It’s not every day you find someone that you’re able to joke, rant, and just be with, wholly, no matter how much time goes by between visits. Long, philosophical monologues followed by long silences and somehow longer laughs. A single word, ‘Yeah’, providing everything from ‘I agree’ to ‘I’m here’. It’s even rarer to find them in a highly professional setting. And rarer still to find that person across from you in an accreditation review. That last one is pretty specific, to be fair, but the point stands. These relationships come around a handful of times in life. And somehow, as we’ve found throughout this project, finding an hour to talk deliberately, to be interviewed, to tour around the suburbs, well, those times may not happen more than once. So it’s fitting to extend our 50 walks with one of those people, Luke Felker. 

Luke is the head of school at The Bay School in San Francisco. He’s someone that believes in the power of that position and in the potential of his school, while simultaneously demanding joy and holding onto enough self awareness and humility to find perspectives beyond his ‘bubble’…and at times in a snow cone maker.

Thanks for meeting on the playground, Luke. Thanks for playing tour guide. And thanks for walking. 

#WalkwithMe #MeetMeonthePlayground #Leadership #Parenting #LearningDifferences #Education #Inspiration #GENed #BaySchool #SanFrancisco #Generations #MaryTylerMoore #Moonshot #Joy #BlueSkies #SnowCones

'...this is not going to be a presentation. This is going to be a class discussion...I'm a teacher and a coach at heart.'

If you're hard pressed to choose whether Liz or our 50th (!!) Walker, Kermit Cook, said those words, no one would blame you. When education is in your bones, it spills out in all ways, at all times...no matter where your path leads.

But it was Kermit who said those words, during his hiring process that led to his becoming CEO of Penn Foster, an ever-growing online educational system with roots in helping miners find safer jobs and branches touching thousands of learners who just do not fit into the traditional mold. He embodies that heritage, initially enrolling in the very programs he was set to lead in order to feel the roadblocks for himself. Like a player-coach, the 'student-CEO'. The Bill Russell of vet-tech programming. Kermit is a living example of the 'beginner's mind', of patience in career paths, and of actively learning every step along the way. What a pleasure.

So tag along for our 50th Walk and the newest in the Meet Me on the Playground subseries. Thanks for walking, Kermit.

#WalkwithMe #WalkwithLiz #GENed #Parenting #Leadership #LearningDifferences #Inspiring #PennFosterGroup #OnlineEducation #Teacher #Coach #TeachforAmerica #PrivateEquity #CEO #BeginnersMind #BHAG

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And before we go...50?! FIFTY?! We sat down over a year ago to outline this project, and boy, has this been a labor of love. You can scroll through the blog and see how the writing has changed, how the production has improved, how the walks have expanded. There will be plenty of reflection ahead, but it's important to put a marker down sometimes. And 50 is one for the books. Let us all thank Liz Hofreuter for bringing us together once again.

What improves the quality of one's life? It's easy to think it's the big accomplishments or the great achievements...the wins. But to Jane Fleming, those are just moments. Exciting, life-changing 'bragging rights', to be fair, but moments all the same. It's really about doing what you love, often in the service of others or the greater good. 'In the Nations Service and the Service of Humanity' as scrawled on the crossroads at Princeton's Nassau Hall. Living the motto.
What else? How about going for a walk while REALLY talking to a decades-long friend?
Join Jane and Liz as they talk about the days going left when others went right, embracing mistakes to fail forward, and stepping up to do the special things, even when they don't have to.
Thanks for walking, Jane.
#WalkwithMe #WalkwithLiz #GENed #Parenting #Leadership #LearningDifferences #Inspiring #Teammate #Crew #Princeton #PrincetonCrew #NationalChampion #Coxswain #Princeton89 #Disney #Zombies4 #OpenWater #BowBall

Some of these walks are just wonderful. You get rare insights into people you may have known for years. You hear stories both harrowing and heartfelt and everything in between. Origin stories and quiet struggles and altered perceptions and so many lessons learned along the way. And sometimes, you get a glimpse into 'the life'. An honest, raw, all-over-the-place look at the world of a leader...particularly, in this case, a school leader. The Head. Today's walk is one of those.

James Calleroz White is a school head whose style is built on trust, support, action, and looking at things a little differently...oh and a big, world-defining laugh. He's also real about this job. James doesn't sugarcoat the hard times, like the COVID years, and he doesn't pretend this was the position he always wanted. Instead, James talks about how much respect he's gained as he's lived it. That ever-changing, ever-challenging position and how much work it really entails...deserves.

But that's the job. That exhausting, exhilarating, important, joyful job. In service to everyone and unpredictably everything. What a blast.

#WalkwithMe #MeetMeonthePlayground #Leadership #Parenting #LearningDifferences #Education #Inspiration #GENed #COVID #HeadofSchool #DwightEnglewood #NorthernNJ #Laughter

We've talked about a lot of themes over the last 40 some odd walks, and yesterday we mentioned a newly emerging one with COVID, medicine, and the pandemic. But something that has permeated throughout many of these stories, particularly those centered around traumatic or difficult subjects, is isolation. Folks feeling as if, after so long, they become burdensome or disappointing. The questions, 'how are you?' or 'how's it going?' aren't meant to elicit deep conversations or even honest responses. They're as throwaway as a head nod on the street. Courteous, yes, kind even, but not much more. And often the most needed bit of care is an honest ear and a curious conversation. And as Stacey Farlie, today's walker and someone still dealing with the impact of Long COVID three years on, puts it, 'just being heard is support.'
So keep sending the texts, making the calls, even asking the throwaway questions, but settle in for a real response and appreciate when someone who needs to, puts themselves first.
And as Ginny Delaney advised, have yourself an apple too...
Thanks for the Walk, Stacey.
#WalkwithMe #WalkwithLiz #GENed #Parenting #Leadership #LearningDifferences #Inspiring #COVID #LongCOVID #SelfAdvocacy #Princeton #Princeton89

