Principal El [00:00:00]:
Winning right away doesn’t build resilience. Winning right away doesn’t force children to use their minds to be creative to solve problems. Failure is motivating. Success can be paralyzing.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:13]:
Hello everyone. My name is Dr. Cindy Burnett.

Matthew Worwood [00:00:16]:
And my name is Dr. Matthew Werwood.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:19]:
This is the fueling creativity and Education podcast.

Matthew Worwood [00:00:23]:
On this show, we’ll be talking about creative liberty topics and how they apply to the field of education.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:28]:
We’ll be speaking with scholars, educators, and resident experts about their work, challenges they face, and digging deeper into new and varying perspectives of creativity, all with the.

Matthew Worwood [00:00:39]:
Goal to help fuel the more rich and informed discussion that provides teachers and parents with knowledge they can use at home or in the classroom.

Cyndi Burnett [00:00:46]:
So let’s begin today. We welcome to the show Dr. Salom Thomas L. Principal L, who’s been a teacher and principal since 1987. He is currently a K through eight principal in Wilmington, Delaware, and received national acclaim as a teacher and chess coach at Box Middle School in Philadelphia, where his students have gone on to win world recognition as eight time national chess champions. Principal L is the author of the best selling books I choose to stay and the immortality of Influence, which stresses the importance of leadership, mentoring, parenting, and service to others. He is also the co author of three new books. He’s been very busy, passionate leadership, building a winning team, and retention for a change.

Cyndi Burnett [00:01:38]:
He has received the Marcus A. Foster Award as the outstanding school district administrator in Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania’s Distinguished Martin Luther King Award. Readers Digest magazine recognized Principal l as an inspiring american icon and today he is a guest on our show.

Principal El [00:01:59]:
Welcome Principal L. I am more excited than you could ever be to be on this show. This is the show of shows and I’m so happy to be here.

Cyndi Burnett [00:02:10]:
Thank you so much. So we want to start with you and your story. So can you tell us, how did you get into teaching? Can you tell us a little bit about your story?

Principal El [00:02:19]:
I grew up in the inner city of Philadelphia and single parent home. My mother raised eight children, six boys, by just, just an amazing, strong woman. My mother was very supportive of my teachers and would always tell me, the teachers are always right. You couldn’t be right if I erased your left side when it comes to a teacher. But she always stressed the importance of education. And I was a high school basketball player, went to college and thought I could skip college and go to the NBA. And my teachers were like, son, you can’t jump over a credit card, so you’re not going to the NBA, but you’re smart enough to get an MBA. Why don’t you go away to college and come back and support your family and the community? And they were right.

Principal El [00:03:05]:
I was so supportive of me and my mother, who never owned a car, never had a driver’s license. So my teachers took me to college every year. The first day my mother ever set afoot on the College of East Straussborough University, where I graduated from, was the day I graduated. She came and attended my graduation because she trusted those teachers. And when I graduated from college, I was working in television. My teacher said I was working for television, working with interviewing NBA players. And my teacher said, come and speak to our students at your career day. And when I came in and told the students that those teachers basically saved my life, that they were there for me, if not for them, there would be no me.

Principal El [00:03:49]:
And some of the kids said, well, if they did so much for you, how come you aren’t a teacher? And I never thought about that. And I quit my TV job. I enrolled in graduate school, got a master’s degree, and came back and started teaching in the same high school. And that was all she wrote after that. And it takes one day in the presence of children to realize that you found your calling. And I knew that I found my place.

Cyndi Burnett [00:04:14]:
Thank you for sharing that story. So you’re teaching math, and you start to look for innovative ways to teach children math. And what did you come up with?

Principal El [00:04:23]:
So I’m teaching math, and one of my classes was a group of special education students. So I’ve got to find a way to sort of get them engaged. So the engagement before information. And so I had, did a little research and found that my school, years before my arrival, had a pretty good chess program, but program died, coaches moved away, but the community was one where chess was well respected. So I started talking to students about chess, and they talked about how their grandparents played chess, and so I started teaching them mathematics. On a chessboard, knights move on right angles. Bishops move on diagonals. The chessboard is a large square that contains 64 smaller squares.

