Places like UChicago teach us to ask “what’s next” for our own advancement, to do this now so we can get to that later. I learned to ask “what’s next” to be as useful as possible to as many kids as I have in front of me.

The remarks below started as a first draft and incorporate feedback from half-a-dozen colleagues, mentors, and friends who push my thinking, every day.

We have a part our school day dedicated to tutoring and reteaching. Every kid deserves to go to a school where they are always safe and never bored. There is a tremendous amount of intellectual labor that goes into good teaching. Every great teacher knows this and we think that in order to be a great school, we should provide and protect our teachers’ time to do it. We will not be back in the same building until next school year, but the school is not the building. We aren’t safe from the world, but we can feel the safety of teachers and classmates celebrating our successes and learning from our errors.