Cain's Corner

There is a line in an old Geto Boys song that said “what you done did in the past don’t excite me.” Reflect on that line from the late Bushwick Bill. Look deeply at whatever it is you do in life professionally. Are you resting on your laurels? Are you hanging your hat on past glory and accomplishments? Are you still operating and leading like you did a year ago? Five years ago? Ten? Twenty? The phrase “That’s the way we’ve always done it” will not serve you well in the COVID-19 world. Amir Thompson, better known to us as Questlove wrote recently on his Instagram Page “You CAN’T conduct Pre-Covid business model in a Post-Covid times.” This is so true - especially as it relates to Education. Too often, especially in education, continuing to do what always has been done produces what typically is produced. The world in itself is full of average. On the mountain of average, people don’t want to accept or even share risk. They want to be protected from it. On this mountain resides...

My father passed away on May 26th of last year.....and here we are....almost a year to the day later.....nobody could have predicted the world as it is today a year ago. We are experiencing a once-in-a-100 year pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of our day to day life. The traditional dine-in Friday fish fry's I enjoyed growing up are now take-out only or being served perhaps by a food truck. Trips to the cinema to enjoy the latest blockbuster release have been replaced by binge watching "Tiger King" or enjoying the last five Sunday's of "The Last Dance" on ESPN.  The world around us is changing. We have adjusted and adapted personally and professionally. As Axl Rose once sang, “Where do we go now?”  Education changed in Mid-March. Teachers across the country successfully transitioned to remote learning with the grace of Barry Sanders, cutting on a dime within days to support students. I commend every educator in the country for t...