Principal El [00:05:06]:
So I thought I was just giving these students mathematics. What I was really giving them was intellectual capital. They were now walking around a school carrying chessboards. And if you don’t assume anything else about a child who carries a chessboard, you assume that they are intelligent. But these students will walk around carrying chessboards, and other kids will say, you play chess, aren’t you in the learning disabled program? And they say, yeah, why don’t we play a match and see if you should be my roommate? Right. It humbles you. And so these students started beating me because I wasn’t a good chess player, started beating other teachers, and all the students then wanted to start playing. And then chess had become so popular, and I started taking students out to compete against other schools.

Principal El [00:05:46]:
They started winning against other schools. And that became the big problem for me, guys, was that these students were winning. They were happy, and I was not. Because, see, winning right away doesn’t build resilience. Winning right away doesn’t force children to use their minds to be creative to solve problems. Failure is motivating. Success can be paralyzing. So these students started winning.

Principal El [00:06:11]:
They didn’t want to come to practice. They were like, practice? You’re talking about practice. So that became a challenge for me, although the students were successful, that my immediate challenge was, how do I motivate children who find success early? And I think that became sort of the theme of my next sort of 1015 years as a teacher.

Matthew Worwood [00:06:33]:
And that’s an interesting observation that you made, because on one perspective, at the beginning of your story, I was thinking about how, through playing chess, these students, who perhaps didn’t have a lot of self esteem or confidence about themselves or their ability through chess, found something that they felt they were really good at, and they wanted to celebrate it. At the end of the story, you share about the fact that you wasn’t satisfied with that because they hadn’t been able to go through the process of failure. So how did you take that on? I mean, it must have been a balancing act, because you probably didn’t want to make them feel terrible about chess. You didn’t want to take away the success that the winning had brought them. But then you also had to make sure that there was more skills that they could develop through the game. So how did you kind of work through that challenge?

Principal El [00:07:19]:
Challenge is an understatement, because it truly was, because you’re right, Matt. I wanted to continue to inspire and motivate the students, but I wanted to celebrate their success. I just didn’t want them to become complacent. I wanted them to still be able to grow. And so what I decided to do was, I said, I’m going to up the challenge. Like, I’m going to raise the rigor on the chessboard for them. So what I did was, I said, you know what? We no longer compete against elementary or middle schools. We’re now only going to compete against high schools.

Principal El [00:07:52]:
And the students were okay. I thought they would revolt. They were quitting. No, they were fine. I did have some parents who were not happy about that. And the reason I found out is I had a few parents. They were like special ops. They’d let me know when people were kind of working against me and they were in, like, target or Walmart or somewhere and said, you know, we heard some parents talking to the superintendent about you, and they either said, principal l or Liberty Bell, but we heard chess.

Principal El [00:08:19]:
We think you’re going to lose your job. So I went to the assistant superintendent, said, I need you to have my know. And he said, I have your back. You just better win. But remember, that wasn’t the goal. The goal was we wanted these students to become resilient. See, when failure is normative, resilience becomes second nature. I wanted them to challenge in the struggle and embrace the struggle.

Principal El [00:08:41]:
And so the students, when they started competing against high schools, they started losing. They taught me that I was correct because they were losing, they were not winning. And so I said, wow, this is where the struggle. This is where we really would learn if this is truly the way to help students become successful. Because what I’ve learned early on in my career and throughout my career is that building resilient students is not teaching them how to respond when they’re successful. It’s about teaching them how to respond when they’re not successful. That’s the key. And even when I watch some of these professional athletes and entertainers out here, when they don’t get their way, they don’t know how to respond.

Principal El [00:09:24]:
Because when they were young, they weren’t taught the accountability, the responsibility, and they just weren’t taught. It’s okay to struggle. It’s okay to fail. And those students, they struggled. But then you know what they did, Matt? They beat Central High School’s chess team, which is one of the oldest high schools in the country. And I said, wow, these students will rise to our level of expectation if we challenge them, if we support them, if we meet them where they are and take them to where they need to go, they will rise to that level of our expectation. And then it was just all she wrote. From there, they went on and defeated a chess team from Bucknell University.

