“Don’t ever try to change her,’ my mother said, before she died. ‘The tusks of an elephant will never grow out of a dog’s mouth. You know that.” ― Mo Hayder, The Devil of Nanking From AI in the… Read More ›
Education
Compliance, Technology, and the Classroom: The Appearance vs. Reality Problem
“Tolerance isn’t just a discourse of power, it is also a discourse of conditionality; that is to say, you will be tolerated unless and until you behave in certain ways, at which point I will no longer tolerate you.” ―… Read More ›
🍩 Donuts, Loyalty Oaths, and a Mascot: What the Hell Is Going On at MNPS?
“There is only one kind of shock worse than the totally unexpected: the expected for which one has refused to prepare.” ― Mary Renault, The Charioteer Principals who showed up for Metro Nashville Public Schools’ regularly scheduled leadership meeting this… Read More ›
“Vouchers, AI, and the Loyalty Circus
“Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives who can disagree with you without fear of retaliation.” ― Doris Kearns Goodwin Vouchers and AI: The Two Policy Punchlines Two things that suck the air out… Read More ›
The Real Cost of Silence in Nashville Schools
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society.” — John F. Kennedy, in a speech before the American Newspaper Publishers Association, 1961 Three weeks ago, the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools Board announced a $6.5 million… Read More ›
First Day Blues, Lawsuit Clues, and Political Cues
The first day of school was always a day of mixed emotions, a fragile balance between fear and excitement, like standing on the edge of something vast and unknown.”— *R.J. Palacio, Wonder The alarm blares like a fire drill… Read More ›
The Bonus, the Bribe, and the Brilliant Mind
“I would replace the quality of sincerity with honesty, since one can hold a conviction sincerely without examining it, while honesty would require that one subject one’s convictions to frequent scrutiny.” ― Christopher Phillips, Socrates Cafe: A Fresh Taste of… Read More ›
What Happens When Leadership Fears Transparency
“The world is full of people who will help you manufacture tornados in order to blow out a match.” — Shaun Hick In less than a week, Tennessee students will walk back into classrooms for a new school year…. Read More ›
Silence, Settlements, and School Starts
“Life…is not a simple thread which is only extended in length, it is a large web or rather a network, from interval to interval, casts branches to the side in order to unite with networks of other order.” ― Jason… Read More ›
💥 Just Like That, It Was Done: How MNPS Quietly Bought Silence for $6.5 Million
“I was thinking about stabbing myself in the face—not actually considering stabbing myself in the face, but thinking that it would be a physical expression of how I felt.” ― Catherine Lacey, Nobody Is Ever Missing Just like that,… Read More ›
Dad Gone Wild 