Issue 42: Graduation

Noun. The receiving or conferring of an academic degree or diploma.

Image: Description: The author is on the right wearing a red graduation robe from her last graduation in 2019 from the University of Southern California. She has her arm around her daughter standing to her left in a blue sweatshirt. The daughter will be celebrating her own graduation this week.

Check-In:

I love graduation season.

I spent the last week traveling to Chicago, Boston, and New York City. I saw people in caps and gowns celebrating an academic achievement in every city. The pomp and circumstance that make up a graduation ceremony consistently brings a smile to my face.

I remember each of my graduations from kindergarten to doctorate. A different color gown each time, indoors and outdoors but I’m thankful to have had family be part of each one.

As a principal, graduation was my favorite day of the year. Our high school was for students who were overaged and under-credited. Graduation day was a culmination of a variety of hurdles that they each overcame to walk across the stage. It was such a moment of pride and celebration to hear student speakers and to pass out each diploma.

Graduation day also signaled the official end of another school year. My leadership team and teachers started planning for the next year months before but the official last day meant a time to appreciate all that had happened the last 9 months and ensure that we are achieving more and higher the next year.

Graduation also signals a separation from the familiar to the unfamiliar- a new job, location, and/or experience can bring excitement but a lot of angst. And if you have this rite of passage and you don’t move to something new, there can also be a feeling of failure.

This week, graduation celebrations become more personal. My daughter is graduating from high school. We have experienced a wave of emotions leading up to this week and expect to feel them all again when she walks across that stage but overall I’m thankful to have made it.

How are you recognizing the excitement and angst this graduation season?

#mondaymotivation: Oh, the Places You'll Go! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. -Dr. Seuss

Interview with a Leader of the Global Majority:

Marco Ibarro is a former middle school principal. I highlighted another excerpt of my interview with Marco in Issue 2: Stuck These comments are the personal reflections of Marco and his experiences, they do not reflect the opinions of his employer.

Mary: What are some of the challenges you are facing?

Marco: We applied this lens of courageous conversation to address race inequity but there are no conversations like that for gender inequity. Now at least I know how to read data from multiple perspectives. I know how to see different types of inequity. I'm more mindful of how our spaces are impacted.

Marco: And I think instructional priorities many times impact that space. And I think instructional priorities are important. At the end of the day, we're a school and we are here to teach kids but if leaders who are leading the school can't see inequity, they cannot address inequity.

** **HELP! HELP! Please let me know if you would like to be interviewed and/or recommend someone to be profiled in this section. I need new interviews! ****

What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To:

• READING: Frankly in Love by David Yoon is a young adult book chronicling the senior year of Korean-American Frank Li as he navigates family, college decisions, and falling in love. You can find a full list of my book recommendations here. Please note that I am an affiliate with Bookshop.org and receive a small compensation for your purchase when you use the book links provided.

• ALSO READING: From Antiracism Daily: A Stanford and the University of Southern California study found that segregation between white and Black students has increased by 64 percent since 1988 in the 100 largest districts. In 1988, about 7.4% of the nation's schools were intensely segregated. By 2021, that number had ballooned to around 20%. In Texas, about 15% of Texas schools were intensely segregated in 1988. That figure jumped to 36.4% by 2021 (Axios).

Exciting News:

• Leading Within is now an online course!!! You can access it on the ASCD Witsby platform. If you want to keep learning, head over there to engage in deeper learning focused on the ten competencies.

How to Continue to Support Leading-Within:

• Go to Amazon and rate or review the book there! Reviews are a great way for others to see that this book is worth the time to read.

• Post about the book on social media using the hashtag #leadingwithin. Even better if it includes a picture of you WITH the book!

• Host a book club with your affinity/ERG group. Two study guides are also available on the ASCD website - one for leaders of color and one for white co-conspirators that are perfect for starting a group conversation. For book clubs with participants who have purchased and committed to reading the book, please reach out to me so I can support your journey!

• Connect with me to speak to your organization or group about topics covered in the book, like ‘practicing love and rage’, ‘building a coalition’, and ‘taking a stand’.

If this is your first time reading, please go back and read my Introductions post.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think. If you like it, please share it with your network!