how they internalize and demonstrate knowledge? It’s all of those things. They are telling us that often times we are working under an old model, the model that has been successful for us for a number of years. Well things have changed. Kids have changed. The technology and how technology has changed our view has changed us. And so it impacts every area of our being. Are we embracing that? This is the technological age. These kids are into that. And so how do we make this a part of their schooling? It’s not something that is just used for social events. We found that out during the pandemic. We depended on technology. And so let’s embrace that. Let’s figure out how to use it in a productive manner. Kids are leading this. They are showing us and they are not being silent anymore. They found their voice. And they want the adults to hear what they want to say. Being on the ground and listening to families and listening to our youth, they are telling us what they need and how they need things to be presented to them in a way that they feel a sense of ownership for.”

Stanford Taylor gave an example of how MMSD is empowering the voices of youth.

“We have this opportunity to have students attend a leadership summit where professionals will be brought into the space. And we thought instead of having students just enter that space that was designed for adult professionals, why not have the students create their own leadership summit alongside the adult professionals so that they could access those adults as well as lift their own voices and their own concerns in that same space with their peers as well as adults who are functioning in spaces that can make a difference to how students enter and exit those places.

And Stanford Taylor believes that the parents have a lot to contribute to the education of their children.

“I’m a proponent of public education,” Stanford Taylor said. “And we know that with vouchers and private schools and all of these other options for parents, often times folks who are a little disgruntled turn away from our public schools. We want to invite them in. We want the public schools to be that beacon that welcomes all kids, not just a certain type and there is something there for every child, every family. This is an entitlement.”

Ever since public schools gained traction in the mid-1800s and grew in importance as a way for newly-arriving immigrants to adjust to and become a part of the United States, they have been the avenue for people to develop themselves and achieve their dreams. But that hasn’t always been the experience of many marginalized students who haven’t been able to experience the reward of a public education.

“As I go back and think about my experience growing up in the racially-divided, segregated South and the opportunities that were and were not there for me growing up, I was always told by my parents that education was my ticket out of poverty and into a better life,” Stanford Taylor said. “And so we grew up with that instilled in us that we had to go to school and we had to do well in school because we knew that if we wanted to go to higher education, our parents couldn’t afford it. And so, we had to be able to get a scholarship to be able to access those opportunities that many other students just by birthright got to access. When we start to think about those inequalities that allowed certain individuals to have a head start on others, why are we not as a society creating those same opportunities for students whose parents can’t afford those things? And so that is a shift too. We’re taking that on as part of our responsibility as educators, as community members to take care of each other.”

The nature of society has changed during the past 50 years. While society — for the most part — was built around the needs and dreams of Euro-Americans while many others took a back seat and performed manual labor and other unfulfilling jobs, America’s demographics are changing and so it needs to be all hands on deck with everyone from every sector of society contributing in this technological, global economy world.

“We are all part of this tapestry,” Stanford Taylor emphasized. “And when you drop a thread, you leave a hole. And so we can’t afford to do that. We have to start early. And that has always been my priority too. We find ourselves robbing Peter to pay Paul because we look at the deep end and we try to fix what we didn’t do early on. And so if we were to start thinking about our youngest and investing in our youngest and making sure that they have all of the opportunities that they need to grow up to be whole contributing individuals, then we don’t have to focus so much on the backend. “

Stanford Taylor and her team are creating a new department at MMSD, Engagement, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, that combines some existing engagement programs and efforts within MMSD with some new initiatives to create an integrated and multi-faceted approach to engagement.

“When we started to think about what this department would look like, we started to think about what are some of the best practices,” Stanford Taylor said. “Again, we thought about where the voice of our youth, our families and our communities are and how we lift that voice up. How do we push more resources into our schools in direct service to our students? We don’t want to be so far away from where those relationships are developed. We felt over the past couple of years that it has had an effect on everyone, not just kids and families. So our kids are coming back, many them not having had a normalized experience in terms of school. Who are those people who are in our community who are pro public school advocates and work in our schools and see our babies or our scholars as our next leaders? Who are those warm, nurturing people that we can have go into the schools? How do we make sure that they are ready?”

This article is the first in a series about MMSD’s efforts to engage students, families and the community, highlighting its different initiatives.