for the past 20 years I’ve dedicated my
life to education to educating students
of poverty to educating students that
have come from all corners of the globe
and represent all the cultures and
languages of the world these same
students have taught me that the prize
in life it’s not about how rich you are
how much money you make or how much
money is in your bank account or the
positions that your own life is about
the opportunity that you get to impact
the world around you to make a
difference to leave a legacy just over a
year ago today I assume the role of
principal in my new school a middle
school with students ranging in the ages
from 11 to 14 of about 1,100 students
sit in a community struggling to keep
its head above water with high poverty
crime and drugs our school was also
facing huge challenges from high staff
turnover to issues of discipline and
significant underachievement anything
that had really been said or written
about our school is probably true we
were in all actual fact one of the
toughest schools in the state of
Virginia the students of my school were
a magnified image of many of the
challenges facing educators and
communities around the world today our
students are coming to school facing
more and more trauma poverty and
socio-economic issues many of our
students wouldn’t have families and live
with different types of relatives many
of our students were grown up coming
torn from war-torn countries many of our
students even today was struggling just
to do some of the simplest of
educational activities such as reading
writing and being able to do math
recently I sat down with a student and
we we had a conversation around over
Google Translate and he talked about
coming from a country that where he saw
his relatives torn apart by war violence
and that he was coming to America to
live there
American dream of freedom and prosperity
some of our students were just trying to
make it each and every day on another
occasion i sat with a student who looked
really upset as somebody I can’t deeply
about when I pulled him aside to talk to
him about the challenges he was facing
he said his father just being
incarcerated and no student was ready to
be able to do learning at that point
many of these students reminded me of my
own stories growing up I failed school
academically I failed many of my exams
my parents separated and when I grew up
I grew up around what I thought was
normal but turned out to be not when I
later in life I learned it wasn’t normal
I found out that growing up around too
much drugs and alcohol at an early age a
teacher told my mother that I wasn’t
very smart that I was dumb I should be
retained no parent should ever hear that
no mother should ever hear that later on
a teacher asked me what did I want to do
when I grew up and right at that time
the movie Top Gun was really popular and
all I could think about was being a jet
fighter pilot but again I was told I
wasn’t smart enough and then just before
going to college went to going to
Teachers College
the school counselor said that’s not for
you you’re not academic enough these
stories and seeing my story and seeing
the stories of my children they helped
me remind to remind me to stay grounded
to stay focused to sink humbled to build
strong relationships to care about my
kids to care about my community to care
about those students because you can’t
serve somebody that you think you’re
better then so this is why all these
experience have driven me to disrupt the
status quo to change the game to be
relentless to not be told what to do and
how to do it to educate this way just
because it’s being done that way I was
going to change the game and disrupt the
norm to be better for my kids I took
over his staff my staff had been
struggling my staff had been
teaching out of compliance ticking the
box looking for motivation inspiration
looking to be unleashed I said to my
staff relax I love you I’ve got your
back let go teach on fire you have the
green light teach authentic relevant
learning experiences and don’t cheat out
of fear teach out of passion and
remember what you started
when we came together on the first day
we came together to build relationships
together and we build relationships on a
field trip with our entire staff we went
and learned from our leaders that were
right in front of us in the monuments of
Washington DC I said to our teachers
let’s be relentless let’s have each
other’s back let’s have fun let’s play
let’s learn let’s make somebody’s day
let’s take back our school and take back
education let’s do education the way
education was meant to be done with the
green light I put my office in the
middle of the school the students
business is my business and I painted
the wall I painted graffiti’d up the
front of my office and I painted the
words on the on the front of my door
words that said all in and relentless
one day I was standing behind the door
and I listened as some students walked
by and a student said he’s not leaving
at that moment at that very moment I
knew the students were on that journey
was fortunate that I had the full
support of my school division the people
around me
we started off needing to overhaul our
entire school we started off with a
mirror like this in the main corridor
that was the centerpiece of everything
that wasn’t right about our school and
we took a sledgehammer to it this summer
you see we changed the expectation of
our school we raised the expectation for
instruction for the vocabulary the
scenes of things that our students would
see and around our school we changed
what it looked like we brought daylight
bulbs we brightened up the school the
hallways we put some of the world’s most
amazing leaders and game changes in
front of them you see the expectation
you set for your school becomes the
expectation of everybody we raised the
expectation for all of us and we raised
the expectation for our students we
asked them whether they wanted their
legacy to be we changed the vocabulary
of our building we talked about leaving
nobody behind we talked about our school
as a fortress to stand on the wall to
protect each other we talked about one
