In season one, Anashay “Teach Em” Wright is the first Bored Member introduced to listeners. Episode 2 is a 32 minute challenge to disrupt your status quo and accept a new responsibility in your child’s education, in your community, and within your school district.
Anashay is the founder and Chief Executive Disruptor of Disruptive Partners, where she and her team work with districts to “advance sustainable change within systems and institutions for generations to come”. At a time when a viral pandemic brought the education system to a screeching halt, Anashay is bold enough to ask, “what can I glean from this”. This perspective repositions us from a reactive stance and inspires us to think critically about our current system and reflect its successes and shortcomings. Then and only then, Anashay argues, can we create diversity, build equity, and foster meaningful inclusion.
Consider this: in four months a virus removed testing, teacher evaluations, and disciplinary actions for misuse of technology. Learners “out of uniform” are still signed in for class. High-energy movers and shakers are still moving and shaking but more prepared to access the curriculum. Introverts and shy learners can “show what they know” in the comfort of their own homes. All this is not to say the brick and mortar buildings are obsolete but perhaps, our expectations for how the system functions within the building are.
So what can we do to ensure going back to the building doesn’t mean going back to a time when our education system didn’t work for all of our children? Anashay challenges parents:
- You invest 12+ years in your child’s education; come to the table, as a shareholder.
- Pause, disrupt your thinking, and examine the definition of “excellence”.
- Define “excellence” for your child and prepare to pursue and demand it with purpose.
Feel the pressure yet?
Dust yourself off a bit, Anashay doesn’t leave us in the lurch. She leaves us with uplifting and encouraging words; her life’s work.
Disruption doesn’t just stop. Everyday you die to yourself and rise into humanity.
You rise into what is right, what is just, what is good, and what is perfectly imperfect.
Catch this episode and others on www.theboredofed.com or wherever you tune in to podcasts.
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