for the Emerson Class of 2024

This school year has been tough, my toughest yet. Yep. Harder than the years in and just after COVID (which were plenty challenging). This year LAUSD left our school without permanent administrative leadership for nine months and counting. We still do not have a principal in place for next year. This gross mismanagement created problems that touched every single teacher, student, and family in our school community. Still, we made it through, and now it is summer. As I do every spring, I wrote a speech for our graduates. This year's class of 2024 missed out on their fifth grade graduation, so this was their first opportunity to walk the stage. I'm so proud of them, and they all deserve better. 

to the Emerson Class of 2024, 

Back in August, we read this quote by bell hooks: “To build community requires vigilant awareness of the work we must do to undermine all of the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination.” 

We discussed the community we hoped to create and how we might fight against oppression. We had no idea all of the ways the class of 2024 would be tested. We were just setting out to have a good year. You had already made it through sixth grade after COVID, with masks and testing. You’d made it through the trials of seventh grade, and now, finally, you were here: eighth graders, leaders on campus, enjoying the view from the top.

We read School Trip and dreamt of Paris. We slowed down, savored the small moments. We read The Outsiders and learned about friendship, family, and loss. Somewhere in those weeks, Mr. Watson left, there was still no math teacher for some of you, and then it was your science teacher. This was on top of losing teachers from last year as well. With all of this coming and going, a slow unraveling began. The community we had been vigilant about creating, stumbled. So much uncertainty, so many questions, and so few answers led to fights, frustration, and futility. There were too many subs, too little continuity, and not enough structure. 

Guess what? I like routine. I like consistency. I like to know what is happening today and tomorrow, but outside of these classroom walls, there is so little I control, and was hard. It was hard to see you struggling, acting as if you didn’t care. It was hard to see colleagues struggling while we were all fighting to learn and build community.

As the days wore on, we got used to the uncertainty. We learned how to push back, to “undermine all of the socialization that leads us to behave in ways that perpetuate domination” by getting good grades, by learning in a district which doesn’t seem to care, by exhibiting kindness when so little kindness was shown to us. Sure, there was also fighting, refusing to do work, not coming to school, and clicking random answers on iReady, but still, we built a community together. We stayed quiet. We took breaths. We shared stories, poems, and blog posts. We practiced learning together, each class period, each day, and we made it here, to the end. You are ready, now, to head off to high school, to form new communities where, you will remain acutely aware of what is required to create community. 

In the uncertain times ahead, I hope you will remember Maya Angelou’s words. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” I've had to learn this over and over again, but I’m beginning to understand it. The only thing I truly can control is my attitude. I can stay vigilant, and I can do what I can, but in the end, it is only me and my attitude I can control. I hope you might have learned this as well. As you take these next steps, you can and will change the world, even if it’s only your attitude, even if it’s just your world.