Mixed Messages
Inside John Merrow's 'bipolar life.'
Lately, I have been living a bipolar life. Here’s why: Our production company, Learning Matters, has two editing rooms, and the sounds emanating from them couldn’t be more different.
“You want to become a civil rights leader? Become a teacher. You want to get involved in the greatest chapter in the American civil rights movement, dedicate yourself to the education of our young people.”
I hear those rousing words almost every day as we work on our film about New Orleans. They were delivered, sermon-like, by Paul Vallas, then the Superintendent of the Recovery School District in Louisiana. That message, and similar ones from Barack Obama, Wendy Kopp of Teach for America and Richard Barth of KIPP, have resonated, and thousands and thousands of idealistic men and women have answered the call.
Meanwhile, in our other edit room I regularly see these video clips of school leaders in another city,