Leadership-Labs

Reflecting on the 2018 gcLi Leadership Lab through Social Media

Rishi RaghunathanLeadership Lab

Rishi Raghunathan, LL’15, gcLi Scholar ‘18, History Teacher, University School of Milwaukee   

During the school year, I get caught up on the day-to-day operations and can easily lose sight of my why. The intentional spaces created at gcLi required me to be vulnerable and reflective of my practice. I am the product of the people in my life and I have an incredible responsibility to give back what was given to me.                                                                                                                    

Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair’s sessions hit me the hardest as a parent and a teacher. From a young age, our children are navigating a world that is completely counter to our values and mission. Just simply giving our kids anonymous accounts and putting a bubble around them is not going to keep them “safe”. We have to actively help them process what they see online. I do this as a parent but not as well as a teacher. In school, we have to lean into the discomfort of helping our students understand the world they inhabit. If we don’t, they will normalize what they see and expect the worst of each other.

Identity matters. All of our students must believe that we see them, hear them, and have their backs. In addition, our curriculum must offer opportunities for students to see themselves and the world. Building empathy begins with our curriculum having windows and mirrors.

 Our identity is not a set of checkboxes, but often we are required to categorize our complex identities into a binary world. Our students have developing brains and we must be patient as they grow into themselves. We cannot put students in gender conforming categories and have them experience violence as a result of our ignorance and discomfort. Schools must be safe places for students to explore their identities. Let the students be who they are without having to conform to outdated and oppressive gender expectations.

Schools need to be better at helping our students embrace failure. Dr. Kelsey Twist-Schroeder drove home the power that teachers have in helping their students take risks. Sharing our stories of failure models how our students can recover and respond to failure. Ultimately, the lesson of failure should be that the individual learned something about himself or herself and has the ability to pick up the pieces.

Healthy cultures of leadership are built on trust. Feedback helps a leader learn from his/her actions and own the implications of that action or actions. Feedback is often more about the giver than the receiver. The receiver must engage in the emotion of the giver’s feedback. Good feedback will build trust, transparency, and authenticity.

This is the why of education. Helping our students become better human beings is the purpose of education. Ted Fish gave us opportunities to work on our mindfulness practice. We can change our brains to support our emotional health. Ted’s mindfulness practice helped me see that my behavior is not contingent on others. I don’t need to respond to the wake, and I can develop habits that help me live the values that are important to me.

Anyone can be a leader. Leadership is a rubberband that can and must be stretched. Creating cultures of leadership requires everyone to be invested in each other and to a greater, common purpose.

Always start with strengths. We must see the gifts our students bring to us. Students have to allow themselves the chance to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. We have to help our learners use the stretchy rubber bands to face their monsters. When our students hug the really big monsters, the impact on their confidence and competence is exponential.

We as teachers have a significant impact on the developing brains we are entrusted in growing. To that extent, we have to be mindful of allowing our students to make mistakes and to learn from those mistakes. Rubber bands need to be stretched and monsters have to be hugged.

Building cultures of leadership is timely and counter-cultural. The leaders in today’s world do not act in ethical and empathetic ways. Our leaders quickly defend profit and political gain and relentlessly choose to be selfish. By reconnecting to our hearts, we can bring our humanity back to leadership.

Our students have to know themselves as individuals before they can become effective leaders. Similarly, all the adults in the building have to know themselves. I work hard to be aware of my biases. Having a bias does not make me a bad person. Acting on my biases does. When I’m aware of my blind spots and walls, I can actively look for help and change my behavior. I have to model what I want my students to do.

I was fortunate to partner with Dr. Kelsey Twist-Schroeder and to be an honorary member of the Lithium Stick Ninjas. Kelsey’s mentoring helped me claim my strengths and gave me confidence to hug the monster. The outstanding educators in this lab group came with open hearts and were committed to the learning. Their wisdom, humor, honesty and love moved us forward and brought us closer together.

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Rishi Raghunathan teaches Upper School African & Asian History at The University School of Milwaukee, where he has worked since 2001. He is a 2015 graduate of the gcLi Leadership Lab, and served as a gcLi graduate scholar in 2018 in recognition for his outstanding work cultivating leadership in students. Rishi is an active teacher-leader, serving as an advisor to the Class of 2019, a co-advisor of the Upper School Gay-Straight Alliance as well as the Asian-Heritage Affinity Group. He also serves as a trustee on the Independent School Association of Central States (ISACS) Board of Trustees and is the co-chair the ISACS Equity and Justice Committee.