Principal El [00:10:05]:
One of their players was a graduate student. And I said, you know what? I found my difference maker. I found my key to unlocking the potential in every child. It’s making sure that they learn to play chess, that they critically think that they problem solve, and just that we make sure that there are adults there. My motto at that point became, every child deserves to have one person crazy about them. And as long as there’s someone there with them to help them along the way, we know that they can do anything.

Cyndi Burnett [00:10:38]:
So let’s talk about that one person that’s crazy about them, someone that really believes in them. How do educators and parents who are listening be that support and still help them navigate the failure and build that resilience on a day to day basis?

Principal El [00:10:54]:
I think it starts with us understanding that children are going to all learn at a different pace. They’re on a continuum. The key is to make sure that school is joyful for them. Children are involved in activities outside of school because that’s where they find their joy. We somehow created these schools where students don’t find joy. So it’s either in the after school program or some other community program. Joy and learning are not mutually exclusive. They can exist in the same school building.

Principal El [00:11:29]:
And I think that’s the key for us as teachers, as educators, coaches, mentors, as parents, is making sure that we keep the joy in our classrooms, in our programs, because when we do is when those students find the ability to become resilient. That self esteem that you talked about, Matt, comfort with expressing themselves, feelings of pride and accomplishment, all of those are stoked by creativity. And people will say, well, how’s creativity? How is that aligned with chess? But when these students play chess matches, they create these combinations that sometimes the adults don’t even understand. I’ve literally had adults say, I didn’t know where that kid was going with those moves, but he somehow defeated this player who was 2030 years older, much more experienced. Because I think when we foster an environment, when we foster that feeling of comfort with taking risk and being creative and just thinking outside the box, that students will amaze us every time. But we just have to be comfortable with supporting them through their mistakes. And when they fall, we can’t worry about catching them before they fall. We’ve got to let them fall and say to them, if you can look up, you can get up.

Principal El [00:12:54]:
So let’s go and let’s keep going. And they will respect us so much more, but also respect the struggle as well.

Matthew Worwood [00:13:02]:
There’s a couple of things that’s striking me with what you’re sharing. First of all, there is the champion, the adult who believes in this student, believes in this student so much that they are prepared to go the extra step to differentiate instruction, to provide them with an experience that challenges them, to make them step up a little bit more, because they believe that they can make that step. And it seems to me that you had faith and belief in all of those students that they could beat the high schoolers, and you installed that belief in them, which is why they never lost motivation. And you did all of this through playing games, playing games in a math class. So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about that, about the use of games and game based learning, but then also our role to inspire students at the side when they’re learning to play these games, and, of course, learning to fail as part of the experience.

Principal El [00:14:04]:
There are many games. I’m big on teaching kids Sudoku as well, games that are going to teach students to think, and again, just use their minds. Anything that gives them a sense of accomplishment, a sense of purpose, heats up those creative juices in their brain. Now, chess is unique because chess is a game. For me, chess is a game that students can actually teach themselves. They don’t need us as adults, and I think sometimes as adults, we can get offended. I have students in kindergarten who are learning chess. All they need is a chess book, a chess program.

Principal El [00:14:39]:
They don’t really need adults, and then they play each other and become better from playing better players. But one word you use was very important, was learning. And the key in this process where chess forces you, you must be a learner throughout your entire life. And I think the impact of an educator is not determined by ability to teach, not just by our ability to teach, but rather our ability to learn and be curious. And it’s important for students as well. When you start playing chess, you will immediately be the worst chess player in the room. It’s that simple because you’re new at the game. But I have seen young people learn the game so fast.

Principal El [00:15:23]:
Some have been just gifted enough to pick it up. Some have had to work hard. But then when you start beating those other players, and it’s also very humbling. You talked about losing. Losing is a great experience for young people because it makes them hungrier. But the key is to learn, and it forces you out of the comfort zone. And we stay in that comfort zone often as adults, because when we get out of the comfort zone, we’ve got to go into the learning zone. And the learning zone is close to the frustration zone, so we avoid it because we want to continue to be comfortable and be happy.

