Three Questions for a School Founder
Learn more about the applications of equityXdesign through the work of school designers on the ground. In this feature, Myron Long, founder of the Social Justice School, tells us more about his school creation journey and how equity remains at the center.
Myron, I know that you are designing a new school. Tell us about the school and how you are speaking to a new future?
I envision a world where racial disparity doesn’t exist and hierarchies are eliminated. In this world, communities across racial and economic difference have authentic relationships and have a common desire to change the world.
To get to that goal, we need a school designed with this objective in mind. We draw on the work and wisdom of the Freedom Riders and CORE who galvanized young people across difference to enact social change. We are standing on the shoulders and the legacies of NAACP, SNCC, and CORE who understood and practiced the power of combining civic engagement and literacy. Their first prototype, if you want to talk about it in design language, occurred during Freedom Summer with the Freedom Schools in the 1960’s.
The Social Justice School adds to the legacy of empowering young people across difference to become change agents.
Schools exist that are diverse. But, schools can be diverse without being integrated. I want to play with these ideas because they are in our discourse and but not in our actions. The Social Justice School is diverse and integrated as a true democratic community where students learn to be social engineers and use design thinking to create a more equitable world. In our school we combine rigorous academic instruction with community centered project based learning and design thinking.
How does your school challenge oppressive ideas that are in our current culture?
The current story is radically different from the story in which we envision. The current story has a few ideas that “fuel oppression.” The first is the idea that “adults with college degrees are smarter than adults without college degrees”. This idea suggests that young people, especially those without college degrees do not have the capacity to develop solutions to real world problems. The second idea suggests that our differences are barriers to creating an inclusive and integrated community. This idea suggests that only homogenous groups are capable of forming authentic relationships.
We want to challenge the assumptions and beliefs that are in these ideas. We know that young people have powerful ideas. Many social movements were led by young people. I am thinking about the student led walkout in Selma in 1951 protesting segregation and the Chicano student walkouts in Los Angeles protesting unequal conditions. More recently, we witnessed the protests led by young students in Florida around gun control. We adults just need to listen to them.
You have been on this equity centered school creation journey for a while. Tell us about that journey and what you have learned about yourself, schools, and students along the way.
I have learned so much about myself in my journey towards creating a more equitable society and school. I have deepened the understanding of my intersectional identity. To be specific, I have learned that when I show up and do this work of social change that I carry both oppression and privilege. To be specific, I must constantly check the bias and results from my gender, education, and evolving social-economic status as I build schools with communities. Failing to do this, means that I will ultimately recreate the current story that exists.
I have also learned about what is needed for schools to evolve out of the factory model. I have learned that transformative schools require transformative systems and operations. Many schools begin with radical visions on how to reimagine education. However, most schools fail to adequately use and control levers like time, schedule, routines, celebrations to create systems to support their vision. This often leads to only small scale changes despite the need for larger scale transformation. The big and bold visions shrink into the ordinary.
I have conducted many empathy interviews to learn more about students. I’ve been both surprised and humbled along the way. I learned that students want to make connections across difference. Students want to talk about issues of race and equity with their peers and adults. They have told me that they learn best when they have the opportunity to apply their learning to real world scenarios. Most importantly, students want to feel connected to adults and want adults who deeply care about them. My challenge is to incorporate these essential design requirements into the school model. I am excited to walk this path and continue to put this big ideas into practice.
Learn more about the Social Justice School and Myron Long by following them on Instagram @thesocialjusticeschool or founderthesocialjusticeproject@gmail.com.
