In our very fast-paced world, sometimes it’s hard to stay focused on what matters. I just received a good reminder.
Jeff McClellan, principal of MC2STEM High School in Cleveland, Ohio, emailed me a link to an article about a student at his school, David Boone. I didn’t have to overcome barriers nearly as difficult as the ones faced by this young man, but I came from a working class, single-parent household (father died when I was 14) in the small town of Oxford, Ohio. I went on to be the first in my family to attend college. With encouragement, support and high expectations from a handful of teachers and principals, and despite discouragement from my guidance counselor, I graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1987 with a degree in Government.
My 25th Reunion will be held in Cambridge this week.
I worked alongside McClellan when he was a principal at Lima Senior High School of Multiple Intelligences as part of the Ohio High School Transformation Initiative. We all worked under the tenants that would later go into forming what EDWorks is today and Boone is just one reminder that what we’re doing works and that it matters.
Congratulations to McClellan and his entire team for seizing upon this young man’s potential and doing whatever it took to insure his success! It’s why we’re all in this work.
