Staying on the Education Carousel

To be clear: we never meant to become teachers. And to be even more clear: we never meant to stay teachers.

That said, fighting against the will of God or pushing back against the call of destiny is as futile as foolish as backing a gimp donkey at Churchill Downs. The events of the last month are added proof that no plans are concrete until they're concrete, and that all things are subject to the cosmic omniscient will of a Higher Power.

Let me start by saying that I always intended to go to law school. I just seemed destined for it. Growing up, I was very interested in history and politics, and law completes that triangle for many people, including all of my role models: my dad, Abraham Lincoln, and Rod Blagojevich. So going to law school seemed like the natural vehicle of choice to allow me to pursue my passion for civil and human rights. That said, I don’t know that I ever wanted to be a lawyer per se, but rather I wanted to obtain the tools with which I could launch a lifelong fulfilling career in public service. It was never about being a lawyer, but rather having the education and the qualifications to serve my community, my state, or my country beyond the basics of voting and respecting traffic laws.

Then, of course, there came a detour in the form of Teach For America in 2009. I always saw it as a noble form of service that would broaden my experience and help me get into (and save for) law school. Things seemed right on track two years later when the law school application process had begun anew. Teaching was fine, but I was to be a lawyer. I was my father's son, and I meant to follow his path into the legal realm of dusty thick volumes of code, courtrooms, and deposition protocol.

Everything was going according to plan. Then, in mid-February, I was recruited to apply for a competitive principal program at N.C. State University. It's called the Northeast Leadership Academy (NELA), and it puts emerging leaders on the fast track to principalships in the rural counties of North Carolina. It included a full-tuition scholarship, education conferences with travel and lodging, books, and a brand new Macbook. In the arena of the intangibles, it offered a great deal more than that - the opportunity to be a community leader, an agent of social change, and a catalyst for an educational Renaissance in the poverty-stricken Piedmont. But despite all its bells and whistles, I didn't really think much of it at first. Still, just like I did with Teach For America two years ago, I decided to apply as a backup plan. It felt nice to be recruited, and I figured it couldn't hurt to indulge them with an application.

I teetered back and forth between law school and the Master's of School Administration quite a bit over the ensuing months. Each had clear benefits and risks. Each had merits and weaknesses. And, perhaps most importantly, both would allow me to become a valiant public servant. The question was which, if any, was better.

Then, on May 1st, the pendulum really took a swing in the M.S.A. direction. A flurry of events occurred in succession just before that fateful day. I had a dream. I talked with a friend who just graduated from law school, who told me horror stories about thousands of law school graduates having nowhere to work. Then came an e-mail from another friend saying that the job he thought he’d have after law school just got cut, and now he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. More importantly, as Celeste and I prayed about what to do, NELA just kept making more and more sense. The reasons against law school started to pile up, and quickly, like the feverish pounding of keys in a Rachmaninoff piece. Then, as if to provide a peaceful postlude and a fitting conclusion to an especially intense composition, on May 1st, I received notification from the people at N.C. State. Sure enough, I was offered a seat as one of twenty NELA Fellows. By that point, the decision was easy. The choice was clear. Our hearts and minds were at peace with our destiny. We were meant to be teachers.

Shortly after our big decision, some other big things happened in our worlds of education. Celeste took a new job at a charter school called Henderson Collegiate. She was also recruited (yeah, we're kind of a big deal out here), and was offered a post as the new 5th grade science teacher. She's thrilled. You have to see this school to understand why. After two years of fighting kids to do their homework or just sit down in a desk like a normal human, she's going to a college prep charter school where the kids are as eager to learn as they are to eat cupcakes. They're not rich, they're not priveliged, they're not especially gifted - they're just committed to their education and to success, which is a rare trait in Henderson, North Carolina.

To top it all off, just last week, Celeste and I "graduated" from Teach For America. We're now officially alumni - not corps members. Our school year is not yet over, but our commitment to Teach For America is now complete. We had a beautiful little ceremony at Duke University, and I was asked to speak. Celeste is pictured below with her diploma. Fun stuff.

So cheers to education. Now y'all be good and come and visit us out here in North Carolina.