Principal El [00:16:01]:
But with chess, that just does not exist because you’ll never get better until you get into that zone. So, yes, sir, for sure, we need to be there to support them, but we need to let them know it’s okay to struggle. You will get better. And then we have to model that. So I have to, with all my pride, sometimes I’ve got to sit there and play chess games against students who I know are going to Molly WHOOP me on the chessboard in front of all these other children. But then the children see me sit and I shake the hand of the other student and say, thank you, great game. And then they know it’s okay for me to lose. I still have to lose with dignity.

Principal El [00:16:40]:
I still have to have respect. And chess is so great because it’s intergenerational. Young people playing older people. You have children of a color playing against children from affluent communities of white kids and asian students and african american and indigenous Latin. It doesn’t matter, because on the chessboard we all speak a universal language. And that’s what I love about it the most. It’s a challenge. And what the kids often say is it just stresses my brain, principal stresses my brain, but the brain is a muscle as well.

Principal El [00:17:13]:
And the key is just as adults, we need to be there to support them through that process.

Cyndi Burnett [00:17:21]:
So, principal l, you also wrote a book called I choose to stay, and I would love for you to share with our listeners why you wrote this book and the implications of what happened as a result of writing this book 20 years ago.

Principal El [00:17:35]:
20 years ago, I wrote this book. I choose it. So this year is the 20 year anniversary, and it’s one of the first books, really, where a teacher wrote about making that choice. And it all started. I was a teacher at Vox with the chess program, and I wanted to become an assistant principal, but I didn’t want to leave my school. But once the chess program became successful, there were other schools who were interested in hiring me. I hadn’t been looking for a job, but our superintendent had called my principal and said, we want to move this teacher. We want to move Mr.

Principal El [00:18:11]:
L to another school. My principal called me in and said, I didn’t know you were looking for a job. You didn’t talk to. I said, I wasn’t looking for a job. He said, well, they called and they want to move you. I said, well, when they call, I’m going to turn the job down because I don’t want to leave these kids. I said, I’m one of the few male role models they have, one who looks like them. And I tell these students all the time that we don’t do it for money, we do it to make a difference because they called on a Friday and wanted me to report to a new school on Monday.

Principal El [00:18:42]:
And I just said, what are these kids going to say about me when I’ve told them that it’s about more than the money? It was a $20,000 raise now, so I had to think about it. And then by the time the rumor was around the school, I turned down $20,000, a brand new Honda accord. But when the chief of staff called and said, your principal said you didn’t want the job, and we like to verify that with the employee. And I said, yeah, I know you’ll probably never call me for another job, but I can’t leave these kids like this. I grew up without a father. I’m a father figure for these students. And she said, you know what, sir? You don’t realize how many principals are going to want you to work for them because of decision that you’re making. And I felt so much better after that.

Principal El [00:19:29]:
But I had kids who came up to me later on and said, we heard you’re staying, and thanks for choosing to stay. And I never thought about, like, there was a choice. We have a choice. And I made that choice. And some of them said, you know, we choose to stay, too. We could go to other schools, but we just love the teachers here and we want to be here. And that became sort of the premise for the whole book. And I talked about the chess team.

Principal El [00:19:57]:
And then Arnold Schwarzenegger actually came to visit our school one year after we won the national chess championship. And he challenged one of my young ladies to a chess match. And I said, arnold, you don’t want to play chess with these students. They’re very serious. You want to talk about terminating people, you’re fine. You don’t want to challenge them in chess. He said, no, I want to play. I make everybody play on the movie set.

Principal El [00:20:19]:
I’m ruining his accent. But I said, arnold, play one of my boys. Play one of my guys. They play video games. They’ll make a few moves. They’ll let you win. He said, no, I want to play little young lady, Denise Picker, pink glasses, honor roll student in church every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. She was powerful, but she was also one of the top 50 female chess players in the nation, in the Asia vision.

Principal El [00:20:40]:
I said, arnold, don’t play Denise. And he said, no, I want to play her. And Denise said, you know, Miss L. I was nervous. He’s rich, he’s famous. He’s married to a woman who has more money than he does. So I know he’s upset. I said, oh, they teach you earlier? And she said, but I checkmated him just like he was another guy, and Arnold said, you terminated the terminator.