more round we taught the kids
one more round that if you get knocked
down in life you get back up again again
and again and again and you can’t be
beat these became the traits and
expectation of our school and who puts a
boxing ring in the middle of one of the
toughest schools in Virginia I did we
started to celebrate we celebrated any
chance we had any opportunity we had to
celebrate we would celebrate included
including impromptu decembe Lee’s we
asked our students we surprised almost
at highest academic performing students
with a surprise assembly when they come
back winning battle of the brains we
brought everybody out we celebrated
backlight parties we brought out our
learning alive we went to unlimited
field trips we did it all
we had fun again we believed in our
students you see when we changed our
expectation around instruction and what
was happening in the classroom we went
away from tips books and hundreds of
worksheets we said let’s be authentic
relevant and real we talked about
inspiring our kids not requiring we
talked about motivating and not
alienating our students we asked our
students to take ownership of their
learning to be one with it to be
involved we started talking about
characteristics and traits such as love
and kindness every day I get on the
speaker and I stop the day by telling
the kids if somebody didn’t tell you
today that they love you mr. Brue is
telling you today that he loves you you
see I didn’t hear that word enough
growing up and I wanted to make sure
that my kids and anybody I came into
contact we’ve got to hear that word
every single time this is what I want
you to do I want you to turn and talk
turn to the person next to you and tell
them right now someone special with you
you see you see the power of love you
see what we just did imagine if every
school had that feeling and sense of
pride and love in their building and I
tell you what make sure that you use
that word and share it because you never
know when the last time will be when you
hear that word this year this year was
one of the hottest I went through one of
the hardest things as a principal one of
the hardest things that I lived my
school through this year we lost a
student to youth suicide I would do
everything I could and more I’d give it
all up today to have one more
conversation with that child I’d give it
all up today to have one more
conversation with him you see we need to
be the advocate for every single child
we need to be the voice for the silent
voice for the every single child every
single child deserves to have an
advocate and adult somebody they can
I’d give it all up today to have one
more conversation with him you see we
taught our kids that life doesn’t give
you a handout there’s no cookies in life
you don’t get a trophy because you
participated we taught our kids to earn
it we showed you how to be relentless to
go one more round but you you had to own
it you have to do it because when
nobody’s watching we find out who you
are who are you that’s your legacy when
our parents give us their most prized
position their child
it doesn’t matter their circumstance
they give us their most prized
possession we say we don’t just enroll
students we enroll fam
we made everything free we stopped
asking our parents to to pay for
something go to be in charge of
something we asked them to participate
and we filled our stadiums and the
parents came out and came back here’s
what I’m gonna tell you our children are
an opportunity not an obligation we
don’t get to pick and choose which
children come through our doors each and
every day you don’t get to choose who
succeeds and who fails and worse no you
don’t get to choose who’s gonna join the
pipeline to prison and our school was
not gonna be a pipeline to prison we
were not going to negotiate on our
children we’re not going to negotiate
our children our families or each other
we were all in I will go through a brick
wall and back again for my students and
staff how far are you willing to go we
asked our kids what’s your legacy what
do you want to be remembered for your
futures whom you hang out with what do
you want your future to be what do you
want your legacy to be when you come
down the hallway when you walk down the
hallway when people see you coming what
will they say about you we asked our
teachers what would they say about you
when you look in the mirror each and
every day you have an opportunity to
have a personal conversation with
yourself and you’re the only one that
can answer the questions I ask myself
every day was I better for kids did
every decision I make was I better for
kids today did I leave it all on the
line for every single child because
remember that’s someone’s most prized
position when you look in the mirror can
you say you were better for each other
better for your colleagues and better
you see this year we live down legacy we
live down legacy we fought we showed the
whole world what we could do
we had a slogan called rise up and our
8th grade graduation we celebrated we
said we’re no longer rising up but went
back we’re here to stay and we’re going
nowhere
just this last week the state of
Virginia was able to officially announce
that my school was fully accredited for
you see we lived out legacy we lived it
through tears heartache we showed what
love what a school board built on love
respect and legacy can do I would like
to leave you with this reflection of
legacy today growing up in New Zealand I
learnt the power of people to power
respecting your elders respecting those
around you making those around you
better being there for each other
leaving the place better than you found
it to advocate for the silent voice to
advocate for every single child that
every single person matters that’s
legacy and I’m gonna leave you with this
question a teacher taught me this and it
asks the most famous question of them
all what is the most important thing in
the world and I’m asking you all it
tonight what is the most important thing
in the world it’s he hung it up he hung
it up
he tongue a time it is the people it is the people it is the people