In a conversation with one of the most influential and successful educational minds in the region, one who has received millions of dollars for reimagining and upending the status quo, one whose goal upon entering her leadership position Carlow University was professional boundaries, you may not expect so much of the credit to be dispersed to a friend. Such is life when knowing Dr. Keely Baronak.
A personal relationship is certainly not meant to downplay the professional brilliance of Dr. Rae Ann Hirsch, the dynamic professor and friend Keely discusses, and whose name adorns the Apprentiship Program at Carlow. It was her vision. And it has blossomed into a signature, transformative workforce development initiative with meaningful impact across Pennsylvania. It's also an example of the way Keely sees her role in education at large...Connect the people. Manage the project. Find the money. And really, really care about what you're doing.
This walk was a pleasure and one that's been walked many times over the last 20 years...one that will likely be walked for years to come. Thanks for the time, Keely. Until the next one.
#WalkwithMe #MeetMeonthePlayground #Leadership #Parenting #LearningDifferences #Education #Friendship #Inspiration #GENed #CarlowUniversity #Carlow #Apprenticeship #PAIS #Educator #WomenInEducationalLeadership

It's been years since the required reading days at Wheeling Country Day School and the thesis that would guide our general baseline with kids, and our general conversations with parents (from the book, The Blessings of a Skinned Knee, by Dr. Wendy Mogel): 'Try to see your child as a seed that came in a packet without a label. Your job is to provide the right environment and nutrients and to pull the weeds. You can’t decide what kind of flower you’ll get or in which season it will bloom.' But when you live by that belief in the differences of children, you jump at the opportunity to walk amidst a little field of wildflowers with a child. So was this Walk.

This week, we find ourselves in Montana walking with a former Linsly student (and former dorm child to Liz), Chrissy Knoff (Hoag). She talks about her own journey to motherhood, her past advocacy for children, and her drive to support as many as she can through her own pediatric social work position focusing on perinatal care.

Hear from Liz and Chrissy and our youngest ever walker in what became a wonderfully full circle example of the wildflowers in our lives.

#WalkwithMe #WalkwithLiz #GENed #Parenting #Leadership #LearningDifferences #Inspiring #IVF #Wildflowers #Lupine #DormMother #WendyMogel #Montana #Garden #SocialWork

How often do we have real, long-form, interview-esque conversations with our friends? How often do we get to talk about the news of our lives when it's no longer the news of the day? When the pain or joy or perspective from a loss is seemingly supposed to be gone, or found? It's one of the beautiful things about this project. It may seem odd or uncomfortable or even out of place to be a friend and be part of these walks. But they provide an outlet for the stories or the memories that are often silently relegated to one's own mind. And who better to speak to than the friend who's standing at your side?

Today, three of those friends talk about home.

#WalkwithMe #WalkwithLiz #GENed #Parenting #Leadership #LearningDifferences #Inspiring #Loss #Caregiving #Friendship #Grief #Support #SeasonsofLife

Walking with Jane Werner is anything but linear. It's not just A to B, and there will always be stops along the way...most of the time to play. This was never truer than the day we joined her at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, where she has tinkered since the early 1990s.

We started in the MAKESHOP, and this space came to represent all the wonderful ways the Children's Museum, and its diverse partnerships, have captured what Eleanor Duckworth called The Having of Wonderful Ideas.

'We try.' Jane says, humbly.

The truth is, the MAKESHOP is now an eye-catching, highly popular feature within the already feature-filled museum. But it didn't start out that way, and the roots of cardboard, some yarn, and the freedom to discover always allow it to resist feeling 'fully formed'. That resistance has also helped fuel the accessibility of the Maker movement around the country, with the Museum helping over 400 other organizations create maker spaces of their own.

But, MAKESHOP aside, Children's Museum aside, really, Jane Werner is a beacon of light for those of us in the business of helping kids. She's a student of Mister Rogers, so to speak, but she doesn't look at him as a sanctified judge, but an inspiration for action. It's not about what he would do, but what will YOU do for children?

And just like the digressions to tinker or call or laugh or play, Jane does.

We are back on the playground with another head of school, or in this case, Director of Schools, plural, for the Cranbrook Educational Community. Talking to Jeff, who not so long ago led the accreditation team for Wheeling Country Day School, was a glimpse both into the past and future. With a history as a regional education leader and affection for none other than Mr. Rogers (another unexpected theme popping up in these Walks), as well as his penchant for what he calls 'continually interrogating and reinterpreting' practices, even ones misunderstood to be traditions, Jeff embodies what the modern school can be. He sees potential in open space, opportunities in mistakes, and a responsibility to take an active leadership role in the greater community.

Cranbrook, located in greater Detroit, is a living, breathing example of the ever-evolving 'neighborhood' Fred Rogers spoke of for so many years, with its publicly-facing spaces, reimagined...well, everything, and its potential for sharing in the greatest responsibility of all: the growth and education of children.

What a place.

#MeetMeonthePlayground #Leadership #Parenting #LearningDifferences #Education #Inspiration #GENed #Cranbrook #MrRodgers #FalkSchool #Campus #Outdooreducation #CommunityEducation #PlaceBasedEducation #ModernEducation