INTERNATIONALLY-acclaimed teacher and principal Salome Thomas-El has made a call for local educators and school administrators to be part of an education revolution.

Thomas-El, who was speaking at yesterday’s opening of the two-day Jamaica National (JN) Foundation School Leadership Summit — themed ‘Innovate. Impact. Lead: Join the Education Revolution’ — at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, told school leaders present that if they expect to see change in their communities, schools and the world, it must first begin with them.

“So many of us become so comfortable at home that we do not want to move. We resist the revolutionary internal feelings to move into what we call the learning zones, where we have to take on new challenges, because, you see if it challenges you, it will change you,” Thomas-El said. “We do not want to move into that learning zone because that learning zone is close to the frustration… that leads to consequences… you need to stop complaining and keep fighting for our children because the price of leadership is consequences.”

Moreover, Thomas-El, who spoke with rhymes and much emotion, encouraged teachers to get MAD (Make a Difference) about their jobs.

“A revolution is a fight, it’s a fight against being comfortable, a fight against established growth, a fight against believing that intelligence doesn’t cross racial lines, intelligence doesn’t cross economic lines. We must get angry, upset, excited for our children, we must get MAD about what we’re doing. We must engage, there must be engagement before information. No longer can we continue to do what we’ve always done simply because it’s what we’ve always done,” he said.

Thomas-El added: “As leaders in our schools [we must] ensure [that] our children are experiencing two things everyday — rigour and joy. If those children are being challenged at the highest level, but they love it so much and look forward to coming to school everyday, then our mission today and around the world will be to build schools that our children, our parents, our teachers are fighting to get into instead of fighting to get out of.”

The educator, who has a track record of assisting young people in the United States, stressed that the best thing we can do for our children is to help our teachers improve their practice.

“What we need to do is walk into classrooms and reward teachers who are asking questions that are forcing children to think critically…,” he said, adding that this was a reason he started teaching students, whom most of society had given up on, to play chess and since then they have been recognised as eight-time national champions.

“I began teaching special education students mathematics on a chess board… smart is not something you are, it is something you can become,” he said. “God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called. This is your fight, one that you must win and one that you will win.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Andrew Holness told school leaders to work towards change as their “investment is paying off and there are greater dividends to come”.

“The best best investment of any country is in the education system. In Jamaica there’s generally a political consensus around education. If you change the way in which you do things, we all win,” he said.

Additionally, Dr Renee Rattray, director of education programmes at the JN Foundation, said that the aim of the summit is to energise school leaders and inspire new thinking and approaches to leadership in schools.

“The summit will provide the opportunity for school leaders across Jamaica to gather and learn, infuse their practice and renew their commitment to supporting their staff, as well as improving outcomes for students. The intention is not only to inspire school leaders, but to ensure that teachers will leave with new skills that they can use to enhance or start the transformation of their respective schools… we have to do things differently and act urgently, we need an education revolution,” Dr Rattray said.

The summit, which continues today, will include presentations from science professor at New York’s Columbia University, Chris Emdin, US-based school principal, Pete Hall, Denbigh High School principal, Kasan Troupe, and management consultant and change leader, Dr Nsombi Jaja.