life to education to educating students
of poverty to educating students that
have come from all corners of the globe
and represent all the cultures and
languages of the world these same
students have taught me that the prize
in life it’s not about how rich you are
how much money you make or how much
money is in your bank account or the
positions that your own life is about
the opportunity that you get to impact
the world around you to make a
difference to leave a legacy just over a
year ago today I assume the role of
principal in my new school a middle
school with students ranging in the ages
from 11 to 14 of about 1,100 students
sit in a community struggling to keep
its head above water with high poverty
crime and drugs our school was also
facing huge challenges from high staff
turnover to issues of discipline and
significant underachievement anything
that had really been said or written
about our school is probably true we
were in all actual fact one of the
toughest schools in the state of
Virginia the students of my school were
a magnified image of many of the
challenges facing educators and
communities around the world today our
students are coming to school facing
more and more trauma poverty and
socio-economic issues many of our
students wouldn’t have families and live
with different types of relatives many
of our students were grown up coming
torn from war-torn countries many of our
students even today was struggling just
to do some of the simplest of
educational activities such as reading
writing and being able to do math
recently I sat down with a student and
we we had a conversation around over
Google Translate and he talked about
coming from a country that where he saw
his relatives torn apart by war violence
and that he was coming to America to
live there
American dream of freedom and prosperity
some of our students were just trying to
make it each and every day on another
occasion i sat with a student who looked
really upset as somebody I can’t deeply
about when I pulled him aside to talk to
him about the challenges he was facing
he said his father just being
incarcerated and no student was ready to
be able to do learning at that point
many of these students reminded me of my
own stories growing up I failed school
academically I failed many of my exams
my parents separated and when I grew up
I grew up around what I thought was
normal but turned out to be not when I
later in life I learned it wasn’t normal
I found out that growing up around too
much drugs and alcohol at an early age a
teacher told my mother that I wasn’t
very smart that I was dumb I should be
retained no parent should ever hear that
no mother should ever hear that later on
a teacher asked me what did I want to do
when I grew up and right at that time
the movie Top Gun was really popular and
all I could think about was being a jet
fighter pilot but again I was told I
wasn’t smart enough and then just before
going to college went to going to
Teachers College
the school counselor said that’s not for
you you’re not academic enough these
stories and seeing my story and seeing
the stories of my children they helped
me remind to remind me to stay grounded
to stay focused to sink humbled to build
strong relationships to care about my
kids to care about my community to care
about those students because you can’t
serve somebody that you think you’re
better then so this is why all these
experience have driven me to disrupt the
status quo to change the game to be
relentless to not be told what to do and
how to do it to educate this way just
because it’s being done that way I was
going to change the game and disrupt the
norm to be better for my kids I took
over his staff my staff had been
struggling my staff had been
teaching out of compliance ticking the
box looking for motivation inspiration
looking to be unleashed I said to my
staff relax I love you I’ve got your
back let go teach on fire you have the
green light teach authentic relevant
learning experiences and don’t cheat out
of fear teach out of passion and
remember what you started
when we came together on the first day
we came together to build relationships
together and we build relationships on a
field trip with our entire staff we went
and learned from our leaders that were
right in front of us in the monuments of
Washington DC I said to our teachers
let’s be relentless let’s have each
other’s back let’s have fun let’s play
let’s learn let’s make somebody’s day
let’s take back our school and take back
education let’s do education the way
education was meant to be done with the
green light I put my office in the
middle of the school the students
business is my business and I painted
the wall I painted graffiti’d up the
front of my office and I painted the
words on the on the front of my door
words that said all in and relentless
one day I was standing behind the door
and I listened as some students walked
by and a student said he’s not leaving
at that moment at that very moment I
knew the students were on that journey
was fortunate that I had the full
support of my school division the people
around me
we started off needing to overhaul our
entire school we started off with a
mirror like this in the main corridor
that was the centerpiece of everything
that wasn’t right about our school and
we took a sledgehammer to it this summer
you see we changed the expectation of
our school we raised the expectation for
instruction for the vocabulary the
scenes of things that our students would
see and around our school we changed
what it looked like we brought daylight
bulbs we brightened up the school the
hallways we put some of the world’s most
amazing leaders and game changes in
front of them you see the expectation
you set for your school becomes the
expectation of everybody we raised the
expectation for all of us and we raised
the expectation for our students we
asked them whether they wanted their
legacy to be we changed the vocabulary
of our building we talked about leaving
nobody behind we talked about our school
as a fortress to stand on the wall to
protect each other we talked about one
more round we taught the kids
