good afternoon so I want to start with
the story a story actually that happened
just a few short weeks ago I was driving
and I ended up going to the high school
I graduated from I went into the high
school office and I picked up my
academic transcripts and once I picked
up my transcripts I went back to my car
and I sat down in my car and I opened
them up and the first thing I saw were
the classes that I took and right away I
began to have multiple flashbacks so I
went back to the 80s and I don’t know
about you but going back to the 80s is
kind of a scary thing so here I am is
like a scene from Hot Tub Time Machine
all right if you ever saw that movie and
don’t pretend you didn’t see that movie
because you have so I go back into the
80s and I remember I had a Members Only
jacket I remember my parachute pants and
all the men here I know you had a mullet
at some point so mine was short on the
top feathery in the back and I remember
the girls at the time had shoulder pads
that were bigger than the jet team and
the leg warmers so having flashbacks and
then I look at the other column in my or
on my high school transcripts and I see
my grades and once I see my grades I
start remembering other things one is
well I graduated in the bottom 10% of my
class that’s very hard for me to say
knowing what I do for a living and it
actually reminds me of a very
interesting quote that I stumbled across
a few short weeks ago when you are in
school you are taught a lesson and then
given a test and in life you are given a
test that teaches you a lesson
and for me I totally remember failing
lots of tests not only in school but in
life and I remember the lessons that I
learned
so not only did I graduate in the bottom
10% but my guidance counselor said I
really was in college material and so
once that experience was over I started
thinking well it’s interesting I don’t
know what I’m good at and I don’t know
how good I can be at something I don’t
know where my talents are and I don’t
know where my potential is and how much
of the lid
I may have so with that I started
thinking about school and the one thing
about school is we all have this shared
experience of being in school good bad
or indifferent right we are in school
whether it’s a public or a private K
through 12 we are there 14,000 hours we
are in school now for something that
could be a good thing for some you’re
like I can’t wait to get out of this box
of being in school for quite so long so
interesting enough the shared experience
of being in school it brings back
memories I can guarantee you if I ask
you who your favorite teacher is you can
remember like it’s yesterday whether
it’s 10 years ago 20 30 years ago it
doesn’t matter but for me my K through
12 experience can be summed up with
light bulbs for distinctive images that
I think many of us can relate to a light
bulb that’s on a light bulb that is
flickering a light bulb that is often a
light bulb that is shattered and I think
this is has happened for generations of
people who have been through a school
system in elementary school I loved
being and I just loved being in school I
remember it so much I remember all the
things I got to do there was lots of
play there was lots of creative
opportunities my teacher used to come in
with their guitar I don’t remember the
magic garden I always thought she was
one of the you know I gotta stand in at
some point just an amazing experience so
my light bulb was about 120 120 once I
moved up to junior high and I graduated
I remember that I wanted to be a
laughter or I thought I could be a
doctor but what happened in junior high
that I think is indicative of our school
systems is that we started ranking and
sorting kids at a very early age even
back in the 70s and 80s smart kids went
to these classes other kids went to
those classes and that really stuck in
my craw for a very long time in fact it
was part of my honest a downward spiral
but I was disengaged from school and so
after that when I went to high school
because my lightbulb was flickering in
junior high it was off by the time I hit
10th grade I’m going to throw another
80s reference out there from The
Breakfast Club I wanted to be John
bender so John bender was really cool by
that time I was a class clown and by the
time I graduated barely graduated high
school my lightbulb was shattered I
couldn’t wait to get out and I swore I’d
never go back into a school system again
clearly I lied to myself and I became a
teacher which is a wonderful calling for
those of us who are in education because
it is and over 20 years I have seen the
education landscape change and not for
the better
so seeing it from a teacher’s
perspective from a principals
perspective an assistant superintendent
and now the fortunate opportunity to
work as a superintendent with a
it’s very interesting what has been
happening within our school systems
itself and here’s my first example it
may be hard to see but I’ll just share
this with you as far as what this
statistic is back in 2015 in October
council of big city schools it was a
survey of 66 urban school districts
across the great nation of the United
States they quantified on average a
child starting in pre-kindergarten so
we’re talking pre-k
kindergarten we’re talking before
kindergarten all the way up through 12th
grade takes an average of 112
standardized tests before they graduate
112 I didn’t misspeak when I said that
112 that actually equates to 250 hours
of tests and if you further that it’s 40
school days that is a massive amount of
time to focus on testing children
ranking and sorting children and the
question is what is it for what do we
get out of that what is the return on
that investment so basically the present
paradigm I hate to even use that word
but the system that we are now enveloped
with and under consists of two main
focal points English language arts and
mathematics
thanks to No Child Left Behind which
came about in 2003 it federally mandated
every single school system public school
system to take assessments in grades
three through eight now the bottom line
is if you’re in kindergarten through 2nd
grade you’re still preparing kids to
take those tests which means we are
attempting to get children college and
career ready when they’re five-year-olds
when we should be having making sure
that they’re having friends and
developing relationships and loving
school so we start this and when you
look at this particular formula which I
don’t think has fared very well you look
at repressed talents and potential
because ultimately the reason why we
have our children go to school is to
reduce their talents and potential and
that isn’t happening
right now so I don’t know about you but
I love the show Undercover Boss anybody
here liked the show Undercover Boss now
I don’t know about you I always know
what’s going to happen in the end but I
still cry I mean like what’s wrong with
me you know the boss is gonna go
surprise here’s $10,000
so in this school system working with a
wonderful executive team that I work
with and administrators and my
outstanding teachers who are just out of
this world they have allowed me to
shadow students that’s not one of them
because I saved this particular young
lady who is my four year old Sadie and
Sadie happens to have Down syndrome and
here’s the thing that sticks in my craw
