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Well, thank you all. That was terrific. I really appreciate it. It's always such an honor to recognize so many people for so many different things. Every year I get up here and I try to give you a little pep talk about what's going to happen this year and why it's so great to be part of Hartford. And it is great to be part of Hartford. I usually tell you a little story about some of the teachers I've had in the past.

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I tell you about Ms. Crawford, right?

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I love Ms. Crawford, just passed away last year.

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One of the things that's nice is my sister is actually a teacher in the district that I grew up in.

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So I get to keep up with all the news of my former teachers and who did what and who's retiring and what not.

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But Ms. Crawford was first year teacher the year I had her.

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And she noticed that I was having a little difficulty reading.

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So she would come to my house on Saturday mornings and work with me on my phonics.

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As you can tell, I still, not perfect, but I think that's more Rhode Island than my actual phonics, but

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my family might think differently.

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I talk about Miss Walsh, seventh and eighth grade math teacher.

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And Ms. Walsh was a big part of the reason why I'm here today because in a time that I didn't think I had any leadership skills at all,

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Ms. Walsh encouraged me to run for student council.

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And she encouraged me because she thought she saw some leadership skills in me.

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And she wanted me to run for student council because she thought the current students who were running were just in a popularity contest.

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and she thought I might actually get something done.

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And it seemed like such a small thing at the time,

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but I look back on that and I reflect

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about how powerful that was to me and my future life,

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that little bit of encouragement.

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I think of Mr. O'Connell, 10th grade teacher.

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And Mr. O'Connell was constantly preaching

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about how to be the best person possible

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and the most beautiful person possible

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and you've got to love his spirit

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and every once in a while he just scream out and clap.

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Ooh, love that, oh she's spirit.

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And it was like, what is this guy talking about?

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But he was literally working.

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He was literally like high on life.

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I think that sort of fist pump sort of blew up the mic.

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But, you know, his energy and his love for life

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was just powerful, very powerful.

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But, you know, the other day I did this similar sort of talk

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for the new teachers.

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teachers. And one of our veteran teachers came up after me and she said, you know, Tom,

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not all of us got into teaching because we had great role models. Not all of us got

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into teaching because we had really strong teachers. Some of us got into teaching because

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we didn't have great teachers. We weren't encouraged. You didn't have the experience

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that you had. You know, and I understand that. And you know, we really hit me in the head

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like a sledgehammer, that kind of privilege. I lived in a good neighborhood and I had really

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good teachers. I'm sure even in my good neighborhood with really good teachers, there was some

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that didn't have that experience, but I did. And this teacher, it was so powerful for her to say

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that to me because I said I really got to recognize the people who haven't been encouraged. They didn't

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have Mrs. Walsh pull them in the hallway and encourage them.

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They didn't have Ms. Crawford who said, oh my goodness,

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this kid isn't learning the way he should be.

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I got to help, I got to do something, because every kid is important.

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And that's really what my message is today and

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our message is for the whole year and why Louvel Brown is here is to talk about every single kid.

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Every kid is important and every kid needs that teacher is going to go out of their way.

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and encourage them, and support them, and help them to be the best person possible like Mr. O'Connell used to do for me.

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Everybody's going to be the best person possible. And I know you all do that. I know you work so hard and you do a great job every single day.

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Believe me, I know that. I understand that. I see you here working so hard. But I just want to make sure people remember to encourage every single kid, to love every single kid,

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and to help them to be the best they possibly can.

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And I think what struck me in,

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and what's given me the courage and the energy

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to go on this mission this year,

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is that even though we do such a great job in Hartford,

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we still have kids who aren't doing that well.

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We have kids who have dropped out,

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because they didn't feel encouraged.

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They didn't feel part of us, part of heart for part of everything we did this morning.

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And that hurts, that hurts deep.

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And I don't want to be standing in this position or sitting in my chair realizing that some kids are failing.

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And some kids aren't doing well, and I take that to heart, and I want to do everything we can to help every single kid be successful and be supported and

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I can feel like they can do whatever they want to do in this world.

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So that's why Louvel, part of why Louvel's here, part of why there's a really powerful message today.

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And I'm just so excited to get this year started and start working on that mission.

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So I'm going to do a little bio on Louvel and

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get him up here.

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I'm probably sick of hearing from me now, but thank you.

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So Louvel Brown, Dr. Louvel Brown is an experienced educator who has held many

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positions in schools. He's a teacher, assistant principal, principal, school chief information

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officer, superintendent of schools. Currently, Dr. Brown is the superintendent of Ithaca

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City school district, a little bigger than Hartford probably.

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During his tenure in Ithaca,

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Ithaca City school district has experienced unprecedented levels of success. Dr. Brown has facilitated

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conversations in multiple communities that have resulted in transformational shifts in culture and achievement.

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Using systems thinking in schools, Dr. Brown's leadership has led to innovative programs,

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redesigned learning spaces and numerous technology initiatives.

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Dr. Brown has received various awards and recognitions.

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He was named the 2017 New York State Superintendent of the Year.

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He has been listed by trusted Ed as one of the nation's top educators and thought leaders.

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Dr. Brown has been recognized by the National School Board's Association as a 20 to watch in Difference Maker.

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He received the Center for Digital Education Top 30 Award and also received the 2014 E-School News Tech Savvy Superintendents of the Year Award.

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He was elected by the U.S. Department of Education as one of the nation's top 100 innovative

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superintendents.

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Along with that distinction, Dr. Brown was invited to be a speaker at President Barack

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Obama's first national superintendents summit at the White House.

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Additionally, Dr. Brown has served on the New York State Council of School Superintendents

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Executive Committee, the School Superintendent Association's Digital Consortium, the Center for Digital Education Advisory Council, and the Consortium of Empowered Superintendent's Advisory Panel.

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Known for his building experience and leading culturally responsive learning environments, Dr. Brown believes that equity is an achievable goal in all schools.

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As part of this program, Dr. Brown will encourage us to engage the team with questions and

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deep, immersive professional learning designed to change your culture or our culture

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through a combination of process, reflection, and action.

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So thank you, and without further ado, Dr. Louvel Brown.

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All right, let's see if this thing works.

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When I say, let's get, you say, started.

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Let's get let's get let's get it works it works. Thank you coach. Thank you Tom

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Thank you all for being here. Thank you

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You see I'm in a lot of spaces and whenever I'm about to get to that particular area

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I'm afraid and a little bit nervous about whether or not anyone's gonna show up

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So thank you all for being here

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Thank you for not leaving doing that long bio, thank you for not sneaking out after the

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service awards, thank you for not sending your principal a message saying you have an

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appointment you must get to.

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Thank you.

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If y'all take nothing from me over the next hour, take this one instructional strategy right

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here.

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Begin every session, every lesson, every opportunity with learners, begin it with a thank you for being here.

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Why?

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Is it, and see, having our young people showed us over the last couple of years, they can be anywhere else other than the place they're supposed to be?

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So could you.

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So when they show up, when you show up, I'm going to say thank you.

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Why am I telling you this to, see I am, you're going to learn a lot about me today.

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The young people I serve in Ithaca have said very clearly, and they've said it often.

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We cannot learn from you unless we know you.

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If we don't know you, we can't learn with you.

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So why do you only give us your last names?

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See, I am a twin.

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I know after hearing that bio, many of y'all probably would think, and I thought he was taller.

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But yeah.

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I, I, look, I, no, I, the superintendent, I'm in my 14th year too, and I have lost

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a lot of hair and a few inches.

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But I am a twin, and I have a twin brother.

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My twin brother's name is Rovel, that's me and Rovel right there.

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And he has always been taller and better looking and even today he has all of his hair.

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I'm in a y'all gonna catch me a raw form and beta form so I apologize you didn't know you were getting this time

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So I have not practiced this presentation before y'all are getting it brand new. So I hope some of the jokes work

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Say I'm telling you this story because a rovel and I I'm in this reflective mode today because

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Rovel and I his name is Rovel and I'm Lou Vales my mom. I had a good time

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Rovel and I are writing a book together and

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And please, don't try to write a book with your sibling,

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everybody in the room, hear me?

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But we're writing a book this summer about our experiences

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in schools and our experiences in a small little central

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Virginia town, anybody heard of Charlottesville, Virginia?

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Charlottesville, Virginia, central Virginia.

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I'm from just outside of Charlottesville,

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a place called Fluvanna County.

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Anybody heard of Fluvanna County?

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If you heard of Fluvanna County,

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you're probably one of my cousins anyway.

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Now, it's small.

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very rural, just outside of one of the best college towns in America. I hope I'm

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painting a picture for y'all. Now in Virginia, Central Virginia, every county has

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that one dirt road, all right? They still have those one dirt roads in every

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county down here, and typically every county that have that dirt road, that's what

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typically all of the families of color live. So my twin brother and I,

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I wrote Val and I, and that's on the dirt road right there, actually.

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We grew up there, and I'll get to the date in a while, but at the time we were born, there

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were 10 African-American male boys born between September the 6th and October the 13th.

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Now, I'm precise with my language because we're writing about it, all right?

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Between September the 6th and October the 13th, 10 black boys were born on the dirt road

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in Central Virginia.

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All right, math teachers, you've already done the math.

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It was a good New Year's Eve party, y'all feel me?

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It was a very collective and close knit community, y'all feel.

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Yeah, people, we stood up to this day, there was a lot of love on that road.

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Ten of us were born, all right, let's fast forward graduating high school and I'll get to the

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date we graduated in because that's the day I'm really fixated on.

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When graduating high school in that small community where there were a few people of color in Central Virginia, a guy showed up to graduation and he announced a special award.

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The award that he announced that day was, you know, I, he said, I travel around the country and every year we find one or two students who have earned perfect attendance, not just as seniors but perfect attendance,

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pre-K through end of course high school and at the graduation we were

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looking around like who are they talking about today we have two at the same

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high school Rovel and Louvel Brown you know we were so embarrassed feel like you

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know you can't say that that's not cool yeah my twin brother and I Rovel and

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Louvel we are in perfect attendance we never missed a day of school now for the

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post-pandemic, let me be clear.

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This was well before COVID protocols, y'all feel me?

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We were at the school.

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Many days, it'll runny nose, it's costs.

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But we went.

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Why?

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Because my mama said y'all ain't standing at home.

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We were poor, we were growing up in severe poverty.

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Most of the houses on our road didn't have,

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like they didn't have indoor plumbing.

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A few of them rarely had electricity.

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And, you know, food was scarce.