Principal El [00:20:59]:
Disney bought the movie rights to the book. They never made the movie. But the powerful piece for me is throughout all of that is I never, ever thought about leaving those students or the community. That was 20 years ago, 35 years in education, 22 as a principal. And I’m still here in the trenches, still here doing the work. I’m working with those young people. But that book really was a great platform for me to now develop a national message around why teachers make this choice. We choose to stay for these young people and for our colleagues, for the community.

Principal El [00:21:41]:
But it was a great opportunity for me also to talk about in the book, I talk about some of these students, some of these chess players who go on. I’ve had students who play chess, who’ve gone to graduate school, law school, doing amazing things from struggling communities. But when we teach them to use their minds, to tap into their creative juices, to become resilient, to think about, persistence overcomes resistance. That’s the message that they can go on and do and go on and do great things. And so, of course, I’ve written other books since then, but I choose to stay was my first book. And Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote the forward in the book, and in the forward talked about Denise winning that chess match against him.

Matthew Worwood [00:22:25]:
I want to follow up on Community because it was something that I picked up in your TEDx talk, which I know we’ll be linking in the show notes. I think in a previous episode, it was touched on this idea of making an impact in your community. And I’ve also recently was at an event where one of my friends was sworn in as probate judge, and his father gave a wonderful talk and referred to him as a leader within his community. And it strikes me that by choosing to stay, you also chose to become a leader within your community. And I think too often we find ourselves drifting away from our communities, our homes, that the things that made us who we are. There’s a whole bunch of different reasons why we may leave. But I just wonder, should we take more time to reflect on those decisions before leaving? Because maybe the impact we can have and the impact we should have is our home and our community. So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that, specifically to teachers who a might be going to the profession and thinking, what shall I choose, this school or nearby, or should I go to another school? But also teachers who might be in the same situation that you had when you were sharing that story.

Principal El [00:23:40]:
And, Matt, that’s an amazing question. You talked about making that decision, that choice, and being a leader in the community. I never really thought about that, but it’s probably one of the most important parts or facets of my decision, because others began, they saw me as a leader. Others made decisions based on my decision, but they also understood the commitment. And everybody can’t stay because I often tell people, if you don’t leave at some point, how will someone else be able to move up and get the position you’re in? If we stay there forever, how are others going to move up? I think it’s all about the timing because I became an assistant principal in the school where I was, but I eventually moved on and became a principal, but at a school one block from my school, my middle school. So I now had a chess program of students from K through eight. So it’s all about the timing, but also, again, as you said, it’s about doing what’s best for the community. And sometimes if we rush to make decisions, we don’t think about the impact.

Principal El [00:24:56]:
That’s why I often tell people to choose impact over compliance, because sometimes we just want to do what others may want us to do or what we think is right for the system. But the system is not always right for the community, not always right for the young people. And that’s where the equity, that’s where the inclusion, that’s where the people feeling heard and being seen when we make decisions, sometimes maybe it validates other people. And I never thought about that. Truly. I’m sitting here listening to you ask the question and thinking, I’ve been teaching about leadership for years. I’ve never, ever written about the leadership aspect of my decision, my choice to stay. It is.

Principal El [00:25:42]:
It’s very important. And it was something I thought about, but I thought about how powerful it would be just for those young people to see me and hope that they will come back and make the same decision. But I’m sure there were other teachers. I have some who’ve written me, contact me on social media and said, when I read your book, it helped me through some tough times because I chose to stay as well. And it was because I saw you made that choice because you wanted to impact not only your school, but the community. And so those who are out there, if there’s anyone out there right now in your audience who’s thinking about that decision, I want you to make the decision that’s best for you. But also think about that when you do make that choice to stay, that it impacts people who you may never you will be planting a tree whose shade you may never enjoy because there will be people who will be impacted by your decision. You will never get to meet.

