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Chapter One 

Without a vision the people perish.

Proverbs 29:18

A Vision for Life

I knelt on the concrete beside the student, watching and listening to him gasp for air. His quick breaths were labored, when they came at all. I found myself holding my own breath in anticipation of his next inhalation, then releasing when I realized he was still alive.

“It’s alright,” I said to him, grasping his hand. “Everything’s going to be alright.”

The paramedics had been called, and I hoped they were only precious seconds away. The young man’s eyes were open wide, shock and panic etched his face. His grip tightened around my fingers and his eyes searched mine as if he were pleading for his life. I shuddered at the stark tragedy unfolding before me. How did it come to this? I wondered. What landed this young man on the ground, in front of his high school, with a puncture wound to his chest, crimson spreading across his shirt.

An ensuing investigation would soon reveal the details, which involved an insult, a fistfight, a stabbing, and a young man clinging onto his life. I caught a glimpse of the fight from my classroom window that faced the front of the school, where the telltale signs of a skirmish were apparent to the trained eye. I had not been teaching long, but my eyes were quickly trained. I could tell that a physical altercation was breaking out. By the time I and several other teachers and administrators arrived on the scene, the damage had been done. The young student was lying in an expanding pool of blood, clutching his chest just below his left shoulder. This student was not taking any of my classes, so I did not know his name, but he greeted me politely in the hallway whenever our paths crossed. I rarely saw him without a bright smile, joking and laughing with his friends. Now, he laid on his side beside me, rocking back and forth in pain.

I had been teaching English for two years at J.P. McCaskey High School in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I had received many hours of training in classes like Foundations of Education 101, The Art of Teaching 202, and Classroom Management 101. I had had an entire half-year of Student Teaching, the practice-oriented course required for all those interested in teaching in a public school in America. But nothing in my preparational programs readied me to kneel beside a student gasping for each priceless breath. So, I resorted to another part of my background and identity to coach me through this tragic moment: my faith.

My life of faith was a part of me that rarely manifested itself in my day-to-day work of teaching in this public school. Yet, my next move was instinctive – a natural act for those who live a life of faith. As I knelt beside him, I uttered a prayer, just loud enough for the young man to hear. I prayed for his breath, his life, and his seemingly fleeting future.

“O God, preserve this boy’s life. You have a plan and a future for him, and today is not his last day.” Life is fleeting, but not today, I thought. I believed that his life did not have to end that day in front of dozens of traumatized students and teachers. He had to live, and I was going to do everything within my power to enable that. If that meant harkening back to the spiritual cries of my parents, and their parents before them, who were reared in the church and prayed ceaselessly over their children, then that was what I was going to do. Sure, the paramedics would come and give the medical care they were trained to provide. But they were not there yet, and this young man’s life was quickly ebbing away. 

So, I prayed over him. I did not realize it at the time, but at that moment I was living out a core tenant of what would guide my educational experiences for the next thirty years: vision. No matter how bleak the circumstances appeared, my effortless prayers represented a vision of what was possible for that young man. This core tenant would guide my thoughts and actions not only for him but for countless students in the years ahead. I continued, head bowed, until the paramedics arrived. 

A teacher had run inside to pull his file. “His name is Joseph Green,” she said to the oncoming First Responders as they jogged from their ambulance toward Joseph. “Age sixteen, no preexisting medical conditions. I’ve got his mother’s phone number right here.”

One of the paramedics took the folder from her. “Thank you, ma’am. How did this happen?”

“I don’t know—I saw a crowd out here, so I came outside to see what was going on, and when I got here Joseph was already down and bleeding.”

“He was stabbed by another student during a fight,” I said, standing up. The other First Responders had moved me out of the way and started giving Joseph medical care as they transferred him to a stretcher.

“I saw the whole thing.” I remained by Joseph’s side in the ambulance and at the hospital until he was stabilized, whispering prayers all the while.

I see now, many years after the stabbing, that my prayer was an act of belief. I believed that Joseph did not have to leave us that day. What often stands between a dire situation and immeasurable possibilities is the ability to envision a different outcome. I believed there were other possibilities that day. Possibilities that were not only better for him, but also better for those who loved him, for our school community, our society, and the world.

In the Church Pew

Fundamentally, two things stood between those moments of peril and a better state. First was vision, which Webster’s defines as “the power of seeing, sight.” The use of the word “power” in this definition is interesting to me. It suggests more than just the capacity to see what does not yet exist. During that bloody altercation in front of the school, all I and the other onlookers could see was that a student was dying before our eyes. However, I prayed because I could envision a different outcome, an outcome that I would want for my own children. 

The second thing that stood between the present state of that young man and a future full of life and possibilities was action. In that moment I was leading my peers and colleagues, and as a leader, it was important that I do more than simply see a different possibility from what I saw at the time. I had to act. What internal resources did I have at my disposal besides my vision and hope? My faith.