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So she said,

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Y'all are going to eat there. Shout out to the food service directors in the room who took care of us. Yeah, we got more than three meals a day. She said, y'all got to eat. So you going to school today. And she also said, you know, she knew it. Young people on our dirt road were dying. My twin brother and I to this day, and he's still here. He's, he's one of the largest business owners in central Virginia. He owns a security company. And he, he, he employees about 200 black men in one

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in. I'll get to him later. But he and I of that cohort of 10, now let me be clear,

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they call me the run of the group. My nickname was turkey.

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I have attacked you. The only

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time you have ever gotten, it says turkey. I'm sorry to tell you all that. They call

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me the run of the group. I was literally the shortest. The least athletic. They were all

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the best out of these lessons I've ever known. Finkers. They were all reading, going at the

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kindergarten. I had the significant speech delays. I was nonverbal for most of my early

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years. Shout out to the occupational therapists in the room. It took 20,000 hours for me to

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be able to speak. And another 10,000 to be able to talk to y'all in a way where y'all can

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understand me. And let me be clear, as I get excited or get tired because I've been up since

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1 a.m., you're going to hear it come out again. So hang with me y'all. That's why I check

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have to make sure y'all can hear me on a microphone in a gym.

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You see, I was the one who had all the delays.

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I'm telling you all that story.

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Now, there's Rovell.

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He's doing well.

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I'm still here.

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But the other most brilliant people

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have ever known are all dead.

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And even today, Rovell and I are the only two who

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have survived that dirt road.

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You can do a Google search.

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Look up Fluvanna County, one of the younger kids

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who grew up with us, just got murdered in front of his mama

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a house last week.

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So, as I talked today about this conversation and these stories and

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this data and this research, please know what's beyond tech scores and graduation rates or

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who's participating in athletics or co-curriculars. This is about life and death now. Why am I telling

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you all this story and why did I start with a thank you? Because we went every single

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day to school and no one ever said thanks for being here. How could that be? You

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want every single day and no one said thank you.

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So I have vowed as a

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professional educator and I've been in every state in 22 different countries

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over the last three years having this conversation and I've started every

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session like this. Sometimes with an interpreter thank you for being here. Do

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One of y'all start, when the young people come back, try that, see what happens.

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And okay, here's another strategy, take this one if you wish.

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Here's another one to do, after saying thank you for being here.

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See no one did there for us.

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And no one ever did what I'm about to do with y'all right now.

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Why did you show up?

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Why didn't you leave after the service awards?

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Please note, my convocation is on Thursday and people typically leave after the service awards.

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That's why I tend to, you know, I walk to the back of the room to make sure they can't walk by me.

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But anyway,

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why are you staying?

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What do you want to hear?

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What do you want to do?

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What's on your heart or your mind?

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No, if that thing that's on your heart or your mind right now is I hope he's briefed because I've got to go set my room up.

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I got you.

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Or he better be good because he seeks a heart.

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I'm sitting in the bleachers.

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Whatever you're thinking right now, or and or what you want to hear, I want to know.

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But first, because we have a lot of people in here, turn and talk to someone.

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Now here's an opportunity for you to meet the stand up, stand up.

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If you can sneak out, now's a good time, but I hope not.

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But I'm going to give you just about 30 seconds to tell someone, what do you want to do for

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the next 40 minutes?

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Go.

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As

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a teacher, I called every one of my parents within the first two weeks of school to introduce myself.

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Oh, I love that.

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Okay?

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And so when I took over my first school, I said,

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we are calling.

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We are calling.

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It changes the dynamic immediately, doesn't it?

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Relationship ability.

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About 25 seconds, about 25-30 seconds.

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Yeah, it does change.

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about 10 seconds about 10 seconds all

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right when I say bring it you say back bring it bring it

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thank y'all we're gonna have y'all know calling responses like this we're gonna have a good time

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for the folks who care I'm working in living in the most academic town in America all right I can't

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do anything without backing it up with a significant amount of academic literature and research

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and data, all right?

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So everything that we do, everything, including the call and responses for the folks who

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care about this, 99% of the referrals in this country have been written because of the lack

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of structures and protocols I'll share with you to study.

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You can share with everybody.

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Now that 1% of referrals that are written in the country are for drug use, significant drug

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usage and dealing and fight. But let's be clear, 99% of the referrals that now

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come to you are for other behaviors. They're about to do it me so far. And we

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write those not because of the young people, but because of a lack of

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protocols and structures that we can control. One of which is what protocol do you

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have in place to transition? I'm a former kindergarten teacher now, so I know

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this one. If you have no protocols in place to transition, something's going

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We want to go down,

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we just transition 500 people, 600 people, in seven seconds.

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Y'all see how we did that?

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And I can sense that I got you back, all because of the protocol call and response, which is

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connected to the brain research, and the call and response triggers the brain to pay attention.

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About it still with me so far, and that was more of a transition to get us back.

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Now, we're going to practice another thing, a behavior that's really validated and affirmed

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in our academic settings.

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As you can tell right now, we've had people get up

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and move a little bit for the kinesthetic learners.

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I'm a kinesthetic learner.

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I, you know, you're not gonna see me stand still all day,

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y'all feel me?

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But I was told to sit down and be quiet in a classroom.

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And really without allowed to get up and walk around

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and talk, my kids can't sit at it.

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My only children don't sit at it at dinner table.

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They walk and eat in the classroom.

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They're up all the time because their kinesthetic learners

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like daddy.

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There are also some stationary learners, and some of y'all are upset that I asked you

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to move just now.

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We all feel, and later this afternoon, I'm going to get you to move a whole lot more,

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and that's going to be uncomfortable.

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That's how it's up in school every day.

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So this behavior now, I'm going to ask you to do is call it a spontaneous response.

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I'm going to ask some folks to tell me what you want to hear and what you want to do or

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what's on your heart and your mind.

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However, I don't answer to raising hands, see my household you don't get into the conversation

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unless you interrupt,

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it's called verbal overlap, which is consistent with my cultural background

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in behaviors and others, whereas in school I was always told to take turns to talk.

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So that spontaneous response, much like my Baptist church that I go to on Sundays or the movie

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I'm spontaneously responding, so I'm going to ask y'all now, just spontaneously respond to me what you're thinking.

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Everybody got that? Go.

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It happens every time, Tom, because we have all assimilated into this dominant culture.

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There is so much, so we're uncomfortable even spontaneously responding without raising our hands.

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Even though most of you do that at home, or if you like me, I'd be like, I can't move with the data.

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come on let's do it again what do you want to hear go music I got you this afternoon

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said again ideas oh I'm gonna get you thank you for sharing somebody else data

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laughter appreciate you someone else inspiration I got you

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anybody else ever said

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again? Encouragement. Yes,

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stories. I got you. Thanks for sharing. Positive thinking, no doubt.

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Thanks for sharing.

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All right, let me pause. Everybody was talking. I love how nobody's talking

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now, but only a few people are talking now. But I loved it. And, you know,

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what are we doing right now?

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We're doing validation and affirmation. We could go on for another 20 minutes or so, but I'm just

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That's validating the firm first.

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Thank you for being here.

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I see you.

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Hey, what do you want to talk about?

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What do you want to learn?

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What's on your hearts and your minds?

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What will make you feel safe?

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That's called validation and affirmation

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and it's grounded in a significant amount

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of academic literature around how

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to engage young people today.

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You see, we are going to get to the next part of this,

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what I call the building and the bridging, the B and the B. You say Tom, your team, Julia,

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yeah, we've talked several times. Tom has texted me this morning at 7 a.m. Please hear

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me. I know exactly what your superintendent wants me to cover during convocation. The academic

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standards, the requirements, right? I know what they are, but none of that matters if

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I have not validated it in a firm first. Or know why you showed up or what you want

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to learn. I learned a lot by watching y'all in Iraq with one another. I learned a lot

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by what you shall about and ask me to talk about. See, I as the professional educated and

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And now I'm going to take what I learned about you all and connect it to the academic content.

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That's the building and the bridging.

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For the educators in the room who love the acronyms like I do, we call it VAD-ing, V-A-B-B.

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About a guy that won, validation, affirmation, building and bridging.

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We should be doing that all day.

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I'm going to now connect what I learned about y'all to the academic content in a way where

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you won't have to give up who you are in order to be successful.

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Hold me accountable to varying my pedagogy to make sure some people can move, some people

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can stay still, some people will talk, some people can talk independently, some people can

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reflect along.

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Y'all see me?

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That's what I'm going to do right now as I engineer this learning experience so that you don't

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had to give up who you are in order to be successful here.

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See, I call it batting.

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A friend of mine, she rocky, highly calls it

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causally responsive teaching.

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Now, as some person who's been in every state in 20

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plus countries, I could tell you a lot of folks don't want me

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to call it causally responsive teaching anymore

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for some reason.

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So for those folks, I say, what we just did

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was called differentiated instruction.

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As a professional educator, my job

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is to differentiate and to meet people where they are.

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We're going to do this now, too, see.

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You got to know more about me.

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You got to know a little bit more about me.

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And I want to know more about you.

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And please treat me.

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This is connected to everything else we're going to do today.

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Who am I?

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See, there's this thing called surface culture.

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See, the surface culture, things like the holidays you celebrate,

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the clothes you like to wear, the music you listen to,

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the food you eat. For the folks who say they know about Virginia, Central Virginia,

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you know there's a certain type of music we call go-go music. Anybody heard of

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go-go music before? Yes. You know what I'm talking about. If go-go music was to come

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on right now there would be an emotional reaction for me because it's a mix

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between jazz and R&B and it has oh my god it sounds so good. But you know as

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As I've moved to Central New York, no one knows what that music is, but they do know

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country music in Central New York.

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And as I've grown up on Southern Comfort food, I love my sweet tea and fried chicken.

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I've been looking for sweet tea for 14 years and I have yet to find it.

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They keep bringing this brown water out there with sugar on the side.

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You can't put sugar in it after the fact.

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And then the chicken y'all send me Kentucky fried chicken is not fried chicken y'all.

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If someone were to bring me with surface culture, like with all of us, you can be uncomfortable

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but you can shift, all right.

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I am now listening, I've been to a couple of country music concerts.

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I love my country.

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Kenny Chessney is my guy.

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I love my tofu.

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I drink a lot of water now.

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See, we shift when it comes to surface culture.

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You can get uncomfortable but you can shift when you're challenged.

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But here is where I guess I'll live in more interesting.

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Educators.

