Head of School Blog

1992 was the year I began my career in education, and at the time I didn’t think about the long-term impact I might have on my kids. I started as a physical education teacher, so I taught fitness, sports, winning and losing, and having fun. I tried to teach good sportsmanship and character. I wanted them to be good kids who were well-rounded. I talked about doing the right thing and being a good example for others. But I don’t remember thinking about how those kids would one day become teachers, business professionals, leaders, parents, etc. 

Over thirty years later as an administrator, I am still preparing kids for life, but now I am intentionally thinking about their future roles and the impact they will have on the world. It seems as I get older, the more focused I am on teaching kids to do the right thing, develop good character, be selfless, and work hard. While I may not be the person directly teaching these things to kids at The Edison School, I am talking about them with my team and reminding them to teach these to our students. All of this can be summed up in our third core value – cultivate an exponential impact. 

What we mean by cultivating an exponential impact is that we teach life skills, character development, and we are focused on the whole child. When we do this with excellence, we transform the lives of our kids and their families. We talk to them about their future and remind them that they will one day have an opportunity to lead, teach, and be parents, which means they will be making an impact on other people’s lives. As a team, we cannot transform every child’s life, but we can transform the lives of those who enroll at Edison. In turn, we want them to think about how they can transform the lives of people they encounter after leaving Edison. 

We have found that this core value is a result of consistently living out our other two core values, creating meaningful connections and striving for excellence. When you have strong connections with kids and are pushing them to be their best, they will have real-life examples of impact that they can turn to for the rest of their lives.