Back on the Road for Completion of EdJourney

I am back in Memphis, and thanks to Jamie Baker and husband Phil for opening a spare bedroom in their wonderful downtown loft home to me.  Welcome back to all who have been following my journey, and hopes that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of family and little work.  Memphis is quiet on a Sunday when the Grizzlies are not playing, but I made an emotional pilgrimage to the hallowed ground of the Lorraine Motel, now site of the Civil Rights Museum.  I am not too proud to say that it was hard to hold back tears when standing on that balcony where Dr. King stood in his last moments.  How much have we actually overcome in the part-lifetime since those dark days of 1968?  Hard to say. I hope I can learn from a moment on that balcony as much as from a drive down from the Utah high country in September, a broken car in the Kansas prairie, and all of the shared wisdom of so many great educators on this journey.

Fewer than 10 schools left to visit here in Memphis and in Dallas, and then the real work starts, synthesizing and communicating the keys of this journey.  Jamie is putting together ideas for the Martin Institute Summer Conference; I can offer a hundred names of folks who we all need to hear from.  They have the keys to true educational innovation and teaching our students for their futures, not our past.  We just need to listen to them.  If you started following part way through blog series, you have left money on the table; go back and listen to the  ideas, solutions, and imagination from the schools I visited early in the trip.

I will be reporting on four great schools here in Memphis this week; check in and share the links!