Principal El [00:26:42]:
They’ll talk about you 2030 years later because of your work and because of the choice that you’ve made. But those who don’t stay, it does not mean you still can’t make an impact. When folks leave and go on to either other communities or other professions, they still make an impact. And oftentimes we’ll come back and still provide support and service to the community. So I’m celebrating my choice to stay in others. But I also understand how tough it is in these challenging times to make that choice. And I’m thankful for the time that you have spent the season that you spent blessing our children, being a blesser and not a stressor to our children. And so I’m often thankful for that and appreciate your question because I will now think deeper about those decisions and the leadership aspect of that, because leadership is truly about action.

Principal El [00:27:40]:
Now words people need to see our testimony and not only hear our testimony. So Matt, you might have a little preacher in you and may not even realize it because you spoke that and it is so true and so powerful that other people will find power. They will be empowered, they will be lifted up because of the decisions and the choices that we make as leaders.

Cyndi Burnett [00:28:04]:
I think the leadership piece is so important. And as Matt mentioned, we were watching your TED talk, which we will link to, and you make a statement about teachers being the most creative people. They just need everyone to get out of the way. And as an administrator, I would love to know, in terms of your own leadership, how do you get out of the way for your teachers and still be there to support them in their journey in the classroom?

Principal El [00:28:29]:
I think it begins with them just believing that they have your support, that even when they make mistakes, you’ll support them. Because again, remember I said that learning is the key, not teaching, and we learn from our know. Matt talked earlier about having that faith in people. Believing in them at times when they don’t even believe in themselves becomes very important. So what I allowed them to do is I allowed them to be able to talk to students about their own experiences. Let those two make those connections. They have to trust you first, and when you’re not vulnerable, they won’t trust you. And trust is the engine that drives relationships.

Principal El [00:29:10]:
So we have to establish that trust, and that comes from you, those students understanding your culture, you understanding their culture, them knowing that you want to learn as much about them as they learn about you. Sure, it’s about academics in that classroom, but it’s also about so much more. Allowing them to create those classrooms where they can be joyful, those classrooms where there’s humor, those classrooms where those connections can be made. And all of that is fueled by creativity. I can’t say it enough. I think I might even hit on your brand a little bit. But it’s so important that our teachers have leaders who are willing to give them the flexibility to be able to tap into the creative juices of their students. With flexibility comes longevity.

Principal El [00:30:04]:
And then we are in a profession where we’re struggling to find and hire teachers. It’s like the Hunger Games trying to find and hire teachers now. So they want to be in schools where the culture is one that fosters creativity, that fosters resilience, joy, learning, literacy. They just want to feel like they’re part of a family. And so I say to my teachers, whatever you need, you let me know, and you let me know what support I can give you. Because the most important job for a principal is to help their teachers improve their practice. But they’ve got to know when they come into the classroom, it’s not about, oh, I got you. It’s about coming in and saying, you know what? I got you.

Principal El [00:30:53]:
I have your back, you have my support. Because there will be no me. When I see those teachers, I see Ms. Pettit, my third grade teacher, young white female teacher, not from our community, but who was there every day saving private Ryan, bringing snacks for kids, supporting us, and my mother walking in and saying, I need your help. My older children not graduating from college, and my teacher had every reason to say, I can’t focus on your son, have 25 other students. That’s not what good teachers do. Excellent teachers move ordinary children or do extraordinary things. Work with my fourth grade teacher who was a younger, who was an older african american teacher who had been at our school about 30, 40 years.

Principal El [00:31:33]:
We thought she came with our building had about ten after school programs and not one had a title. They were all called get in here. And we got in. And it’s teachers like that who give their all, who tap into what those children need. They are the reason why I’m here today, because they looked at me and said, you can be me because I was once you.

Matthew Worwood [00:32:00]:
Well, I think that is a very powerful place to finish the podcast. And I think right there, what strikes me is what you gave and how you championed your students in chess, how you challenged them, but believe that they could step up and reach the goals that you were setting for them strikes me as a similar belief and faith that you have in your teaching community as well. So we finished up the podcast on the same question, which is, what three tips do you have for educators when it comes to promoting creative thinking in the classroom?