with the current system that I shadowed
is that it’s not built for children such
as her and I hate to use the word
children with special needs I hate to
think about english-language learners
and what it means for them all these
labels all these classifications when
the bottom line is we are all people and
they are all children thank you and the
bottom line is what happens to them as
they enter this system because it’s not
built for them and we have to change
that narrative so we will and here’s how
it starts you see the lens of a child’s
day through their perspective and let me
tell you something shadowing a child but
the full day whether it’s kindergarten
all the way up through twelfth grade it
is an exhausting experience and I’m
still recovering barely made it out here
but it’s one of the best things I ever
did and I recommend this to every
administrator who may be watching this
at some point because the reason why we
are here doing our job from a leadership
standpoint is all in the name of making
the best decisions for them so we want
to figure out what’s working and what’s
not working so through our teachers and
our administrators and shadowing
students there are lots of things that I
learned three of them our children need
to play and they need to play often
children also need recess and I’m not
talking about a scratch-and-sniff recess
for five minutes
I’m talking about recess where it’s
child directed and the third thing I
learned is that children need to learn
how to self-regulate their emotions
these are all skills that we certainly
need as adults but we specifically need
to teach them I call it the Batman
utility belt we need to make sure they
have enough items in their tool belt to
make sure that they are ready to rock
and roll once they leave this system so
two quick stories one is when I was
playing kickball with a third-grade
class family I’m gonna throw another
movie out there Billy Madison I don’t
know if you love that so I was ready I’m
ready to play I’m getting all serious we
you know we divvy divide the teams up we
go outside I’m ready to kick the ball in
the whistle blows and I’m like what is
going on are you kidding me I have to go
back inside now I’m ready to kick this
ball a mile
and I have to go back inside now I can
imagine how children feel when that
happens and it happens to them every
single day during that time that’s
sacred time the other one is and this at
the high school level I shadowed this
beautiful just so intelligent young
woman she took all AP classes so I’m
thinking I am NOT smart I am not smart
I’m going from one class to the other I
think I had five thousand steps in my
Fitbit by the time the third period came
around and she bypassed lunch and she
took a course instead so her day is take
a class took a class took a class and
these are hard classes after school of
taking all these classes than what she
would do is she would have a club after
school then she would have a sport for
two or three hours and then she have
about three hours of homework and then
it’s rinse and repeat rinse and repeat
every single day and we wonder why some
of our children are anxious and or
depressed so what we did in our school
system and I’m very thankful for this we
doubled recess thanks again to a
progressive Board of Education and
wonderful faculty we went from 20
minutes to 40 minutes and let me tell
you it’s like the floodgates opened I
have never seen so many children smiling
before in my life happy to be in school
when I talk to teachers administrators
parents because that feedback is so
important you see kids just releasing
all this energy because it’s so
important what we also did was we
brought play back into school
meaning that in kindergarten first
second grade it is so important to bring
back the kitchen sets the blocks the
Legos the Lincoln Logs that were
scrapped because we were so prepared
getting kids ready for 112 tests that
they have to endure very important and
then I think most important is we
brought mindfulness into our schools for
the social and emotional regulation of
of how we can deal with things as they
move through our
yoga mindfulness meditation very very
important which leads me to where I
believe school systems should be going
and this is an acronym that’s very easy
to remember P EAS physical growth plus
emotional growth plus academic growth
plus social growth so physical emotional
academic and social growth if you have
all of those pieces together you will
maximize human potential and the talents
that every single child has it’s very
simple and it’s steeped in research but
as far as us moving it forward
we’re hitting barriers across this great
nation for some reason so the CDC just
came out with the report not too long
ago just a few months ago and it
highlights the importance of recess and
play it highlights it to the point where
you almost scratch yourself scratch your
head and you say why aren’t we doing
this because right now recess and play
are on the endangered species list soon
to be extinct and we need to make sure
we bring that back because if you have
those two components you have improved
concentration you have improved focus
you have improved social and emotional
skills that is and this is the trick it
needs to be child directed our kids are
so over scheduled from the moment they
wake up until the moment they go to bed
we tell them what to do how long they do
it for what to wear when to go to bed
they need time to make their own
decisions it’s so important the Long
Island Center for mindfulness also has
all specific pieces of research and
literature on there as far as what
mindfulness does it decreases anxiety it
decreases depression so so important and
to think like I said before this isn’t
rocket science so what we need to do is
to get Boards of Education we need to
get superintendents we need to get
school communities our teachers our
administrators on board and say listen
there is no hierarchy when it comes to
these four components it’s not academic
and then everything else is secondary
and tertiary everything else is equally
as important and that means and this may
be hard for some of us to hear but too
bad I’m going to share it anyway because
music and art are just as important as
ap science physical education and gym
which people you know they think it’s
like the same thing and there is no gym
there is no gym it’s physical education
and of course we’re talking about recess
it’s just as important as social studies
it’s just as important as language arts
and we have to thank you we have to get
rid of the higher status of what we feel
is most important and break it down to
all four it’s interesting a great man
once said that the symbol of the United
States isn’t the bald eagle
it’s the pendulum and when the pendulum
swings too far in one direction it will
swing back our collective responsibility
is to ensure that we take this
educational pendulum all of us
collectively and we hang on to it and
make sure it goes back right in the
middle where there’s balance Pease is
balanced where we are focusing on all
those different components we are not
standardizing children anymore they are
not widgets and ultimately in the end in
the end when we move this system into
the right direction we will make sure no
other light bulbs are ever shattered again thank