I am driven by creating opportunities for young people, for closing the opportunity gap.
I look at what elite private schools offer their young learners and then create, adjust, finagle, and hustle to try and ensure that students from less affluent public schools get the same chances to try new things. If a $25,000/year private school takes their Juniors snorkeling and kayaking, we need to offer the same to a kid from South LA.
They may be our next Jacques Cousteau. If the best schools in wealthy suburbs offer mastery level visual arts classes, then the kids of City Heights San Diego should get the same. They may be our next Georgia O’Keefe. If we invest in robotics classes at top tier college prep institutions, then we should build WALL.E in Roxbury too. Our next Melonee Wise may be ready to emerge there. What drives me? Pushing back on a system that has, for too long, accepted inequality in public education based almost exclusively on socio-economic status, drives me.
I choose to “push back” …not by complaining, but, by shining a bright light on programs, people, and policies that work. Quality after school programs that are meaningful, collaborative, active, mastery driven and that expand horizons work. So, I am driven to shine a light there!
I had a hardboiled egg and coffee for breakfast.
Author Profile: @blupien