Principal El [00:32:34]:
One is allow students to be themselves for years. For decades. As adults, we’ve always tried to sort of send students in a positive direction. Oh, you’ll be a great cheerleader. Oh, you’ll be a great chess player. Oh, you’ll be a great athlete. I think we’ve got to ask students questions. What is it that you like? What is it that excites you? What brings you joy? And we tap into that.

Principal El [00:32:58]:
That’s what creativity does. It promotes joy in the classroom. And so my first one would be talk to students, find out what their interests are, and then tap into it and create those joyful experiences for them. Number two is we’ve got to make sure that we’re making decisions that we know will impact our students and families in a powerful way. Again, I said earlier, we have to choose impact over compliance. We’ve got to move away from focusing on these high stakes tests. We can’t be creative and be married to state tests that we’ve got to create these classrooms where students have multiple ways to learn, multiple ways to communicate, and where teachers have opportunities to be able to connect with those students and those families. So let’s move away from relying so much on assessments.

Principal El [00:33:57]:
Assessments we know are important, but let’s also realize that those experiences, sometimes non cognitive skills, sometimes they call them soft skills, but they’re not really soft skills. The self regulation, the critical thinking, the reasoning, resilience, creativity, all of those will impact the long term success of children more than anything that will ever get tested on a state test. And I know I’m preaching to the choir, you guys, but the choir needs to be inspired, too. Let’s make sure that we’re tapping into what we know works for children. And I guess number three would be, understand that creativity is a prerequisite for innovation. We can’t be innovative without being curious and without creatively allowing our students the engagement before information. Let’s engage them. Let’s have them knocking the door down to get in the school instead of knocking the door down to get out.

Principal El [00:34:54]:
That begins with those powerful deep connections, strong adult child relationships, healthy relationships, and the ability to truly create those connections that last a lifetime. That’s what happened for me, those teachers who helped me in high school. I still talked to Dr. Farmby and Ms. Pinkis and those folks who told me that I couldn’t jump over a credit know when I wanted to make it to the NBA, but said, you know what? You can get an MBA. Come back. And they told me to become a teacher. So let’s foster classrooms and schools where children can feel comfortable being creative and taking risks.

Principal El [00:35:34]:
But let’s make sure that we strengthen and develop those connections where those students can come back and communicate and rely on us long after they’re finished school, and then less encourage them to come back and become a teacher. Because we need more teachers who understand how much our children need love. And again, that every child needs a champion. Every child needs someone who’s crazy about them.

Cyndi Burnett [00:36:03]:
Well, principal l, I have to say, I am so inspired. And I mentioned before we even started this podcast that just going into your work made me feel so inspired. But even now, I just feel so overcome with gratitude that there is a principal out there like you that’s promoting creativity and really being such an advocate for creativity in the classroom and chess and resilience and leadership. And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the work that you do. And I also want to mention to our listeners that principal L. Has a bunch of books that we will put in the show notes. And I really encourage you to follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter and Instagram. And so we’ll put all of those links in because he’s doing great work and continues.

Cyndi Burnett [00:36:48]:
I know when we last spoke he’s working on his next book. So he’s got a lot of great work coming out. And I know that his work will continue to inspire the world. So thank you again.

Principal El [00:36:59]:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. And I’m working on a limited Netflix series based on my chess program and this creativity. And I’ll keep you posted on that because I think you guys need to be at the red carpet premiere. We need to make sure we make that happen.

Cyndi Burnett [00:37:13]:
I will be there.

Matthew Worwood [00:37:16]:
That will be awesome. And I’ll tell you what, you’ve inspired me. I put the chessboard away with my kids, but I’m going to go and get it out today, and I think we’re going to play some chess tonight.

Principal El [00:37:24]:
Yes, sir. Thank you, guys. I appreciate all you do. Keep on motivating everyone out there because we can make a difference. We just got to make sure that we work together, but it can be done.

Matthew Worwood [00:37:38]:
Let’s finish up this podcast with the takeaway inspired by Principal Al. I think the takeaway for today is go away and think about how you can impact your school and your school community. My name is Dr. Matthew Werwood.

Cyndi Burnett [00:37:52]:
And my name is Dr. Cindy Burnett. This episode was produced by creativity and education in partnership with warwoodclassroom.com. Our editor is Sina Yusefzade.