When it comes to working as educators, people whose ultimate goal is to facilitate experiences that enable others to learn, grow, and thrive, we must be able to see what others cannot yet see. One of the most powerful quotes ever written derives from a Bible verse, Proverbs 29:18: “Without a vision, the people perish or cast off restraint.” Every person who has had meaningful influence on the world has employed the power of vision. From the wealthiest person in the world to the humblest schoolteacher, everyone who makes a difference in their environment starts by envisioning a reality better than the one that already exists. Vision is the beginning of every good thing.

I grew up in the church—the sanctified church, as we call it. I remember people referring to our group as “Holy Rollers.” This was meant to be pejorative, but as with many of the intended pejoratives we would hear as children or parishioners, my parents had a way of turning what was meant to be a slight into a badge of honor, transforming insults into compliments. As a Black family of humble means, there was no other way to raise children who walked with their heads held high in a society that was still trying to make sense of both race and faith. With uplifted faces, I and my five siblings went weekly to Sunday service, Sunday school, revivals, nighttime prayer meetings, and every other kind of service my parents heard about or led. While my faith has formed an integral part of my being, as an energetic little boy I was exhausted with church!
Since I was a young child, I have heard faithful people recite Bible passages that have become a part of my mental lexicon. In a stiffly starched suit, I was marched down the isles every Sunday over velvety floors and plopped into uncomfortable pews. Wisdom flowed from the songs and sermons of preachers, deacons, and church mothers, and I soaked it all in. I did not know it at the time, but verses like Proverbs 29:18 would inform my role as an educational leader and a parent. This verse has permeated every aspect of my life and career as an educator. Now, as a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education, I am taking time to reflect and pour wisdom into the leaders that I now train, as well as educators, leaders, parents, and students who will read this memoir.

Act from Where You Are

If we, as educators, are to keep our classrooms, schools, and districts from perishing, we must envision a revival in the education system and then act on that vision. The first step in enacting our vision is acting from where we are. To develop a powerful vision, we must begin from what we can see in the moment. To envision life and health for the injured student, I had to begin by seeing and acknowledging his gory state of suffering. I had to act from where I found myself in the “here and now”.  Visionaries rarely have access to the optimal resources to make their vision come to pass. However, when we have the vision, we have more than enough to make that vision come true. Our passion to make a change will drive us to find or create what we need to actualize our vision. We cannot afford to wait for a better circumstance—we act from where we are, using what we have, right now!

It often requires courageous, sometimes audacious, individuals to act. In other words, when leading with vision, we must be prepared to look and sound strange. There were many individuals standing around watching the young man lose his life. I am sure we all wanted him to live. However, aside from calling the medics, no one could think of anything practical to do. Yet, there was one action that may have seemed impractical and out of place; strange, even. That action was prayer. To act courageously requires setting aside how we are perceived. It necessitates refusal to conform to traditional, “rational” thinking. It means looking beyond the typical sources of answers and seeking solutions in ways that transcend the mundane.

“The way you start has a lot do with the way you end.” (Bishop Edgar L. Scott)

Part of having vision is having the end in mind when you begin. After working in education for three decades, I have had many beginnings. The first beginning was the start of my career as a teacher. This is when I experienced that tragic instance of school violence. But beyond that tragedy, I have begun countless new roles, projects, and initiatives. Like my father, Bishop Edgar L. Scott, said to his six children, “The way that I’ve started has had a lot to do with the way that I ended.” The thoughts and habits I have taken into a new enterprise have strongly affected its outcome.

I have a propensity to engage my entire being when I start something new. I became a teacher in 1989, having recently graduated college with a major in English. But I was so much more than that: I was a son, a brother, a lover of literature and music, a lover of people, a learner, and a servant of God. Consequently, when I signed on the dotted line to become an employee of the School District of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, all these identities came with me. And early on, all of them began to manifest themselves in my work. In other words, I sought to be my authentic self. When I knelt beside the young man grasping for life, I envisioned myself as so much more than an educator. I was also a man of faith. It was not a strange thing for me to kneel beside him, hold his hand, and pray.

I had my beginnings in the classroom. While I have held several high-level leadership roles (e.g., Nonprofit Director, Principal, Academic Superintendent of High Schools, Chief Academic Officer, and Deputy Director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), I started as a teacher. The vision I have for my career has remained grounded in my classroom experience. No matter what position I’ve held, I have made every effort to stay connected to teaching and learning. These are, in the end, the core of everything that happens in education. Teachers, students, and the content they teach and learn compose the core of the work. Learning and growth are fundamental to the human condition. This is one of the reasons I love being an educator. All educators are in the business of helping students realize the essence of their existence. We exist to grow, learn, and fulfill our own potential and that of the people around us. At the beginning of each of my new roles, I have spent time journaling about how the position would be connected to the three core elements of education: teachers, students, and content. Several times these musings turned into concept papers that I shared with colleagues and others.

Distributing these concept papers was my attempt to do one more thing that has been critical for me when beginning a new role: building relationships with others. At the heart of all successful education ventures is relationships. When it comes to fostering transformational teaching and learning experiences for children and adults, building relationship and connection is critical. When I was a teacher, I used various techniques in order to connect with students. For example, I met students at the door before they entered the classroom. It was simple, but it was the one time of day when I was able to provide individualized attention. Over time, I looked for ways to do the same as a school administrator leading teachers and other administrators. The more open I was to connect with those I led, the more inclined they were to bring their entire selves to their work, to take risks, and to be vulnerable. Because of this relational connection, they were excited to participate in my vision to transform schools and school districts for the better.

