Challenging Educational Legacies: A Journey in Fostering Growth and Change

What does it mean to respect educational legacies? How do we embrace change while honoring the past? Join me as I share my encounters with a young, passionate educator who was part of an educational legacy. I share a slice of my experience as a parent and an educator, shedding light on the complexities of this unique profession. From grappling with passive-aggressive behavior to fostering a community that lets its members grow freely, I'll walk you through my journey of navigating a new school community.

But it doesn't stop there. As a father, I raise hard questions about the quality of education our children receive today. Is the classroom environment truly conducive to their growth? With anecdotes, reflections, and observations, I aim to spark a change in the world of education. So, tune in and let's ignite a conversation about the future of education. Your perspective could be the spark that changes the world.

Chapters

• 0:00 Reflections on Education and Personal Growth
• 3:47 Prioritizing School Community Success
• 16:06 Concerns About Children's Education and Growth

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When they see me. They know that every day, when I'm breathing, it's for us to go farther. You know, every time I speak, I want the truth to come out. You know what I'm saying. Every time I speak, I want to shiver. You know I don't want them to be like. They know what I'm gonna say, because it's polite. They know what I'm gonna say and even if I get in trouble, you know what I'm saying. Ain't that what we're supposed to do? I'm not saying I'm gonna rule the world or I'm gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world. And that's our job. It's to spark somebody else watching us. We might not be the ones, but let's not be selfish. And because we're not gonna change the world, let's not talk about how we should change it. I don't know how to change it, but I know, if I keep talking about how dirty it is out here, somebody gonna clean it up. And now he's been promoted. His job is principle what's up? Z.

Speaker 2: 0:55

What's going on, guys? This is Chay and Choku man. Every time I'm on this mark, my voice gets immediately raspy. But it is the night before school starts, so I guess it's school Mass Eve, if you can call it that. And yeah, I jumped into bed. I got home really, really late and it was a very long day and jumped right into bed and I've been tossing and turning Right now it's about 10.33 pm and I figured, if I can't go to sleep, I'm actually just gonna go ahead and record a video.

Speaker 2: 1:39

But a lot of things happened today and in the world of being an educator and being a school leader and I'm like you know what I always have experiences that I believe could be learning points for other people who are working towards or starting careers in this field of being schools. But I'm gonna work backwards. Right before I went on, I got a text message from a teacher who I hired Wow, the better part of five years ago actually and a young man you know his mother is a veteran school leader who had retired and he was applying for his first job as an educator and I hired him. You know I love this energy. I have a tendency to love educational legacies. You know those who are like they were children of teachers and those who part of their story was they spent time in their parents' classroom and can tell stories about, like you know, how they would help and sit in the classrooms and, you know, be a parent teacher at conferences and he had all those stories and I've had a couple of hires who were in that space and I respect them because I respect educators and the challenge of doing the work and also being a parent. So I hired this young man and he spent, I believe, a year with me and it was great. But an opportunity came up and that opportunity was, I believe he got to coach baseball and teach at another school and my school's a middle school and he had played college ball. I think he might have played some semi-pro ball. I'm not sure about that or remember, but I'm back in his passion about baseball and when the time came he was kind of like I hate to do this and I was like, dude, go for it.

Speaker 2: 3:47

There's this weird thing that educators do, school leaders do, where we become super selfish and we don't want anyone leaving because of it might hurt us as far as staffing or we believe that people who work for us must be loyal to us and the only time they can leave is when we've given them the blessing to leave. And I'm not one of those people, you know, because I believe that if you want people to really grow and feel comfortable developing, they also have to know that at any given time, if an opportunity arises that they won't be stopped from pursuing those opportunities. And if it hurts that particular school community because someone is leaving, then so be it. Because it's my responsibility as a school leader to ensure that I'm creating a pipeline of excellence. I'm always ready to find the next person to come to the profession, but also those who are with me. I'm helping them reach their ultimate you know level of excellence as they grow.

Speaker 2: 4:54

As an educator I was doing the math the other day, you know. So for my career I've been at seven schools over the course of 19 years and I know that sounds like a lot people might say damn, you're not stable. But it's not that at all, because each time an opportunity arose where I was called to another community to be a support of your service, and I never left the school in the large, I never left the school where I went because I departed, things went bad. That never happened, because I also had great leaders who said you have my blessing. Oh, I'm over here sweating. It's hot in my office. I don't have AC in here, so I'm running with a fan that sits under my desk, but that's besides the point. So I always had leaders who are willing to support my decision to do whatever I want to do next, and that's been very helpful, because I've grown, I've experienced a lot of things in schools, which has allowed me to be a better leader and knowing that to also to develop my instincts. There are things and situations I'm in that I can read the room, I can tell what something is off and I am able to act accordingly.

Speaker 2: 6:11

Sometimes it might seem that what I'm doing is completely like random, but not because I've been there. I've heard the stories, I've worked with the great leaders who said hey, when this happens, this is what you're not noticing, and that's been a blessing. So this young man I'm kind of moving off base. This young man reached out and the test message was, like you know, in the eve of the new school year, thank you for all you did for me and I'm really like why are you doing. I didn't do much of anything. I didn't give you a chance to work in my school with any of what you did incredible job and also give you my blessings. When it was time for you to go, I didn't stop you because I really believe that you needed to do what you need to do for you to be the best version of yourself. So, if anything, I am grateful to him because he's just someone else that I have learned from by watching the way he moved as a teacher in my school, even if it was only for one year. I was not only that, he was a rookie teacher. He did an incredible job. You know, he served. He served deeply, even if it was only for one season. He did an incredible job. So I've always wished him the best of everything in life and from time to time he reaches out and I really do appreciate that.

