benefit schools greatly when used with this in mind. These groups and teams can see different "grids" and know when to speak up and help others see the need for the change or support.  Then after a while they too can sigh and say all is well for the night.