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This is where we see the conflict starting to take place when it comes to young people, young people having to give up a part of who they are in order to navigate the dominant culture. See the shallow culture, see those nonverbal communication patterns, the ways in which we relate to time and space, that was a big one for us during the pandemic. An example, I'm from a culture where time is relative.

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I went to church every Sunday and you better not ask how long you're going

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want to be in there. Y'all feel me?

400
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We done when we'd done. The relationships we build

401
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are much more important than the preciseness of a clock. That was on Sunday and then on

402
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Monday we had bell schedules.

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See, some cultures embrace precise time, others very relative.

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The same with space, communication patterns, verbal overlap versus taking turns of talk,

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relationships to elders, think about who you are, and then this is this one right here.

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This is the one I'm seeing, the struggle in the United States of America right now.

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The young people we serve are begging to talk about their deep culture, their deep cultural

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beliefs, and their behaviors.

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Heck, our young people are asking for us to embed deep culture into the curriculum.

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However, instead, we write laws not to talk about it.

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See, what do I mean by deep culture, spirituality, relationship to animals, to nature, this thing

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called world view, I.E. politics, everywhere I go people say school shouldn't be political

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sense.

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Who?

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Because everyone who comes into a school has a belief when it comes to their world views

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of a politician and we can't talk about it? See, who are you? This is important right

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now, y'all. I'm going to ask you to explore something about yourself with someone next

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to you, just for a few minutes, but I'm also modeling this because I hope you're doing your

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classrooms on your buses, in a learning space, on an athletic field, Thursday. Now, spoiler

420
00:32:22,630 --> 00:32:27,030
When I do this with educators, I always ask educators,

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because we don't have much time.

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And because the young people have been clear about what they want us to do,

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I want y'all to talk about deep culture.

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Who you are when it comes to your deep culture of beliefs and behaviors in three minutes.

425
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Now, because Tom, y'all told me this was an amazing school district,

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so I'm expecting y'all to actually do it.

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Because most places I go, I say, I want y'all to talk about deep culture

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educators. When we come back and people report out, they only ever get past

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surface. Why is that? So yes, I'm pushing you right now. This is a test.

430
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I'm

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gonna give you three minutes to talk about who you are with somebody and hey

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for the folks who are kinesthetic learners. You can even walk across the gym and

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find somebody else, all right? Well, let me let me add something to it because

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Because surface culture includes how we interact with one another, be a space.

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I want you to find someone you have not spoken to today.

436
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And I want you to greet them with a, because we're post-pandemic, right?

437
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I hope it can do this.

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Greet them in a way that's closely responsive to your culture and behaviors.

439
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Like for example, if I see a coach across the room, we're not going to say a word.

440
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We haven't practiced this, have we coached.

441
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I'm going to walk over the coach.

442
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and I'm going to, y'all see, there was no planning for that,

443
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but we didn't, and we didn't

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talk. So the room should be silent. You're going to connect with someone else in the room

445
00:33:57,330 --> 00:34:01,850
without saying a word. And then when you get to that person, you're going to greet them

446
00:34:01,850 --> 00:34:07,370
in a way that's consistent with your cultural beliefs. Everybody cool with that so far? Don't

447
00:34:07,370 --> 00:34:10,810
get me in trouble with this, all right? Please don't get me in trouble. I watched that soccer.

448
00:34:10,810 --> 00:34:13,270
I watched what happened with the soccer team, all right?

449
00:34:13,930 --> 00:34:14,630
There's a big effort.

450
00:34:14,670 --> 00:34:15,570
Nobody knows their story.

451
00:34:15,750 --> 00:34:17,130
I probably went too far here.

452
00:34:17,230 --> 00:34:18,490
Please don't get us in trouble.

453
00:34:19,810 --> 00:34:22,110
If you're going to kiss somebody, ask for consent.

454
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:26,640
But I think everything else is going to be okay.

455
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:27,760
Hugging is all right here.

456
00:34:29,100 --> 00:34:29,660
All right, go.

457
00:34:29,800 --> 00:34:30,120
Three minutes.

458
00:34:30,300 --> 00:34:30,680
Three, go.

459
00:35:14,540 --> 00:35:15,680
Are you going to be here this afternoon as well?

460
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:16,040
Yeah.

461
00:35:17,380 --> 00:35:19,580
You're going to go around the season right now.

462
00:35:22,200 --> 00:35:24,620
But I know you guys bust down and you've got everybody.

463
00:35:24,620 --> 00:35:26,020
And that was

464
00:35:28,420 --> 00:35:31,680
the goal, working up to that point, never got it.

465
00:35:32,360 --> 00:35:35,780
We did some sets along the way.

466
00:35:41,720 --> 00:35:44,080
90 seconds, 90 seconds.

467
00:35:50,700 --> 00:35:56,480
And folks care, you know, they're trying to find their way.

468
00:35:56,480 --> 00:36:02,360
They don't know they don't know the other afraid, it's a journey.

469
00:36:02,820 --> 00:36:07,100
As you can see, they want somebody to check a box and give them the lesson plan.

470
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:17,060
You just gotta sit down and write that free case.

471
00:36:17,180 --> 00:36:18,020
He's gotta do it.

472
00:36:20,620 --> 00:36:21,580
30 seconds.

473
00:36:22,340 --> 00:36:23,260
30 seconds.

474
00:36:53,010 --> 00:36:56,810
about 10 seconds wrap it up.

475
00:37:08,060 --> 00:37:13,900
Let's make our way back. How about this? When I say move

476
00:37:13,900 --> 00:37:21,780
your feet, you say back to my seat. Move your feet back to my seat. Move your feet

477
00:37:21,780 --> 00:37:26,300
back to my seat. Thank y'all. Thank y'all.

478
00:37:29,220 --> 00:37:36,100
Cool. I appreciate y'all doing that. Yes. Awesome.

479
00:37:38,420 --> 00:37:39,300
Thank you.

480
00:37:41,820 --> 00:37:45,980
All right. Wow. I learned a lot. Watch y'all do that.

481
00:37:48,350 --> 00:37:49,090
How did that feel?

482
00:37:49,290 --> 00:37:56,410
Anybody want to share? How did that feel doing that? How did it feel? Good. Why? Why did it feel like that?

483
00:37:56,410 --> 00:37:56,490
had

484
00:38:01,580 --> 00:38:05,580
an immediate connection with someone you didn't know at all thank you for

485
00:38:05,580 --> 00:38:11,760
sharing anybody else how did it feel anything you want to share great talk

486
00:38:11,760 --> 00:38:16,300
openly yes other thoughts

487
00:38:26,250 --> 00:38:31,800
thanks for sharing if we have more time say it again

488
00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:33,560
please yes

489
00:38:49,500 --> 00:38:57,640
the young people I serve say we're ready and want to do this y'all

490
00:38:57,640 --> 00:38:58,180
don't.

491
00:39:01,060 --> 00:39:07,220
Here's an activity you can take with you tomorrow to do in a classroom. Do it multiple times.

492
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:09,380
Who are we?

493
00:39:11,450 --> 00:39:15,810
How can we use the teaching and learning, the learning spaces that we all have

494
00:39:15,810 --> 00:39:22,590
engineered? How can we use this to understand something about ourselves and others? We have built

495
00:39:22,590 --> 00:39:31,310
identity exercises in lessons into everything we do. Every board meeting, every admin team meeting,

496
00:39:31,310 --> 00:39:38,790
every lesson must have an opportunity for young people and the adults to explore something

497
00:39:38,790 --> 00:39:41,170
about themselves and others.

498
00:39:41,310 --> 00:39:43,390
They about to hear that part, we'll come back to it this afternoon.

499
00:39:45,380 --> 00:39:52,720
Because this is the key to providing access and opportunities to everyone.

500
00:39:53,740 --> 00:39:59,540
We're building empathy, we're building understanding, we're building a common understanding and mental

501
00:39:59,540 --> 00:40:02,660
tomorrow for what we mean by words like diversity.

502
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:05,420
We'll talk about that a little bit later.

503
00:40:07,280 --> 00:40:08,560
Stay with me y'all, stay with me y'all.

504
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:11,240
If we have more time, we will go deeper there.

505
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:14,440
But I really wanna go to this year right here.

506
00:40:14,840 --> 00:40:16,740
I need, please, this is gonna be therapeutic for me.

507
00:40:16,820 --> 00:40:17,600
I'm telling you all right now.

508
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:19,200
Go on a journey with me.

509
00:40:20,020 --> 00:40:22,120
Let's go to 1992.

510
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:24,580
It about it with me in 1992 right now.

511
00:40:24,940 --> 00:40:28,040
Some of y'all are like, if he was alive in 1992,

512
00:40:28,040 --> 00:40:34,380
two, he's old. Some of y'all are saying, oh, he's a baby, if he was alive then. Some

513
00:40:34,380 --> 00:40:40,860
of y'all are like, 19 what? All right, 1992 was the year my twin brother and I graduated

514
00:40:40,860 --> 00:40:47,820
high school. And I'm here to tell y'all, 1992 was a year for the culture, y'all feel me?

515
00:40:49,380 --> 00:40:55,800
Look it up, you do your own research all I have been in that year. That changed the world.

516
00:40:58,250 --> 00:41:01,890
If we just think about movies, the bodyguard,

517
00:41:03,570 --> 00:41:07,610
the bodyguard having interracial couples on screen together

518
00:41:07,610 --> 00:41:10,570
was a new one, and about it, remember juice?

519
00:41:11,110 --> 00:41:12,210
What kind of audience do I have?

520
00:41:12,310 --> 00:41:13,030
Some of y'all know juice.

521
00:41:13,450 --> 00:41:16,610
You were afraid to evade your hand, but juice was real.

522
00:41:16,790 --> 00:41:18,070
Two pockets was in that bad boy.

523
00:41:20,130 --> 00:41:20,890
And okay, hold on.

524
00:41:21,690 --> 00:41:23,010
Gas was $2,013.

525
00:41:23,510 --> 00:41:25,770
The average home price was $68,000.

526
00:41:25,770 --> 00:41:31,890
today is 483, Barry Barnes played for the power at the time.

527
00:41:31,990 --> 00:41:36,790
If anybody watches baseball, he made $4 million a year and

528
00:41:36,790 --> 00:41:38,350
people say he's way overpaid.

529
00:41:39,730 --> 00:41:42,930
Show hair is about to make $75 million a year this summer.

530
00:41:44,690 --> 00:41:48,310
I'm a commander of sand.

531
00:41:48,530 --> 00:41:49,690
I got to even practice saying it.

532
00:41:49,810 --> 00:41:51,710
My favorite player growing up was Darryl Green.