I started in the classroom in a failing school district known for bad grades and fights. Thirty years later, I ended up in leadership positions where I have touched hundreds of teachers and thousands of students. Dad was right, the way you start truly has a lot to do with the way you end.
“Educators make a lot of withdrawals.” (Beverly Daniel Tatum)
There are times when an experience from years ago takes on new meaning in the present. This happened to me in the spring of 2017, decades after that fateful day when I knelt beside that bleeding student. An influential educator and psychologist named Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum came to the Harvard Graduate School of Education to address aspiring educational leaders. She came at the request of my colleagues and mentors, Dr. Deborah Jewell-Sherman and Dr. Mary Grassa O’Neill. I was a new professor at Harvard, and I respected the work of all three of these women, so I dropped in to hear the talk. In the course of the rich, intellectually stimulating discussion, something Dr. Tatum said transported me back in time to the young man’s panicked look and the pooling red puddle around him.

A student in the audience had asked for advice on how to lead in education at a high level. In response, Dr. Tatum admonished us all by using a metaphor that most of us were familiar with. “If you’re going to do the work of educating children at a high level, it’s going to require that you make a lot of withdrawals.” The use of the financial analogy was brilliant; she had our attention immediately. But she did not stop there. She went on by posing a question. “What happens when you continue to make withdrawals without making any deposits?” The rhetorical question was well placed. Everyone in the audience knew her meaning. Withdrawals are times when we must give of ourselves emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, financially, and relationally in order to serve others. Those others include children, their families, their communities, and the educators who support them. As teachers, we ask for a lot from ourselves. We withdraw time and effort to spend it on preparing curriculum, teaching in the classroom, grading homework and tests, and making emotional connections with students in need. But what do we deposit into ourselves? Hearing Dr. Tatum’s wise words at this later stage of my career made me wonder how I have been able to educate America’s children for so many years. Like so many educators, I have made and continue to make tons of withdrawals from my internal resources. This is especially true because I am passionate about educating in the most marginalized communities. Kneeling beside the dying student was one of those many withdrawals. To educate and lead at a high level, we rarely think of what these withdrawals cost us. We simply make them because we have the resources at the time when we see the need.

The purpose of sharing stories of my withdrawals is not to gain praise or recognition for myself. There are millions of educators across the country making similar withdrawals and having an even greater impact on students, families, and communities. As we make these withdrawals, we must not neglect the need to make deposits into ourselves. Only then will we persevere in the work of education—the work that touches the essence of our humanity. This is the point that Dr. Daniel Tatum was trying to get across to the audience of aspiring leaders when she said, “You can’t expect to give and give of yourself if you are never pouring back in. The work of educating America’s children is just too important and difficult for you not to pause and deposit back into yourself on occasion.”

I have made deposits into myself through my family and my faith. I became an even better educator as I took on new responsibilities as a husband and father. While I started my career being called “Mr. Scott” hundreds of times during the day, the title took on another dimension when I began to hear “Sweetie” and “Dad” in the morning and evening. It seems a bit paradoxical, but the more complex my life became, the more fulfilled I became as a person. Sure, I began to make withdrawals as marriage and fatherhood became taxing, but then I made deposits into myself through the rewarding relationships I fostered with my students. The law of reciprocity was always in full effect. The more I gave, the more I was able to receive. And because of my faith, the more of myself I poured into others, the more grace and peace God poured into me. There were times when I felt the withdrawals getting out of control, when I felt overwhelmed or unanchored. But I always found solace by falling to my knees and seeking a divine deposit. In those moments I had vision to see the greater purpose of my educational journey. When the occasion called for holding a student’s hand and saying a quiet prayer, enough had been deposited within me to meet that need.

A Walking Vision

Just before the first bell rang, I found Joseph seated outside my office.

“Mr. Scott, it’s so good to see you,” he smiled, masking a grimace of discomfort. He stood and walked toward me with an awkward, pained gait. We embraced.

“It’s great to see you up and about, Joseph.” Three months had passed since the stabbing, and Joseph’s life was no longer in danger. He was sent home within a few weeks of the incident and was slowly recuperating.

Joseph’s mother came from around the corner. “Yes, he’s doing so much better. Thank you for helping my son that day, Mr. Scott.”

“It’s my pleasure. I’ve been praying for him—it’s good to see that my prayers are being answered.”

The sight of Joseph walking and breathing easily was uplifting to me. Just as I envisioned, his life continued. But I was also saddened to see him in such discomfort during his recovery. No one—especially not a high school student with his whole life ahead of him—should have to endure such suffering. No matter how high I have risen in educational leadership, I have continued to pray for this young man, now grown with his own family and career. And while I have not visited him in recent years, I trust that my prayers are still being answered through his life today.

• Update #1 - I have a surprise for you..... May 12, 2023

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