“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 ›
Education
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 ›
Buckle Up: Raising Kids and Raising Questions in Public Schools
“And right away her gaze went hard with the anger we always feel at the person who spoils our idea of ourself.” ― Susan Choi, Trust Exercise You’d think that after more than a decade of writing this blog, I’d… Read More ›
America at 249, Me at 60
“Love and loss, are like a ship and the sea. They rise together. The more we love, the more we have to lose. But the only way to avoid loss is to avoid love. And what a sad world that… Read More ›
Eyes Cast Backwards
“all these are but dreams and shadows; the shadows that hide the real world from our eyes.” ― Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan Much of this month has been spent traveling the byways and highways of the American South. The… Read More ›
Dad Gone Wild 