Since the last post featuring Hugh Price, I’ve been thinking a lot about the way information about the Civil Rights Movement has been passed to me from lions that participated in it.
Receiving that energy directly from those sources has influenced considerations of my own purpose. But now, there is a gap of a generation or two in between those lions and those on the front lines of newer political movements like Black Lives Matter movement, and other more spontaneous protests.
It was my original intention for this next post to dig into that gap and think more deeply about what it means. But then my 7-12th grade alma mater, Providence Country Day School (PCD) in East Providence, Rhode Island, asked me to join their board of trustees. This offer is meaningful in a great number of ways.
Primarily, in an earlier post, I described what it was like being the solitary, lower-middle-class, African American at a small, independent, private New England school. Everything about your identity always seemed subject to scrutiny. As I inhabited that space in my large afro, music, and neighborhood— the used cars we drove to school in, the labels inside my off-brand oxfords might be discussed in their profound oddity. So my inclusion is somewhat iconoclastic.
This invitation is also meaningful because it presents the challenge of converting my turbulent time into actionable counsel. It does not justify or erase confrontations I experienced on and off campus, but it does give them meaning. As I look forward to an eventual board orientation, I find myself asking again the question, “What does a good education look like?” Answers will enhance the insight I share.
A third reason to be grateful is the connection this will provide to my elementary school. Henry Barnard School, a K-6 laboratory school that was run by Rhode Island College until 2020 has merged with PCD. While the formal parts of the merger have been completed, the more practical pieces still have to be integrated. This is also work in which I can participate.
Professionally, I still have a far way to go to meet my own expectations. But in the meantime, I can use my 25+ years of experience in the education space to give it meaning. I will invest a substantial part of it into the future of the schools at the beginning of my own path.