533
00:41:52,570 --> 00:41:54,290
We used to be called the Redskins.

534
00:41:54,290 --> 00:41:55,350
They're about to know what I'm talking about.

535
00:41:56,130 --> 00:41:58,470
1992 was the last time you won a Super Bowl, all right.

536
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:03,140
Why my Bill Clinton became president?

537
00:42:05,240 --> 00:42:07,360
1992 was a special special year.

538
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,220
And it was a year that I, you know, my basketball team,

539
00:42:12,620 --> 00:42:13,800
again, I told you I was drunk.

540
00:42:14,380 --> 00:42:17,840
My high school basketball team, we were state champions back-to-back

541
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,400
and they were runner-ups my senior year.

542
00:42:20,580 --> 00:42:20,920
We lost.

543
00:42:21,420 --> 00:42:22,360
My last game we lost.

544
00:42:23,100 --> 00:42:24,800
Everybody heard of Alan Averson,

545
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:25,920
Bubba Chup.

546
00:42:26,560 --> 00:42:28,540
Alan Averson was a virginian.

547
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:30,680
Alan Averson is shorter than me

548
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:32,500
and is the best athlete I've ever seen.

549
00:42:32,740 --> 00:42:34,280
He was a much better football player, by the way.

550
00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:36,940
But at the University of Virginia,

551
00:42:36,940 --> 00:42:39,940
you hall on the University of Virginia's campus,

552
00:42:40,740 --> 00:42:43,220
we play these state championships every year.

553
00:42:44,160 --> 00:42:46,080
Alan Averson dunked on me twice.

554
00:42:46,540 --> 00:42:48,940
All right, friend about who knows what that looks like and feels like.

555
00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:58,820
he jumped up and I saw the bottom of his feet and he dunked the basketball all right and all I

556
00:42:58,820 --> 00:43:05,880
could do in the state championship game was smile and laugh and keep playing. There was a guy

557
00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:11,840
named Michael Mallory. Michael Mallory loved watching Allen Aberson. He didn't know who Lou

558
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:15,940
Bell Brown was but he loved what he would travel all around watching Aberson play because he was good.

559
00:43:17,560 --> 00:43:21,040
Now, look up the story of Alan Albertson after that state championship, by the way.

560
00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:26,120
If you're able to get a lesson in oppression and marginalization in historical racism.

561
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:34,460
But Alan Albertson was the most famous person in America at that time, at that time in that

562
00:43:34,460 --> 00:43:34,740
game.

563
00:43:35,060 --> 00:43:37,440
And people would come from a long way away to watch him play.

564
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:43,380
Now, Aberson did something special that day, but

565
00:43:43,380 --> 00:43:46,780
Michael Mallory, who was watching did something even more special.

566
00:43:47,540 --> 00:43:49,960
See, Michael Mallory at the time, you know, Michael Mallory,

567
00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:55,100
if you look him up, he's the CEO of the Ron Brown Scholarship Program right now.

568
00:43:56,020 --> 00:43:58,980
And it's the largest scholarship program for

569
00:43:58,980 --> 00:44:00,480
African-American students in the world.

570
00:44:01,060 --> 00:44:03,360
He gives out, I don't know, but a couple hundred,

571
00:44:03,720 --> 00:44:05,640
fifty thousand dollar scholarships every year.

572
00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:07,800
and I would say he's saving lives.

573
00:44:09,180 --> 00:44:11,720
At the time, he was not in charge of the scholarship fund,

574
00:44:11,980 --> 00:44:17,040
he had just been given a grant to reward the nation's

575
00:44:17,040 --> 00:44:19,000
top 50 black students.

576
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,100
And at this game, he saw one get dunked on.

577
00:44:24,660 --> 00:44:25,620
And see, we were poor.

578
00:44:26,720 --> 00:44:27,680
We had been to school every day,

579
00:44:27,760 --> 00:44:30,220
but we had no intentions of leaving fluvano

580
00:44:30,220 --> 00:44:32,140
or going to college, my twin brother and I.

581
00:44:33,300 --> 00:44:34,960
Michael Miley found my mama in the standout.

582
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:40,980
She's loud now she does a lot of spontaneous responses y'all feel me it wasn't hard to find out who Lucille was

583
00:44:42,020 --> 00:44:46,600
He found her and he said your son is gonna come to UVA

584
00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:48,360
for free

585
00:44:49,920 --> 00:44:53,100
Micomality I get emotional micomality saved my life that day

586
00:44:54,410 --> 00:44:59,910
He said he's gonna come for free. He will leave a rural central Virginia and he will

587
00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:06,500
Let me be clear. I grew up six miles from UVA. You've heard of the University of Virginia, right? Thomas Jefferson's University?

588
00:45:09,180 --> 00:45:31,180
No. The University of Virginia. My dad delivered beer for 46 years. He drove a truck. 46 years in Charlottesville, Virginia. Let me be clear. If you knew college towns, he delivered a lot of beer. But he was never allowed to walk on the historic lawn. If you know anything about the lawn at the University of Virginia.

589
00:45:31,180 --> 00:45:36,360
It's where Jefferson started it, it's where people walked to graduate, all that stuff.

590
00:45:36,620 --> 00:45:39,700
My dad wasn't allowed to be there because of his race.

591
00:45:41,140 --> 00:45:43,500
The first time he stepped foot on the lawn was when I graduated.

592
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:48,680
And because he cried that first time and I saw something to him that I'd never seen before,

593
00:45:49,380 --> 00:45:50,860
I graduated four times.

594
00:45:52,580 --> 00:45:54,000
I'm the only one to have done that.

595
00:45:55,520 --> 00:46:01,300
But my, my grandmother said, he's going to come to UVA for free and I'm telling on the

596
00:46:01,300 --> 00:46:06,100
story for a reason now because I, if I'm going to go to college, I'm going to come be

597
00:46:06,100 --> 00:46:12,300
a coach because athletics is the only thing that saved my life and micro-malorie.

598
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:17,680
So I'm going to coach basketball and football and I hope that I can afford a Honda Accord

599
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:18,180
one day.

600
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:21,420
Oh, and I would love to have a two-bedroom apartment.

601
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:23,680
That was my dream,

602
00:46:26,290 --> 00:46:29,970
Michael Miley gave us a scholarship, I signed up for classes, I was going

603
00:46:29,970 --> 00:46:34,450
to go into the teacher education program at the University of Virginia.

604
00:46:34,990 --> 00:46:38,410
Michael Miley found out about it and sort of some other folks who had contributed to the

605
00:46:38,410 --> 00:46:44,390
scholarship fund, they came to my house on that dirt road in the summer before my first

606
00:46:44,390 --> 00:46:45,170
semester in college.

607
00:46:45,670 --> 00:46:46,350
Why did they come?

608
00:46:47,190 --> 00:46:51,210
I thought they were coming to congratulate me and to say thank you for being a teacher,

609
00:46:51,210 --> 00:46:53,350
We need your service. We'll forgive you.

610
00:46:53,730 --> 00:46:56,350
No, they came to say, you can't be a teacher.

611
00:46:57,890 --> 00:47:00,370
Would I give you all this money to go teach?

612
00:47:02,130 --> 00:47:04,510
You can't change the world doing that.

613
00:47:05,870 --> 00:47:06,810
Come on now.

614
00:47:08,550 --> 00:47:11,030
After about two hours of trying to convince me

615
00:47:11,030 --> 00:47:13,290
in my moment that I shouldn't be a teacher,

616
00:47:13,990 --> 00:47:16,210
my chameleon left and I became a teacher.

617
00:47:17,850 --> 00:47:19,150
Because we changed lives.

618
00:47:19,150 --> 00:47:21,090
Yeah, y'all do too

619
00:47:23,230 --> 00:47:27,270
This is how you change and save the world right here y'all feel me

620
00:47:29,010 --> 00:47:34,790
My my little story goes, you know that first class. I was all dressed up. I'm on campus

621
00:47:34,790 --> 00:47:39,970
I'm going to class and y'all know some of y'all know it's the class is called contemporary trends in education

622
00:47:39,970 --> 00:47:43,330
Y'all remember that class we have to take that class. That's our first class

623
00:47:43,330 --> 00:47:48,030
It's part of the teacher ed program and as I want to be trained as an administrator

624
00:47:48,030 --> 00:47:53,270
It's also the first class you take in your administrative program too, contemporary trends

625
00:47:53,270 --> 00:47:53,830
in education.

626
00:47:55,290 --> 00:47:59,550
And I don't forget, when I went home this two summers ago, to clean out some stuff

627
00:47:59,550 --> 00:48:01,430
because my mama passed, we had to clean out the house.

628
00:48:02,830 --> 00:48:08,610
I found the paper I wrote in the fall of 92 for contemporary trends in education.

629
00:48:09,150 --> 00:48:14,250
And I want to share with y'all the things that were happening in our industry at the time.

630
00:48:16,170 --> 00:48:20,150
This is what I wrote about low pay.

631
00:48:20,950 --> 00:48:22,610
Yes, I knew I wasn't going to get paid a lot,

632
00:48:22,970 --> 00:48:24,650
but I wanted to complain about it in my paper.

633
00:48:27,740 --> 00:48:32,080
The lack of administrators, my mother was a teaching assistant

634
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:33,140
for 46 years.

635
00:48:33,560 --> 00:48:36,060
She had double knee replacement, and she would always say because

636
00:48:36,060 --> 00:48:38,580
I stood in front of classrooms for 46 years.

637
00:48:41,260 --> 00:48:43,060
And she would complain about not only the pay,

638
00:48:43,580 --> 00:48:47,220
she finished her career making $13,000 after 46 years.

639
00:48:48,420 --> 00:48:58,940
But she would also complain about the superintendent, every day, and the principal, and how we can't find good administrators, and how administrators are the reason why this thing is all messed up.

640
00:49:00,340 --> 00:49:03,180
Oh, then I wrote about, here we go, discipline.

641
00:49:04,740 --> 00:49:06,280
I was a part of the discipline problem.

642
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:13,780
So all my boys, disciplines as fad as it's ever been, and then I wrote about Lord Maluma Rao.

643
00:49:13,780 --> 00:49:15,420
Nobody wants to do it.

644
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:17,280
People have fleeing the industry.

645
00:49:17,940 --> 00:49:19,620
More hours at an all time low.

646
00:49:20,640 --> 00:49:22,440
This was 1992 when I wrote about this.

647
00:49:26,670 --> 00:49:30,790
So I poured the survey data from our school district.

