Our founder:
John Cuba Lewis
One morning, about a month into the new school year, I woke up and before I even had a chance to think a thought, a statement waited there patiently for me to utter: create the program you wish you worked for.
That might sound a little cringey new-agey for some folks, but I don’t think there’s anything necessarily mystical about it. Science knows the subconscious mind often continues working on problems long after we’ve moved. We’ve all experienced that thing where a forgotten name or title that seemed stuck on the tip of our tongue, suddenly POPS up out of the clear blue long after we had stopped trying to think.
“Create the program you wish you worked for.”
The 14-year experience of being professional educator for 14 years has done more than shape me. Being a teacher has allowed me to connect with the best parts of myself. You know that part of us that looks out at the world and feels a tug to makes things at least a little bit better? I didn’t realize I had so neglected that part of myself until teaching begin to feed it.
In 2010, Alvin High School gave me a job working with a dozen students that had emotional disorders. It was supposed just be for a couple of months.
So many traumatic histories and clinical diagnosis. Days with these young humans were full of color; they had stories and style, jokes and triggers.
Just a few days after I started, we walking to over to the hoops and [J] said out of the clear blue: “Mr. Lewis, you used to have dreams, but now you walk around staring at the ground.”
I denied it, of course. I still do, I mean, the kid didn’t even know me.
“Create the program you wish you worked for.”
but man it sure was easy caring for those that little crew.
And can I just go ahead and say something else: I love public schools. I am not creating my school because I think I can do better than public schools in general. I’m doing this because for too many students public schools aren’t giving them what they deserve. If you're a student who is having an enjoyable experience in high school, great. Even if you think “school sucks” but you are looking forward to showing up everyday to see your friends and you’re making progress towards a diploma and you learn some stuff sometimes: that’s great! I didn’t build the program to try and peel you away from that. I built this school as an alternative to people who weren’t getting there needs met.
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