“What we found,” says Olivia, “is that when you give students a chance to be authors of their own learning, it creates a more authentic experience—one that helps them build the future they want for themselves.” Patterson, C. (2020).

This week's guests for High Tech High's Graduate School for Education, Leading Innovative Schools class, were co-founders of arguably the most innovative school in Colorado which was denied funding to continue, Wisdom Amouzou (principal) and Olivia Jones. Empower Community High School relied on a diverse network of supporters and had the vision statement of "It's Our World". I cried, clapped and yelled out loud through the whole thing!  Our instructors, Dr. Kevin Bryant and Paul Yumbla, M.Ed. reminded us to keep asking ourselves the essential question we are to answer in our upcoming project presentation:  Should we continue to innovate or abolish the current school system?

Wisdom is an incredible communicator as you can experience for yourself in some of the videos podcasts included here. Here are my takeaways from tonight's conversation:

Don't rely on old systems that are birthed In power. There is such a saying as "catching hell" in America.  For those that can't go to a public bathroom without  fear of dying, they are catching hell in America. And THOSE are the kids that should be designing our schools to be different. 

Love and Power in public.  That is what we are here for. Love is indeed powerful and it ought to speak louder than any system.  Love should be the system.

Struggles in systems:

• Talent!  To find people who have the capacity to do school differently and can align with new school love values Is a struggle. Adults are seeped in fear from growing up in our systems.  It's very hard to break what they are trained in and free them. Not everyone wants to be freed.

• Public system hurdles like enrollment, fundraising, State accountability measures and more make leading a new school, or any school, hard.

• Fear kills everything!!  It is sneaky too.  People create and recreeate what they've experienced. The adults will actively diable innovation due to the baggage they bring to the workplace. In the end, what an adult is doing with a child between the hours of 8 and 4pm Is the power of learning and love.  It is everything, and if they cannot lead with love then they are the wrong talent to have in the position.

We must hire talent that have an emergent strategy and mindset! We are relationally driven leaders.

EMBODY THE LESSON.  This was the single biggest takeaway I've seen in my 27 year career over and again. Do what you expect in the classroom to the adults you lead. Always embody what you want people to do!  Create spaces of joy for yourself. Let the soul lead, not the ego.  When the soul is leading you can see it in the way an adult can model humility to a child. 

LOVE is what holds the mission and vision together.

Be a change agent. Can you stay strong?  Forces are coming to try and stop 

innovation. Buzz words don't reach the practitioner's actual work to pull off all the beautiful things. 

I love what Empower Community Schools did and would argue that it was not a failure, rather a result of a flawed public system that made failure inevitable. I feel similarly about my school, Connect Academy, which is also now closing due to enrollment and budget cuts, despite its most innovative, equitable, and culture making impact on students. Is our closure a failure?  Or a sytem that made it unlikely to succeed? Grand questions to consider and find our path toward making schools that are truly empowering. 

References:

Patterson, C. (202). Rooted in Community, A School Built on Collaboration. Rooted in Opportunity. Walton Family Foundation. https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/stories/k-12-education/rooted-in-community-a-school-built-on-collaboration

Spotify for Podcasters. (May 2020). Empower Community High School in Aurora, CO. https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/4pt0/episodes/Empower-Community-High-School-in-Aurora--CO-eej5ni

Transcend; Liberatory School Design Hub. (n/d). Empower Community School. https://sites.google.com/transcendeducation.org/antiracist-school-resource-hub/empower-community-school