648
00:49:30,810 --> 00:49:32,670
We administered the survey last spring.

649
00:49:33,310 --> 00:49:34,930
I'm looking at the national survey.

650
00:49:35,010 --> 00:49:36,450
There have been some surveys done nationally.

651
00:49:36,890 --> 00:49:38,570
Y'all want to know where the trends are now?

652
00:49:39,050 --> 00:49:39,670
Check it out.

653
00:49:44,300 --> 00:49:46,400
No, no, no, it's not the same.

654
00:49:46,480 --> 00:49:47,100
We've got smarter.

655
00:49:47,100 --> 00:49:49,540
We all call it student behaviors instead of discipline.

656
00:49:53,240 --> 00:49:57,700
I got Michael Mallory in my ear y'all as I'm my journal, I'm in my journal this weekend

657
00:49:57,700 --> 00:49:59,800
like, oh, with Michael Mallory, right?

658
00:50:02,250 --> 00:50:09,170
Then, so this weekend, let me look at the only test information I can find that goes back

659
00:50:09,170 --> 00:50:09,710
this far.

660
00:50:10,450 --> 00:50:14,730
So I found the nation's report card, and about it, hopefully you've heard about the nation's

661
00:50:14,730 --> 00:50:16,190
report card, it's the NAEP assessment.

662
00:50:16,190 --> 00:50:20,670
We've been given the Nape Assessment in this country since 1967, I believe.

663
00:50:21,490 --> 00:50:26,250
It's a standard of assessment that gives us an indication of how well students are doing in our schools.

664
00:50:27,550 --> 00:50:32,250
Now, they used to, they didn't start tracking it by a membership group,

665
00:50:32,690 --> 00:50:37,470
I.e., looking at black and brown students until 2011, by the way.

666
00:50:38,790 --> 00:50:45,130
But if you go back to 1992, you can't see this part, but I'm here to tell you what's on the screen.

667
00:50:46,210 --> 00:50:53,150
We can look at our Nate assessment data, we can go all the way back to 1992, and then

668
00:50:53,150 --> 00:50:58,070
we can look at the Nate assessment data from 2022, and what I'm here to present to y'all

669
00:50:58,070 --> 00:50:59,870
is that the data is the same.

670
00:51:02,980 --> 00:51:06,180
For the folks who are going to fact-chip me, let me back up.

671
00:51:06,940 --> 00:51:13,560
The data has gotten worse, particularly for young people of color, and those growing up in

672
00:51:13,560 --> 00:51:13,900
poverty.

673
00:51:15,000 --> 00:51:21,860
I hear Michael Mallory now, I began my journey in this field 30 years ago,

674
00:51:24,340 --> 00:51:24,740
and I stand

675
00:51:24,740 --> 00:51:31,920
before you all now humbly, invulnerably saying, we have not shifted student achievement.

676
00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:38,620
And the stuff that plagued us, we're having the same conversation today,

677
00:51:41,300 --> 00:51:41,960
but this is what

678
00:51:41,960 --> 00:51:42,240
I know.

679
00:51:43,490 --> 00:51:51,590
I'm more optimistic and hopeful than ever, because in our industry we haven't done a good job of holding multiple truths.

680
00:51:52,930 --> 00:51:54,690
Multiple things can be true at the same time.

681
00:51:55,790 --> 00:52:01,450
While we have struggled over the last 30 years from my perspective to shift the conversation,

682
00:52:01,850 --> 00:52:04,370
we have struggled to significantly raise through an achievement.

683
00:52:04,370 --> 00:52:07,910
We have struggled to provide access and opportunities for everybody.

684
00:52:08,250 --> 00:52:10,550
I now know we know how to do it.

685
00:52:10,550 --> 00:52:16,910
And I'm going to, I'm here today to y'all with y'all to share with you what we know about

686
00:52:16,910 --> 00:52:17,610
what works.

687
00:52:17,950 --> 00:52:19,070
Now, doing it is something different.

688
00:52:21,450 --> 00:52:25,790
I want to share with y'all the activity that the young people in my school district have

689
00:52:25,790 --> 00:52:26,510
led to summer.

690
00:52:27,270 --> 00:52:31,910
See, as we said, we're embracing student voice and agency, we've turned over everything

691
00:52:31,910 --> 00:52:35,170
to the young people we serve, including professional development.

692
00:52:35,850 --> 00:52:38,930
They're leading the sessions, and they came, I'm stealing this one from them.

693
00:52:38,930 --> 00:52:41,210
They came in this summer with this sticky note activity.

694
00:52:42,070 --> 00:52:44,870
And they said, Dr. Brown, teachers, when you leave today,

695
00:52:45,270 --> 00:52:47,530
you're going to have sticky notes that include things

696
00:52:47,530 --> 00:52:51,330
that as educators in 2023, you must know.

697
00:52:52,110 --> 00:52:53,750
And there's some things that I want you to do.

698
00:52:53,950 --> 00:52:55,050
You're going to write them down, Dr. Brown.

699
00:52:55,970 --> 00:52:57,770
And then there's some place you want to be.

700
00:52:58,370 --> 00:52:59,490
Stay with me right now, y'all.

701
00:52:59,750 --> 00:53:01,430
Because here's some things we should know.

702
00:53:01,830 --> 00:53:02,670
What should be know?

703
00:53:03,450 --> 00:53:04,250
See, we should know.

704
00:53:04,810 --> 00:53:05,450
You should know.

705
00:53:05,810 --> 00:53:07,290
The folks in this room should know a couple of things.

706
00:53:07,290 --> 00:53:11,750
most importantly, you should know this. Check it out. In my clicker would work here.

707
00:53:12,310 --> 00:53:12,450
Boom.

708
00:53:14,480 --> 00:53:19,960
Y'all have the most boldest statement I've seen in the country. This is your statement, right?

709
00:53:24,720 --> 00:53:30,360
I've been doing my research. I don't know how you did it. I know how you did it. I can't believe you did.

710
00:53:32,970 --> 00:53:38,230
You know how many people are running away from this term? Who are running away from words like equity and inclusion?

711
00:53:39,430 --> 00:53:45,190
your statement is as bold and as clear as any I've seen in the nation. That's

712
00:53:45,190 --> 00:53:50,230
y'all. I hope everyone in the room knows that you have a statement like this on

713
00:53:50,230 --> 00:53:56,170
your website because my whole community does. My convocation on Thursday is

714
00:53:56,170 --> 00:54:01,230
going to be this screen to start. And us in Africa we think we are the leaders of

715
00:54:01,230 --> 00:54:04,250
this work we're doing so much good stuff. I'm your superintendent. Hey there's a

716
00:54:04,250 --> 00:54:06,410
in Vermont, that's on fire.

717
00:54:08,820 --> 00:54:09,620
Y'all should know that.

718
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:12,560
And so should the young people you serve.

719
00:54:13,360 --> 00:54:14,760
Now, we can define it, we have more time,

720
00:54:14,900 --> 00:54:16,240
we would define it, we would do all that stuff.

721
00:54:16,540 --> 00:54:17,920
You should also know that that statement,

722
00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:20,760
when I see that statement, I see you embracing

723
00:54:20,760 --> 00:54:24,280
the intersections of culture, religion, class,

724
00:54:25,560 --> 00:54:28,040
ethnicity, nationality, age, gender.

725
00:54:29,300 --> 00:54:31,000
When you did your activity earlier,

726
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:33,420
I heard all that come out.

727
00:54:34,140 --> 00:54:38,860
Too often, if someone who's in a lot of spaces, I mean spaces like this, where I'm one of

728
00:54:38,860 --> 00:54:43,000
the few people of color in the room, and people will say, hey, we're not a very diverse

729
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:46,260
school dish, however, please don't ever say that again.

730
00:54:47,980 --> 00:54:52,960
Because as I look around and hear this room, I see and hear the intersections of culture.

731
00:54:54,380 --> 00:54:58,920
For some reason, the last five years, particularly white people have become a homogenous group.

732
00:54:59,720 --> 00:54:59,960
All right?

733
00:54:59,960 --> 00:55:04,520
right? For some of y'all who know what I mean by that. There's a significant amount of

734
00:55:04,520 --> 00:55:10,380
diversity in every space we go into. It's up to us to understand and recognize it. And

735
00:55:10,380 --> 00:55:14,940
yeah, I'll share with y'all this image right here. This is from Aiden Brown, my 12-year-old

736
00:55:14,940 --> 00:55:21,200
comic book fan. And he said that you cannot use the word diversity with the group again unless

737
00:55:21,200 --> 00:55:26,080
you share an image of the X-man. For the comic book fans in the room, you know what I'm

738
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:32,620
to say he sees diversity when he sees this image. He sees the intersections of culture.

739
00:55:32,740 --> 00:55:39,580
He sees race, gender, orientation, class, religion. He said, Daddy, what is wrong with

740
00:55:39,580 --> 00:55:42,940
educated? How come you still haven't explained diversity to people all over the country?

741
00:55:45,250 --> 00:55:49,150
But what most profound for the folks who know the story, he followed up because we were on

742
00:55:49,150 --> 00:55:54,970
a Zoom call when he shared it with me. He said, Daddy, you do know that because the X-Men

743
00:55:54,970 --> 00:56:01,550
were so diverse. People were afraid of them. Because they were so diverse and powerful, people

744
00:56:02,170 --> 00:56:07,830
segregated them. Daddy, he's telling me he's 12 now coming to a classroom near you.

745
00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:10,480
They wrote

746
00:56:10,480 --> 00:56:17,780
laws to marginalize and oppress the X-Men if you know the story. Daddy, ain't that happening today?

747
00:56:22,080 --> 00:56:25,640
Everything that's happening today was told in the comments from the 50s and the 60s. You're all

748
00:56:25,640 --> 00:56:31,320
feel me. In fact, check me. These young people who are coming into our classrooms and know this.

749
00:56:32,440 --> 00:56:34,140
You see, they also know this.

750
00:56:36,250 --> 00:56:39,830
I've been saying this for 25 years. I've been saying that

751
00:56:39,830 --> 00:56:43,990
this conversation we're having today is good for everybody. I grew up in a white community

752
00:56:44,930 --> 00:56:48,970
and it was good for my community there. Most of the young people that I serve in Ithaca are white

753
00:56:48,970 --> 00:56:55,510
students. And they know that this conversation about multiculturalism, diversity equity inclusion,

754
00:56:55,510 --> 00:56:57,970
embedded in the curriculum is good for us all.

