Education's Radical Love

Good afternoon graduating class of 2024! I am beyond honored to share a few words with you today. Before I go any further, I personally want to thank Dean Long. We celebrate you and your visionary and determined leadership here at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dean Long led us through a pandemic, while ushering in the master’s redesign and giving students from across the world the opportunities to receive a master's in the new Online Education Leadership program! Help me celebrate Dean Long!

Graduates, families, friends, and HGSE community, As we mark the incredible accomplishment of this class of 2024, we truly have reason to celebrate.

In my faith tradition, when there’s something to celebrate, we have what we call a “praise break.” A praise break is a symbol of joy, an enthusiastic embodiment of gratitude for a gift from above. Usually accompanied by fast-paced music, a praise break involves moving your body and lifting your voice in thanksgiving.

Make no mistake about it: you might not see my body moving, but I’m doing a praise break in my spirit right now. Graduates, your determination, passion, and commitment make me want to celebrate. The wonderful thing about a praise break is that I can lift up jubilation praise for someone else’s success. No matter what difficulties I am facing, if you have a reason for joy, I have a reason to praise. Family and friends of the graduating students, because of your loved one’s accomplishment, you have a reason to celebrate and praise. Even if you’re really struggling through some difficult circumstances, if you’re here or listening online, you have a reason to praise.

Graduates, you, of course, have a reason to break out in praise. You were not only accepted into one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world, but you persevered through every class, paper, and test, and tomorrow you’ll cross the official finish line with a diploma in your hand. I’m sure you had all kinds of different reasons for applying to Harvard, but from knowing and teaching many of you, I suspect that a primary motivator for your pursuit of an education degree was love. Love for TEACHING. Love for LEARNING. Love for STUDENTS. Love for FAMILY AND COMMUNITIES. Within each of you, I see a transformative, and what I would like to call RADICAL LOVE ready to be unleashed into the world of education.

Let me define what I mean by radical love.

• Radical love seeks nothing in return. 
• Radical love boldly crosses lines of difference and loves in spite of those differences. 
• Radical love staunchly resists being commandeered by extremists; it stays true to the notion that all individuals are worthy of my love. 
• Radical love stands up for those whose voices get shouted down, whose numbers are small enough to be overlooked.
• Radical loves seeks to listen and understand others’ stories, not just your own.

As one of my OEL students just reminded today, Radical Love requires Radical Listening!

You should all embody radical love. This radical love can fuel your journey of educational and personal impact from now on!

And, yes…. you chose Harvard Graduate School of Education as the setting where you honed your educational knowledge and skills in preparation, hopefully, to unleash this radical love.

I know from personal experience how challenging it is to obtain a Harvard education. I recently released a book entitled Leading with Heart and Soul. In my book, I tell the story of my own Harvard journey. From the beginning of my educational career as an English teacher at J.P. McCaskey High School in Pennsylvania to my advancement as a principal in that same district. At the time, I felt what I now would define as radical love welling up inside of me — love for the students, families, communities…and love for equitable opportunities all. A love for literature and writing. A love for impactful leadership. But I also felt a need to sharpen my educational leadership knowledge and skills, to surround myself with like-minded educational professionals who would inspire and train me to use the tools of education leadership to transform the lives of students and communities all across the U.S. I saw a need to couple love with skill, with evidence, with knowledge.

For me, a Harvard graduate education was the next step. I had already been through a week-long certificate program at Harvard called the Principal’s Center, and I became enamored with the Ed School’s diligent focus on evidence, community, and impact. I took the GRE and applied to the Urban Superintendents Program, a doctorate in educational leadership. And in the Spring of 2005; I got rejected!

The rejection deflated me, but I couldn’t stay down for long. That love inside me — that radical love that wanted to transform lives through education — was clamoring to express itself more impactfully. So, after some tutoring from my wife, Kisha, who is an outstanding high school math teacher, I retook the GRE and earned a higher score. And at Kisha’s advice, I drove to Harvard and had a meaningful conversation with our very own Dr. Bob Peterkin. When I reapplied, Harvard accepted me into the program. Opening that acceptance letter made me and my family do a praise break for the ages! Now, almost 20 years later, as a proud Harvard graduate and faculty member, I stand offering words of encouragement, instruction, and inspiration to the next generation of love-powered graduates of Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The type of love I’m talking about is especially vital in today’s climate. We are living in a time with heightened division, strife, and violence. Overseas and in our own backyards, contentious social and political circumstances are tearing at the fabric of our society. These international, national, and local conflicts show up in our schools, homes, and communities — the places where educational leaders like you all have influence. There is abundant evidence to show that these tensions are having a negative impact on future generations: CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM is on the rise, adolescent SUICIDE has skyrocketed, and there has been a marked decline of what the (OECD) also known as the Organization for Economic Cooperaton and Development calls “traditional binding powers.” These powers are things that used to hold us together, like faith and community — there has been a noticeable decrease in their power to do what they’re supposed to do: hold us together.

What’s the role of educational leaders in the midst of such challenges? How can we mobilize radical love to make ourselves part of the solution?

Two things come to mind as possible answers to that question: our words and our works. Allow me to explain. There’s a book I’ve turned to constantly over the years for insight. Here it is [holds up book]: The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr. I like to keep it in my pocket, and I leaf through it during airport layovers, Uber rides, or after my devotional time in the morning. The book has many profound nuggets of wisdom, but one has stood out to me recently.

When Martin Luther King Jr. Day first became a national holiday, then-President Ronald Regan gave a proclamation. In that proclamation, he stated, [read line from book].

The nation was honoring Dr. King’s legacy because his words and works made an indelible change in our society. What he said and what he did were the two things that stayed with people. He unleashed radical love on the world through his words and works.

HGSE Graduates, In that same way, people will know your love by your words and your works. When you get done with a day of educating — or a year, or a decade, or a lifetime — people will remember you by what you said and what you did. The students you teach, the teachers you lead, the schools and districts you touch, the foundations and nonprofits you influence — they will remember you by your words and your works. The urban, suburban, and rural communities, the countries where you lead; the parents and guardians who entrust their children to you — your words and works will be the sign of your love for them.

When the days grow long and tiring, when the work of education feels arduous, radical love can make us persevere. When we grow discouraged or frustrated, we can turn to the many sources of love in our own lives to give us strength. We can turn to family and friends, some of whom may be looking on with pride at this very moment. We can look to our Harvard network for that boost of energy and purpose to take us through the next day, or year of serving and loving. We can look to our diverse traditions of faith for ancient wisdom on how to embody love that passeth all understanding.

I began by sharing the idea of a praise break, an important practice in my faith tradition. My Christian faith has been one of the most abundant suppliers of radical love in my life. But love is the common thread in so many faith traditions across the world. I am not the exclusive holder of what it means to love through my faith.

Whatever source you draw from, I implore you today to draw deep from the well of radical love. People are thirsty for this love. This degree you’ve earned is not a marker of your status or intelligence to be flaunted before others, and it’s not a ticket to get you the cushiest jobs. Your degree is a tool to amplify your words and works, to more effectively bring your radical love into this world for the purpose of learning, healing and uniting.

Radical love means we fight for what’s right, just like Dr. King did. Let’s all remember what Mahatma Ghandi once said: The future depends on what we do in the present. I encourage you to teach, lead, vote, speak out, protest, and take action like your life depends on it. And do all of these things from a place of love for one another, even those you may disagree with.  

You all are entering into leadership during a tumultuous time, but we have so much confidence in each of you.

I cannot wait to see what words and works of radical love you produce. In fact, I’m ready for a praise break right now just thinking about it!