← Tenet #3 – It’s Not About Arriving. It’s About Striving.
“The skills that you can learn at school will not be applicable.
The absence of hope, created in part for some of our students through the daily reminders that they failed, serves to put those students on long term losing streaks. Streaks for which there seems to be no end point. Disappointment leads to Discouragement. Discouragement leads to Disengagement. And, sadly, Disengagement is a short step away from Disappearance. These students leave our system with minimal skills and even less hope. In these situations poor choices are often the only choice. The law of survival supersedes the laws of the land. As Martin Luther King stated: “A riot is the language of the unheard.” We can lament as adults that we no longer feel safe in our communities or that we need more jail cells or more “tough on crime” politicians and judges. Or we can recognize that our time is now with the kids we have to be those merchants of hope.