This morning on On The Way To School, I’m reflecting on a conversation we had last night at Lore Leimert Park about the continuum of care—and a powerful question raised by Nikole Hannah-Jones’s recent writing about her daughter’s educational experience.

Parents make enormous decisions on behalf of their children.

We choose schools. We choose neighborhoods. We choose programs. We think about college. We think about opportunity.

And often, we make those decisions because we believe we know what will give our children the best possible future.

But what happens when the choice we made for them becomes something they have to live with?

That question works in both directions.

Sometimes we choose the school because we believe it is the “best” school—even when our child may not thrive there.

Sometimes we reject a school because it doesn’t carry the prestige we think our child needs—even when that school might be exactly where they could flourish.

And sometimes, as Hannah-Jones’s story illustrates, we make a choice rooted in values that are deeply meaningful to us, only to discover that our child is experiencing the consequences differently than we imagined.

Our children have to live the education we choose for them.

So maybe part of our responsibility as parents and educators is to disrupt our own definition of what “good” looks like.

There are more than 50 colleges worth considering. There are extraordinary schools that don’t carry the biggest brand names. There are many paths to meaningful work, leadership, creativity, and success.

The question isn’t simply, “Is this a good school?”

It’s “Is this good for my child?”

And perhaps most importantly: When we learn that it isn’t, are we willing to change course?

🎧 Listen to today’s episode of On The Way To School wherever you get your podcasts.

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This weekend, I had the honor of returning to my alma mater, Concordia University St. Paul, and receiving the Alumni Association Educator of the Year Award.

I didn’t campaign for this one. I was nominated and selected. And that made the moment especially meaningful.

Standing there, I thought about the people who poured into me, challenged me, encouraged me, and helped me grow in the soil where I was planted.

That’s the thing about recognition: it may have your name on it, but it rarely belongs to you alone.

I was also able to return to the football field, participate in the homecoming coin toss, and share the experience with my son. After more than 20 years, watching a game at the place where I once played felt like one of those full-circle moments you don’t plan for.

And now, I get to carry that gratitude forward.

Tonight, I’ll be back at Lore Leimert Park with Yetunde Daniels Rubinstein and Timothy Fields for a conversation about the continuum of care—the conversations families need to have as students move through K–12, toward college, and into the very different world that begins once they arrive on campus.

Not a panel of experts telling families what to do.

A conversation about the real challenges families face—and how we can work through them together.

Because maybe that’s what this season of life is really about: remembering who helped us along the way, and becoming that person for someone else.

🎧 Listen to today’s episode of On The Way To School wherever you get your podcasts.

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On today’s episode of On The Way To School, I’m thinking about what happens when significant changes are happening around our schools—and why thoughtful governance, legal guidance, and practitioner voice matter more than ever.

With proposed IRS and Treasury changes affecting tax-exempt organizations on the horizon, independent school leaders are asking important questions about compliance, governance, and how to protect their institutional mission.

My advice?

Have a plan.

Before putting anything into motion, understand what you’re trying to accomplish, build your approach, and—most importantly—talk to your counsel. Legal counsel is there to help schools navigate moments like this thoughtfully and responsibly.

But there’s another piece of this conversation that I think we can’t overlook:

Research.

Independent schools need more peer-reviewed scholarship that documents what practitioners, administrators, faculty, and boards are actually experiencing.

We need to document this moment.

We need to capture the decisions being made, the challenges schools are facing, and the lessons we’re learning along the way.

Because when the voice of practitioners—and the scholarship that captures their experiences—is missing, we lose context. We lose history. And we risk repeating the same challenges in the future.

My own doctoral research began with that same idea: when there’s a gap in the literature, sometimes the responsibility is to help fill it.

So as independent schools navigate this moment, let’s not just react to what’s happening.

Let’s document it. Study it. Learn from it. And help shape what comes next.

🎧 Listen to today’s episode of On The Way To School wherever you get your podcasts.

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