755
00:56:58,730 --> 00:57:02,750
I've been saying it for 25 years, but for some reason I have to keep saying it, but

756
00:57:02,750 --> 00:57:06,270
now I'm dangerous, though, because now I can share that it's grounded in the significant

757
00:57:06,270 --> 00:57:07,470
amount of academic research.

758
00:57:08,010 --> 00:57:11,450
I said on a dissertation committee last summer that had the best review of lid I've ever

759
00:57:11,450 --> 00:57:11,770
seen.

760
00:57:12,190 --> 00:57:13,870
So I want you all to hear me when I say this.

761
00:57:14,590 --> 00:57:19,150
It is educational malpractice if we do not embrace this work at scale.

762
00:57:20,690 --> 00:57:25,030
I can argue that our white students in this country are,

763
00:57:27,330 --> 00:57:29,130
excuse me, my old practice law white students,

764
00:57:29,390 --> 00:57:31,870
if we do not include these stories in this conversation.

765
00:57:32,970 --> 00:57:35,170
For the folks who care about it, for the capitalist in the group,

766
00:57:35,830 --> 00:57:37,090
I have breakfast there, because some people get upset

767
00:57:37,090 --> 00:57:38,090
when I say this next name.

768
00:57:39,190 --> 00:57:41,570
If you care about the economic future of this country,

769
00:57:42,110 --> 00:57:43,030
we do this work.

770
00:57:44,010 --> 00:57:46,270
Go to the United States Chamber of Commerce website.

771
00:57:46,270 --> 00:57:51,710
If we have a conversation about racism at scale, which means having a conversation about racism in schools?

772
00:57:52,910 --> 00:57:58,990
If we have a conversation about it in schools, we can add $8 trillion to our GDP.

773
00:58:00,310 --> 00:58:03,930
Our current GDP is $22 trillion, they're about to follow the math for the capitalists in the room.

774
00:58:05,610 --> 00:58:06,610
We should know that.

775
00:58:07,650 --> 00:58:10,730
We should also know this, what am I talking about?

776
00:58:11,370 --> 00:58:14,930
Because I am now convinced, after a 30-year career,

777
00:58:14,930 --> 00:58:16,830
that this is the work we're going to be doing.

778
00:58:17,470 --> 00:58:19,930
And if we do this, we have access and opportunities

779
00:58:19,930 --> 00:58:20,550
for everybody.

780
00:58:20,910 --> 00:58:24,090
Reduce the predictability of who succeeds and who fails.

781
00:58:24,450 --> 00:58:26,410
I just shared with you all data that shows

782
00:58:26,410 --> 00:58:27,790
that our data is pretty much predictable.

783
00:58:28,270 --> 00:58:30,970
If you are a poor, if you're growing up in poverty,

784
00:58:31,150 --> 00:58:32,750
if you are kid of color, you haven't

785
00:58:32,750 --> 00:58:33,670
been doing so well in our schools.

786
00:58:34,050 --> 00:58:37,370
It's pretty predictable that by scale, when

787
00:58:37,370 --> 00:58:39,730
we look at it at a macro level, it's probably going to get worse.

788
00:58:42,180 --> 00:58:44,740
So I am asking y'all to contribute today.

789
00:58:44,740 --> 00:58:49,800
get fired up to do something to interrupt that predictability.

790
00:58:50,460 --> 00:58:56,600
That will require us to interrupt the things that we know are contributing to that data.

791
00:58:57,720 --> 00:59:02,400
Now, if you work with me, if y'all invite me back, typically I don't get anybody back coach.

792
00:59:02,800 --> 00:59:09,660
But if I get to come back, I will share with you all the things we do every single day I've done that have contributed to that data.

793
00:59:09,660 --> 00:59:16,680
I know what it is. I feel liberated because I can see it and I now know how to talk about it.

794
00:59:17,620 --> 00:59:20,420
We know what to do. My mother said it very clearly.

795
00:59:21,420 --> 00:59:26,620
If my mother said it now, no college degree, but she was in a classroom for 46 years.

796
00:59:27,860 --> 00:59:36,360
If by design that the literacy rate for African Americans was higher at the time of the great migration than it is today.

797
00:59:37,460 --> 00:59:41,040
We've done this before, well, fact check me.

798
00:59:43,460 --> 00:59:44,860
And see that last one is most important.

799
00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:50,640
What will we do to cultivate the joy and genius in everybody?

800
00:59:51,840 --> 00:59:53,380
Most times when I said it to folks like,

801
00:59:53,560 --> 00:59:55,640
how do you seek out joy in the classroom?

802
00:59:56,620 --> 00:59:59,280
Why do you embed that into the curriculum?

803
00:59:59,280 --> 00:59:59,860
Okay.

804
01:00:00,000 --> 01:00:29,980
Show you how. But I need you to sit here and look at this. This will be done. My next 30 years, if I can survive it, I probably won't go. If I can survive it, I'm doing this. Now, you can call it whatever you want. You can call it strategic planning. My folks, my friends, they can tuck you call it strategic planning. If you're in North Carolina, you call it. What did they call in North Carolina? We call it, uh, check it out. They call it continuous improvement. All right. Uh, you know, in my home state, the commonwealth of Virginia, we can't

805
01:00:29,980 --> 01:00:34,220
use the word equity in the more. So we call it, check it out, future focus schools.

806
01:00:35,680 --> 01:00:40,160
I don't care what you call it. I know in Iptica, I know based on your website,

807
01:00:40,480 --> 01:00:46,390
you're all calling it equity. Call it what you want to call it. That's the work.

808
01:00:46,850 --> 01:00:49,570
And if you want to challenge it, tell me which part of it don't you agree with.

809
01:00:49,930 --> 01:00:53,530
And I put these images up here now by design because in my school district,

810
01:00:53,890 --> 01:00:56,570
the conversation starts with our bus drivers, our food service workers.

811
01:00:57,170 --> 01:00:59,030
I support professionals, the people in the office.

812
01:00:59,030 --> 01:01:03,470
Yes, I went to school every day because we needed to eat and because we didn't want to die

813
01:01:03,470 --> 01:01:07,150
But let me be clear Uncle Nelson was a bus driver who made sure we got on the bus every day

814
01:01:07,150 --> 01:01:09,410
Any way to the next five minutes when we were late

815
01:01:10,390 --> 01:01:11,730
Well, he made sure we got home

816
01:01:13,090 --> 01:01:18,250
Let me be clear. Helen Carter was in the office when I hurt my knee in seventh grade

817
01:01:19,230 --> 01:01:25,670
And we didn't go to the doctor. She made sure she saw me coming off the bus to check on my home a stitches y'all feel me

818
01:01:27,070 --> 01:01:32,110
Let me be clear, I know more about the federal food guidelines because of many who worked

819
01:01:32,110 --> 01:01:36,410
in the cafeteria, who helped me understand that, you know, those dairy products aren't

820
01:01:36,410 --> 01:01:37,790
working so well for your stomach, Louvel.

821
01:01:39,780 --> 01:01:41,340
Here is an alternative for you.

822
01:01:41,820 --> 01:01:42,960
This is back in the 80s.

823
01:01:44,540 --> 01:01:48,340
And, you know, I can share with you, like, what should we know?

824
01:01:49,140 --> 01:01:53,780
This work that we're talking about impacts each one of those areas to, I'll send you the

825
01:01:53,780 --> 01:01:54,020
links.

826
01:01:54,020 --> 01:01:56,420
There are articles that would be asking you all to read.

827
01:01:57,600 --> 01:01:59,940
They'll connect all of the work of the organization

828
01:02:00,340 --> 01:02:01,180
till this work.

829
01:02:01,980 --> 01:02:03,340
I will say I have more time there, but I don't.

830
01:02:03,600 --> 01:02:04,640
Because now, the time I'm going to ask you all

831
01:02:04,640 --> 01:02:06,740
to make a decision, because you only got about 15 minutes left.

832
01:02:08,060 --> 01:02:09,500
I'm going to give you an out right now.

833
01:02:09,920 --> 01:02:11,120
There are two types of journeys.

834
01:02:12,960 --> 01:02:14,740
I'm going to be asking you which one are you on.

835
01:02:17,330 --> 01:02:19,370
You're going to start to school you on Thursday no matter what.

836
01:02:20,190 --> 01:02:22,410
You can be on that academic journey

837
01:02:22,410 --> 01:02:24,110
that we've been on for the last 30 years.

838
01:02:24,590 --> 01:02:30,290
We can read books, we can listen to the great speaker, but don't do anything after that.

839
01:02:30,870 --> 01:02:34,470
We can write statements like your statements online now, but what you doing to make that

840
01:02:34,470 --> 01:02:34,850
come alive?

841
01:02:35,730 --> 01:02:37,550
I've seen statements, not as bold as that.

842
01:02:38,710 --> 01:02:41,450
You can talk about, hey, there are a couple of school districts in the country right now

843
01:02:41,450 --> 01:02:46,210
who send their anti-racist and they're working hard this year to change the names of holidays

844
01:02:46,210 --> 01:02:46,850
on the calendar.

845
01:02:48,510 --> 01:02:50,250
That's important, but does that work?

846
01:02:52,810 --> 01:03:02,470
Well, Charlottesville, Virginia, I worked in Richmond, Virginia, some of y'all, if you've been following the stories, we can have conversations about Statues for Generations.

847
01:03:03,990 --> 01:03:11,170
My dad is here, who's been in Charlottesville for 85 years, when those statues came down and they nothing changed around here.

848
01:03:13,370 --> 01:03:20,430
I'm done with that work. It's important. I'm with educators in there. Don't give me wrong. I'm not saying anything bad about a book study.

849
01:03:20,430 --> 01:03:21,170
You all feel me, all right?

850
01:03:22,450 --> 01:03:25,070
But most places I go into country ask what is the plan for this work?

851
01:03:25,130 --> 01:03:27,030
They say, we're doing a book study this year, Dr. Brown.

852
01:03:27,430 --> 01:03:27,810
They're like, really?

853
01:03:28,210 --> 01:03:28,510
That's it.

854
01:03:29,490 --> 01:03:30,450
And it's voluntary.

855
01:03:32,390 --> 01:03:35,210
We're going to pay a couple of folks to do it if they come after school.

856
01:03:35,410 --> 01:03:35,770
Come on now.

857
01:03:37,070 --> 01:03:41,250
This work I'm talking about is, do we have a mindset that our classrooms,

858
01:03:42,170 --> 01:03:47,050
our courts, our playing fields, our buses, our cafeterias,

859
01:03:47,190 --> 01:03:48,350
our places for social change?