one more round that if you get knocked
down in life you get back up again again
and again and again and you can’t be
beat these became the traits and
expectation of our school and who puts a
boxing ring in the middle of one of the
toughest schools in Virginia I did we
started to celebrate we celebrated any
chance we had any opportunity we had to
celebrate we would celebrate included
including impromptu decembe Lee’s we
asked our students we surprised almost
at highest academic performing students
with a surprise assembly when they come
back winning battle of the brains we
brought everybody out we celebrated
backlight parties we brought out our
learning alive we went to unlimited
field trips we did it all
we had fun again we believed in our
students you see when we changed our
expectation around instruction and what
was happening in the classroom we went
away from tips books and hundreds of
worksheets we said let’s be authentic
relevant and real we talked about
inspiring our kids not requiring we
talked about motivating and not
alienating our students we asked our
students to take ownership of their
learning to be one with it to be
involved we started talking about
characteristics and traits such as love
and kindness every day I get on the
speaker and I stop the day by telling
the kids if somebody didn’t tell you
today that they love you mr. Brue is
telling you today that he loves you you
see I didn’t hear that word enough
growing up and I wanted to make sure
that my kids and anybody I came into
contact we’ve got to hear that word
every single time this is what I want
you to do I want you to turn and talk
turn to the person next to you and tell
them right now someone special with you
you see you see the power of love you
see what we just did imagine if every
school had that feeling and sense of
pride and love in their building and I
tell you what make sure that you use
that word and share it because you never
know when the last time will be when you
hear that word this year this year was
one of the hottest I went through one of
the hardest things as a principal one of
the hardest things that I lived my
school through this year we lost a
student to youth suicide I would do
everything I could and more I’d give it
all up today to have one more
conversation with that child I’d give it
all up today to have one more
conversation with him you see we need to
be the advocate for every single child
we need to be the voice for the silent
voice for the every single child every
single child deserves to have an
advocate and adult somebody they can
I’d give it all up today to have one
more conversation with him you see we
taught our kids that life doesn’t give
you a handout there’s no cookies in life
you don’t get a trophy because you
participated we taught our kids to earn
it we showed you how to be relentless to
go one more round but you you had to own
it you have to do it because when
nobody’s watching we find out who you
are who are you that’s your legacy when
our parents give us their most prized
position their child
it doesn’t matter their circumstance
they give us their most prized
possession we say we don’t just enroll
students we enroll fam
we made everything free we stopped
asking our parents to to pay for
something go to be in charge of
something we asked them to participate
and we filled our stadiums and the
parents came out and came back here’s
what I’m gonna tell you our children are
an opportunity not an obligation we
don’t get to pick and choose which
children come through our doors each and
every day you don’t get to choose who
succeeds and who fails and worse no you
don’t get to choose who’s gonna join the
pipeline to prison and our school was
not gonna be a pipeline to prison we
were not going to negotiate on our
children we’re not going to negotiate
our children our families or each other
we were all in I will go through a brick
wall and back again for my students and
staff how far are you willing to go we
asked our kids what’s your legacy what
do you want to be remembered for your
futures whom you hang out with what do
you want your future to be what do you
want your legacy to be when you come
down the hallway when you walk down the
hallway when people see you coming what
will they say about you we asked our
teachers what would they say about you
when you look in the mirror each and
every day you have an opportunity to
have a personal conversation with
yourself and you’re the only one that
can answer the questions I ask myself
every day was I better for kids did
every decision I make was I better for
kids today did I leave it all on the
line for every single child because
remember that’s someone’s most prized
position when you look in the mirror can
you say you were better for each other
better for your colleagues and better
you see this year we live down legacy we
live down legacy we fought we showed the
whole world what we could do
we had a slogan called rise up and our
8th grade graduation we celebrated we
said we’re no longer rising up but went
back we’re here to stay and we’re going
nowhere
just this last week the state of
Virginia was able to officially announce
that my school was fully accredited for
you see we lived out legacy we lived it
through tears heartache we showed what
love what a school board built on love
respect and legacy can do I would like
to leave you with this reflection of
legacy today growing up in New Zealand I
learnt the power of people to power
respecting your elders respecting those
around you making those around you
better being there for each other
leaving the place better than you found
it to advocate for the silent voice to
advocate for every single child that
every single person matters that’s
legacy and I’m gonna leave you with this
question a teacher taught me this and it
asks the most famous question of them
all what is the most important thing in
the world and I’m asking you all it
tonight what is the most important thing
in the world it’s he hung it up he hung
it up
he tongue a time it is the people it is the people it is the people
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