THIS IS WIL KO

“Good leaders absorb pain; they don’t inflict it.”

Of all the things I learned from my time at Columbia’s University’s Principal program and The NYC Leadership Academy, this is the leadership tenet and education philosophy I hang onto most tightly. Pain is incredibly effective at making things move, but it rarely directs the moving to the desired direction. Remembering that my principal kicked me out of high school for disrespect and non-compliance, during May of my senior year, no less, I knew intrinsically that there were no reward that could ever justify the risk of harm caused by callous, punitive, and hurtful policies and actions in schools.

And so as a school leader, it only seemed natural to question archaic policies borne out of a fearful worldview, and I operated by prioritizing the need to understand how to inspire and not coerce positive outcomes. Earning double digit growth on the state test just one year after joining a school as its new leader was the outcome. Twice.

But I was never suppose to be in education. I went to art school and was always starting businesses and doing new things. But what was intended to be a two-year sabbatical working with student-inmates at Rikers Island jails changed everything. All under 18 and under unimaginably duress away from home, they nevertheless came to school each morning with the kind of fight in their eyes that made your fists clenched, too. No matter the mistake they may have made, it was easy to tell that they have all been failed by their families, schools, and community. They have endured discrimination and oppression silently co-signed by society, and all of us. It’s not fair.

They taught me that although having to endure injustice and inequities may not be a choice, having the hope and courage to fight against it, is. Children, especially the ones who are toughest to teach, need more allies. So I stayed.

“AIRPLANES: Rikers Edition”