860
01:03:50,510 --> 01:03:54,430
I can show you where it shows up and come back this afternoon and I'll show you where it shows up in the academic standards.

861
01:03:54,830 --> 01:03:57,510
For the folks who don't think so, activism has a place in schools.

862
01:03:59,090 --> 01:04:01,590
You see, this work is about pedagogical shifts.

863
01:04:02,590 --> 01:04:04,670
We got to talk, relate, move differently.

864
01:04:05,230 --> 01:04:10,390
This work is about changing the policies, board members, changing the handbooks, changing the rules on the walls.

865
01:04:10,810 --> 01:04:11,950
This work is about love.

866
01:04:13,590 --> 01:04:18,310
Now, the academic conversation is writing books and reading articles that say we're loving.

867
01:04:18,310 --> 01:04:20,890
Everybody hear me when I say that, I'm being vulnerable right now.

868
01:04:22,090 --> 01:04:25,530
If you want to make money and have a lot of people love you, write a book about love.

869
01:04:28,620 --> 01:04:32,720
But if you want an authentic journey and you start to change the culture to be loving,

870
01:04:33,520 --> 01:04:34,300
it's a struggle.

871
01:04:35,820 --> 01:04:39,060
Love is not the default. Love is a struggle.

872
01:04:39,580 --> 01:04:41,860
If we'll talk about that this afternoon and we'll talk about it a little bit later.

873
01:04:42,540 --> 01:04:44,800
See, because after we're going to shift into what should we do.

874
01:04:44,940 --> 01:04:47,300
So all those things, you should know what journey you want.

875
01:04:47,820 --> 01:04:48,740
Every day you're going to be challenged.

876
01:04:48,740 --> 01:04:50,800
should I be authentic here, should I be academic?

877
01:04:50,980 --> 01:04:53,020
Somebody up there went authentic earlier

878
01:04:53,370 --> 01:04:54,840
when you could have chosen to be academic.

879
01:04:56,420 --> 01:04:58,380
You're gonna have to make those decisions every single day.

880
01:04:58,860 --> 01:05:01,700
The authentic journey is hard and it's a struggle

881
01:05:01,700 --> 01:05:03,060
and it's controversial.

882
01:05:06,700 --> 01:05:08,100
If you're a leader or if you're an educator

883
01:05:08,100 --> 01:05:10,740
leading authentic work, people will come for you.

884
01:05:11,160 --> 01:05:13,480
Trust me, 14 death threats last year.

885
01:05:14,320 --> 01:05:16,460
People create websites to discredit me.

886
01:05:17,040 --> 01:05:18,320
They come out to my family.

887
01:05:18,780 --> 01:05:27,000
my front yard is not even safe anymore, but to disrupt oppression you have to give up privileges.

888
01:05:27,960 --> 01:05:33,420
I know what privileges I've had to give up and one of those is safety. But you do it anyway.

889
01:05:34,160 --> 01:05:38,260
But what else should you do? I'll come back this afternoon and we'll talk about what we mean by student

890
01:05:38,260 --> 01:05:42,800
voice and agency. I'll give you very practical examples of how we can embrace the student voice

891
01:05:43,480 --> 01:05:48,400
and agency, so they see themselves changing things. I will give you examples of how we can embrace

892
01:05:48,400 --> 01:05:56,480
thinking, come back later for a crash course on how humans think. Because we don't spend a lot of

893
01:05:56,480 --> 01:06:01,020
time talking about that. And then come back this afternoon and I'll talk about how these academic

894
01:06:01,020 --> 01:06:08,280
standards can allow for us to do all of this work. That's the do. But I'm going to finish with the

895
01:06:08,280 --> 01:06:10,880
You know, B. Check this out.

896
01:06:13,510 --> 01:06:14,130
Who should we be?

897
01:06:15,050 --> 01:06:17,310
This was a sticky note that I struggled with the most.

898
01:06:18,170 --> 01:06:20,910
And if I come back later this year, we're going to spend a lot of time on this one too.

899
01:06:21,330 --> 01:06:25,390
Who should we be? This is Lucille and Bobby right here, y'all.

900
01:06:26,270 --> 01:06:29,430
The most impressive people I've ever known, Mama Daddy.

901
01:06:30,910 --> 01:06:33,230
Mama was a teaching assistant, daddy was a truck driver.

902
01:06:34,610 --> 01:06:38,070
Mama passed and the whole community is still struggling to recover, including myself.

903
01:06:38,070 --> 01:06:46,850
So, Tom mentioned in 2017, in 2017, we were in Albany, New York, with the first time

904
01:06:46,850 --> 01:06:48,330
my parents had other left Virginia.

905
01:06:49,130 --> 01:06:52,770
In Albany, New York, in March, there was some snowflirt, if you all can imagine that.

906
01:06:53,750 --> 01:06:56,790
And my family freaked out, they were like, what is happening?

907
01:06:56,930 --> 01:06:57,530
It's snow, mama?

908
01:06:58,410 --> 01:07:04,190
Anyway, they sat up at the front of the room, and a little table just like that, my mama

909
01:07:04,190 --> 01:07:06,290
daddy, my brother, my sisters.

910
01:07:07,770 --> 01:07:12,210
And they announced me as winning the 2017 Superintendent of the Year Award.

911
01:07:13,570 --> 01:07:15,510
And as I'm standing up, I have a little fancy speech there.

912
01:07:17,170 --> 01:07:18,290
My mama stopped me.

913
01:07:19,630 --> 01:07:22,710
You know, I stopped my daddy stopped me.

914
01:07:22,790 --> 01:07:24,690
Because you know, Southern gentlemen, they always stop you.

915
01:07:25,010 --> 01:07:25,790
And then they let mama talk.

916
01:07:25,950 --> 01:07:26,310
Y'all feel me?

917
01:07:26,510 --> 01:07:27,010
I was seeing that.

918
01:07:28,110 --> 01:07:29,230
So daddy stopped me.

919
01:07:29,550 --> 01:07:30,170
And then he waited.

920
01:07:30,350 --> 01:07:31,250
And he's like, what are we doing?

921
01:07:31,370 --> 01:07:32,810
And then mama starts talking real slow.

922
01:07:33,690 --> 01:07:39,690
hey they can give you all the fancy awards they want but you've done nothing until

923
01:07:39,690 --> 01:07:44,330
you've changed the way this room looks and for the first time I turned around

924
01:07:44,330 --> 01:07:48,890
and looked at the room and when I looked my family was the only family I

925
01:07:48,890 --> 01:07:51,750
called in the entire room of 1200 people of

926
01:07:53,800 --> 01:07:55,800
all the superintendents in the room 95

927
01:07:55,800 --> 01:08:03,160
percent were male and all of them are white and Mama had heard about this great

928
01:08:03,160 --> 01:08:08,120
diverse state, the most diverse state in the country and she couldn't understand how that

929
01:08:08,120 --> 01:08:08,520
could be.

930
01:08:11,300 --> 01:08:13,560
So we've been doing some work. You can follow our story what we've done since

931
01:08:13,560 --> 01:08:17,060
then. But then my daddy, because you know he's emboldened, must Lucille start giving it

932
01:08:17,060 --> 01:08:18,180
to me, he got to give it to me too.

933
01:08:20,900 --> 01:08:24,100
That is a, hey, who you be? She growing up in the African-American

934
01:08:24,100 --> 01:08:29,220
vernacular, the habitual bee means something about her to the habitual bee, who you be, where

935
01:08:29,220 --> 01:08:36,020
you be going, where you be at. It's a habitual action done unto someone or something. Now that

936
01:08:36,020 --> 01:08:38,540
That habitual B was never validated in a firm where we was in school.

937
01:08:38,760 --> 01:08:40,000
People would always just correct us.

938
01:08:40,560 --> 01:08:44,040
They were going to build and bridge without saying, oh, you're using the habitual B.

939
01:08:44,680 --> 01:08:46,480
You're bringing your home language into the school.

940
01:08:47,000 --> 01:08:47,500
How beautiful.

941
01:08:47,760 --> 01:08:49,060
Y'all see how I validated in a firm right there?

942
01:08:49,520 --> 01:08:51,180
But instead, it was always, you can't do that.

943
01:08:51,500 --> 01:08:53,220
That's like, we'll get you a 900 in the SATs, Louvert.

944
01:08:53,380 --> 01:08:53,700
I know.

945
01:08:55,870 --> 01:08:57,370
But my dad said, who you be?

946
01:08:58,530 --> 01:08:59,470
And hear me y'all.

947
01:08:59,950 --> 01:09:04,650
Because it was a moment that took me from the academic journey to the authentic one.

948
01:09:06,070 --> 01:09:13,910
who we be. I said, Dad, we be, uh, we be testing. I had just read the study and there's one

949
01:09:13,910 --> 01:09:19,070
that just came out from the University of Kansas, I believe, around standardized testing in public

950
01:09:19,070 --> 01:09:23,650
education. If you don't know this, you should. Everybody in this room should know that. We now

951
01:09:23,650 --> 01:09:33,050
test in a standardized way, young people, particularly in urban centers more than 12,000 times before

952
01:09:33,050 --> 01:09:43,630
before they graduate, that we'd be testing, that we'd be denying after the great

953
01:09:43,630 --> 01:09:45,770
honor of serving a superintendent in Ibbica, New York.

954
01:09:46,770 --> 01:09:49,230
We have the second best STEM high school in the country.

955
01:09:50,530 --> 01:09:54,310
We send more kids to Ivy League institutions than any other high school in the country

956
01:09:54,310 --> 01:09:54,970
in the republic.

957
01:09:56,290 --> 01:10:02,410
But when I used to walk through the hallways, I would say this is an apartheid system.

958
01:10:02,810 --> 01:10:07,590
I could tell the level of the class based on the demographic makeup of the students.

959
01:10:07,730 --> 01:10:08,570
Y'all still with me so far?

960
01:10:09,770 --> 01:10:16,050
We had bi-policy and structures and systems denied all young people opportunities to the

961
01:10:16,050 --> 01:10:18,430
best high school and school district in the world.

962
01:10:19,450 --> 01:10:20,610
We know how to deny.

963
01:10:22,070 --> 01:10:23,290
And see, hear me on this one, y'all.

964
01:10:23,750 --> 01:10:24,690
This is the most important one.

965
01:10:25,270 --> 01:10:28,850
We eat that at being, because this is why most of my friends are dead.

966
01:10:38,710 --> 01:10:40,710
We can't wait to get our babies back.

967
01:10:42,190 --> 01:10:44,610
I can't wait for them to come back and be in person with us.