Speaker 2: 7:32

Now, working backwards, today, I had an interesting day and I had a day in which I faced something that often school leaders do face, especially new school leaders. When you walk into a new community, oh, sweating. When you walk into a new school community and you're making shifts, especially when you're your turnaround principal, you're the kind of person who's saying okay, listen, I've seen what needs to happen here and have to make some critical moves, and the moves make people very uncomfortable because what they're used to you're playing with, you're moving your cheese and um, I've seen this in several schools, where certain people become passive-aggressive. Some of them become actively aggressive. Some people just become passive because they're refusing to move with the tide of things and, no matter how good that those changes may be for them, you're creating something that is super uncomfortable In most cases.

Speaker 2: 8:41

The worst of those scenarios is when you make certain people feel irrelevant or they start to believe that their position in any organization is being threatened and that position might be something that's completely perceived in their heads, but it's being threatened and what they do now is they try to find ways to subvert, to be a stumbling block to what's happening. Sometimes that act of being a stumbling block might not be just overt sabotage. Sometimes they might not even know it. It's just that they're near feelings, so they start to do things to try to validate their feelings. And I had that happen over the past 24 hours where something was brought to me that was complete nonsense and, if anything, I saw it for what it was. It was a complete distraction and maybe and I'll be honest with you, in the midst of me being hyper-focused on what needs to happen, I shut it down, immediately Shut it down. I was like we're not doing that, I'm not going to spend time addressing something that's complete nonsense because, again, as a school leader a staff of over 40 people, 200 students coming in, as many parents in families that I'm responsible for I'm not going to sit there and engage in a conversation that I know for a fact is complete nonsense and I shut down the conversation. Then other talks were brought up that I also thought okay, this is another way to try to shift the negativity to another subject. I shut that down also and this person was in their feelings and today they wanted to continue in that space and again, like what they unlearned over the course of my life and my careers, there are times when you need to sit down and say, okay, let me sit down here and engage in this situation, no matter how I feel the necessity of that conversation is. But the other time is when you just have to shut it down completely and accept whatever comes with that. Because, again, I'm not.

Speaker 2: 11:05

I really believe that the work of turning a school around, the work of really supporting a school community, the work of just leading in the community, requires sometimes that you are hyper focused on what needs to be done. And for me, I do not negate the team, I do not negate those who are part of doing the work. I will provide you with every tool that you need, I will give you all the support, I will listen, I will engage, I will march with you, I will be there with you in the classroom, I'll be wherever you need me to be. But, however, I also have to understand that if I turn my attention to things that I know from experience or distractions. Then guess what I'm not doing? I'm not with the teachers who need my support. I'm not with the teachers who need my encouragement. I'm not making sure that the team feels appreciated the team and teachers, not one person who wants to suck up all the in the room for the purpose of just feeding into their feelings of whatever that thing may be. And yes, what I'm saying right now might I don't know might put me in a position where I have to respond to these words.

Speaker 2: 12:33

But again, one thing that I know for a fact is that, being an old dog in this game, I know what needs to be done. I know when the energy is shifting in the room for the purpose of, not the betterment of the school community, but for the betterment of people's personal needs. You know to be relevant to have all your attention in the room. And I'll tell you this, my attention is about number one, the priority the children who have been brought to our school and whose parents are trusting that we're going to do everything that we can to support them so they are given the best possible, highest level education to prepare them for high school, college and beyond, or whatever happens next for them. The parent doesn't care about people's personal feelings. All they know is that my child needs to do well. As a parent, I feel the same way. I don't care about your personal feelings. I'm not in a narcissistic kind of way, but when those personal feelings are interfering with your primary responsibility and what you're being paid for and what you've committed yourself to doing, it's a problem, Because those minutes and those days that the kids are losing out on the best possible product that you can provide for them, those days are often impossible to retrieve. That's really impossible, because one thing you cannot recycle and another thing you cannot bring back into existence is time. So for me, I covered my time. I respect the time of others and I want to make sure that everything that I'm doing is for the purpose of ensuring that my school community is locked in on the mission and the vision to ensure that we are accomplishing generational success.

Speaker 2: 14:43

Pretty simple, and I saw this for leaders and aspiring leaders who find themselves in these positions and find themselves in these long, protracted wars, you know, with people in their staff or whatever the case is. I say to you don't not engage, shut it down. Okay, shut up, but also you have to be able to, to make sure you know what's happening and that you're reading the situation correctly. But those things that you know is going to suck up the air in the room and now force you to now pay attention to things that are not necessary. You've got to shut it down immediately.

Speaker 2: 15:21

Too many principals get locked into the situation scenarios of school leaders or system principals, teacher leaders and make sure you know they're forgotten, they're probably not responsible, and that's one thing I refuse to do. You know I'm a veteran at this in this space. And again, if I'm not prioritizing the needs of my students, the needs of my teachers so they can support my students, the needs of my parents so they can be able to support their children, so that we could all be successful at the mission which is to make sure that children are successful, then I don't have time for it, and neither should you. This is one of those things that certain people don't feel very strongly about, as far as you know. No, you know, see, he's a tyrant and all that.

Speaker 2: 16:06

Okay, so it's what you believe, that's fine, but I tell you this as the father of Nua and Musa I'm expecting that the worst that I'm saying right now is exactly what's happening in their school Because, again, my children are not going to get the time back if it's wasted, focused on things that has nothing to do with their development and their growth. So, yeah, I just wanted to share that, and maybe now I can go to sleep. You know, because I'm pondering on these things Now I'm spreading my office Summertime. I can't wait for the cool nights of fall to get here. All right, thank you so much for your time and I hope this is inspiring and motivating, and also educational to someone who's listening to this. With that being said, have an amazing evening. Good night, I'll talk to you all soon, all right, peace.