968
01:10:45,130 --> 01:10:45,830
We'll figure this out.

969
01:10:46,250 --> 01:10:46,850
Post pandemic.

970
01:10:47,430 --> 01:10:47,830
Look it up.

971
01:10:48,010 --> 01:10:48,550
That checked me.

972
01:10:49,010 --> 01:10:51,190
We're now suspending more than ever before.

973
01:10:53,050 --> 01:10:54,930
And more disproportionately.

974
01:10:56,350 --> 01:10:59,910
We're suspending four-year-olds at the highest rate ever.

975
01:11:02,150 --> 01:11:02,250
We're suspending four-year-olds at the highest rate ever.

976
01:11:02,250 --> 01:11:03,410
We be punishing.

977
01:11:04,130 --> 01:11:09,770
That we be punishing, denying, and testing, and he and his brilliance, and he didn't

978
01:11:09,770 --> 01:11:10,150
graduate.

979
01:11:10,450 --> 01:11:14,330
He got to seventh grade until segregation hit him in the face.

980
01:11:15,690 --> 01:11:17,110
He said, when will y'all be loving?

981
01:11:19,470 --> 01:11:23,350
And that put me on this journey that I hope y'all go on with me.

982
01:11:24,370 --> 01:11:25,070
Check it out.

983
01:11:25,450 --> 01:11:30,250
These principles, these behaviors are most important.

984
01:11:30,250 --> 01:11:38,590
Think about how you will engineer an experience for young people to model Thursday, whether it

985
01:11:38,590 --> 01:11:46,150
is in a cafeteria, whether it's in the hallway on the bus in your classroom and run it through

986
01:11:46,150 --> 01:11:47,370
this lens.

987
01:11:48,190 --> 01:11:50,590
But first, run yourself through this lens.

988
01:11:51,570 --> 01:11:52,270
Who are you?

989
01:11:53,370 --> 01:11:55,370
How will you when it comes to these principles?

990
01:11:57,530 --> 01:11:58,310
I've done the work.

991
01:11:58,610 --> 01:11:59,190
I do it every day.

992
01:11:59,250 --> 01:12:00,010
I write about it every day.

993
01:12:00,010 --> 01:12:05,450
I still know, after six years of doing this every single day, I struggle with forgiveness.

994
01:12:06,330 --> 01:12:11,990
It's why I'm always in a good mood, because the folks, those death threats come, people

995
01:12:11,990 --> 01:12:18,590
make up stuff, they say things into my kid, I compartmentalize it and forget, and I don't

996
01:12:18,590 --> 01:12:21,210
go try to forgive the people who I know did it.

997
01:12:21,550 --> 01:12:22,130
Y'all still with me?

998
01:12:22,950 --> 01:12:24,590
And that has impacted my leadership.

999
01:12:24,590 --> 01:12:25,550
But

1000
01:12:27,700 --> 01:12:31,640
I also know that as an organization, we have struggled to forgive, too.

1001
01:12:32,340 --> 01:12:36,380
Even with a new code of conduct that said we won't suspend, we still find ourselves

1002
01:12:36,380 --> 01:12:41,100
excluding young people from instruction based on discretionary behavior.

1003
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:41,860
Y'all still with me.

1004
01:12:44,150 --> 01:12:48,850
I know we don't forgive because even despite my best efforts around grading practices, we

1005
01:12:48,850 --> 01:12:50,850
still give zeroes.

1006
01:12:51,670 --> 01:12:53,290
I know y'all don't do that here.

1007
01:12:54,450 --> 01:12:56,570
But in Ezeka, we still give zeroes.

1008
01:12:56,850 --> 01:12:57,650
How was that forgiven?

1009
01:12:59,050 --> 01:13:05,270
We take points off of work that comes in late, even though we know they're home, the things

1010
01:13:05,270 --> 01:13:07,550
going on at home that have contributed to the work coming in late.

1011
01:13:10,050 --> 01:13:14,950
So I ask you to think about who you are and where you are and then think about the organization

1012
01:13:16,190 --> 01:13:18,210
as we run through this lens.

1013
01:13:18,850 --> 01:13:20,530
This work is hard because it's hard y'all.

1014
01:13:21,070 --> 01:13:23,450
If we work together, we're going to have to think about some things.

1015
01:13:24,170 --> 01:13:29,290
When it gets challenging, when it gets hard, how will you, how will I cultivate joy

1016
01:13:29,290 --> 01:13:29,930
and love.

1017
01:13:32,520 --> 01:13:37,940
I'm at this place in my life in my career where I'm more inspired than ever to do

1018
01:13:37,940 --> 01:13:45,200
this work. But I also know that I got to figure out how to find joy in it too and how to find joy

1019
01:13:45,200 --> 01:13:51,360
when it gets hard. This is my oath. I'm going to ask you, I'll send it to you, take a screenshot,

1020
01:13:51,620 --> 01:13:52,100
take a picture.

1021
01:13:55,120 --> 01:14:01,640
What will you do when the challenges come this year? After today's session, how will you

1022
01:14:01,640 --> 01:14:03,240
You cultivate joy in your life.

1023
01:14:03,840 --> 01:14:05,900
How will you cultivate joy when it gets challenging?

1024
01:14:07,460 --> 01:14:07,920
Or love?

1025
01:14:08,740 --> 01:14:13,160
Because as you do this individually, then it will easily flow as you engineer something

1026
01:14:13,160 --> 01:14:14,260
for the young people we serve.

1027
01:14:16,040 --> 01:14:23,280
And I'll leave you with this as I'll tell you one last story to Dr. Acer Hilla said, I have

1028
01:14:23,280 --> 01:14:26,360
never encountered any children in any group who are not geniuses.

1029
01:14:26,940 --> 01:14:29,020
There is no mystery on how to teach them.

1030
01:14:29,020 --> 01:14:31,960
The first thing you do is treat them like human beings.

1031
01:14:32,900 --> 01:14:35,580
And the second thing you do is to love them.

1032
01:14:37,000 --> 01:14:39,060
You have a bunch of babies who are coming into a space

1033
01:14:39,060 --> 01:14:39,940
on Thursday y'all.

1034
01:14:40,420 --> 01:14:42,560
They need us and expect us to love them.

1035
01:14:43,260 --> 01:14:45,180
I've given you the principles and the behaviors

1036
01:14:45,180 --> 01:14:46,680
that you can use to love.

1037
01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:48,500
No one that is going to be hard.

1038
01:14:49,700 --> 01:14:51,260
Will you love them too?

1039
01:14:51,920 --> 01:14:52,840
When they don't love you back?

1040
01:14:57,380 --> 01:14:59,500
Will you love them when they don't love you back?

1041
01:15:00,660 --> 01:15:16,720
I wish someone would have asked their question when my brother and I were going to school every day, because if so, then the eight most brilliant people I've ever known would be here, and more importantly, for me, I would have survived it without giving up something about who I am.

1042
01:15:20,320 --> 01:15:33,020
The conversations we're having today in our industry have been had before. The game plan has been the same for the historians in the room. If you remove the words,

1043
01:15:33,020 --> 01:15:38,320
diversity, equity, and inclusion, and critical race theory from the conversations today.

1044
01:15:39,460 --> 01:15:42,940
And we plug in integration, busing, and communism.

1045
01:15:43,660 --> 01:15:45,220
We have any exact same conversation.

1046
01:15:47,780 --> 01:15:50,060
And the game plan has been the same.

1047
01:15:51,080 --> 01:15:56,400
Let's go after the superintendents, let's flip the boards, let's go after the books and

1048
01:15:56,400 --> 01:15:57,080
the standards.

1049
01:15:59,960 --> 01:16:04,460
There's a book about this, a mother's of mass resistance if you want to fact check me,

1050
01:16:04,460 --> 01:16:07,560
that unpacks the last 140 years of our industry.

1051
01:16:08,440 --> 01:16:12,700
And we'll ask you all to read it because I hope

1052
01:16:12,700 --> 01:16:15,500
you are now more inspired than ever to do this work.

1053
01:16:15,660 --> 01:16:16,640
We know what to do.

1054
01:16:16,840 --> 01:16:17,820
We know how to do it.

1055
01:16:18,060 --> 01:16:21,560
We also know what's happening, what the resistance is

1056
01:16:21,560 --> 01:16:22,160
looking like.

1057
01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:24,460
And my mama would say, I'm going to give you our two last

1058
01:16:24,460 --> 01:16:25,440
mama quotes and I'm going to be done.

1059
01:16:25,900 --> 01:16:30,200
She would say, if you know what's going to happen,

1060
01:16:30,360 --> 01:16:31,440
you can plan for it.

1061
01:16:32,980 --> 01:16:36,440
And when you can plan for it, you can be unbothered.

1062
01:16:37,920 --> 01:16:39,960
I'm now unbothered more than ever before.

1063
01:16:41,240 --> 01:16:42,640
And the last thing she said to me,

1064
01:16:42,660 --> 01:16:43,980
which is what I'll say to y'all before,

1065
01:16:44,520 --> 01:16:45,880
we send y'all off to the next thing.

1066
01:16:47,220 --> 01:16:49,180
Doing this work, it's like a relay race.

1067
01:16:50,360 --> 01:16:52,640
We do, we do, we find joy, we find love,

1068
01:16:52,860 --> 01:16:54,520
we do, we smile, we struggle,

1069
01:16:54,900 --> 01:16:56,900
and then we hand it off to somebody else.

1070
01:16:57,420 --> 01:16:58,040
She said to me,

1071
01:16:58,760 --> 01:17:01,540
If you do this work well, you won't survive it.

1072
01:17:02,160 --> 01:17:03,500
The resistance will be fierce.

1073
01:17:03,880 --> 01:17:09,140
She had predicted the death threats and the websites that her son has to experience on

1074
01:17:09,140 --> 01:17:11,120
the daily basis before she passed.

1075
01:17:12,260 --> 01:17:13,120
See, you won't survive it.

1076
01:17:13,320 --> 01:17:18,120
But what I hope I've done, Louvel, and what I hope I've done, which all today, it's inspired

1077
01:17:18,120 --> 01:17:19,840
somebody to take my place when I'm gone.

1078
01:17:20,800 --> 01:17:21,600
I love you.

1079
01:17:21,720 --> 01:17:22,940
Thank you so much for this opportunity.

1080
01:17:36,560 --> 01:17:37,160
Thank you.

1081
01:17:37,160 --> 01:17:38,040
That's

1082
01:17:44,530 --> 01:17:44,930
all right.