Lauren E. Persons

I never feel like I do enough, so it's funny when people ask about my success. I would say that maybe it's because I was able to get down on kids' level and understand what they're going through - maybe I'm childish, or I'd like to think childlike. I had a wonderful principal who, when he hired me to take the drama club at my high school, said 'I want you to really push the envelope.' Usually principals don't say that to you, I don't think. So I did - I had high school kids doing Chorus Line and Fahrenheit 451, and we did some pretty tough stuff. I was able to pick shows and really push the limits with my students, and I think that ability to connect with them and challenge them made a difference.

You know, I think that more than advice, I had my mother as an example. She was one of only two secondary principals in Ohio in the mid-90s, and to watch her and how difficult it was as a woman in that era - to watch her become a secondary principal in one of the largest high schools in Ohio was pretty amazing. She made me realize that women can do what they want to do. And it may not be very easy, but it's doable. That lesson from watching her navigate those challenges as a woman in educational leadership has stayed with me throughout my career.

I've heard so many colleagues struggling with such a hard go dealing with AI and phones and all the challenges in education today. I would say we need good educators - don't give it up. I do think that what would take 20 years to change with education used to be slow to change, but now probably takes a few months. I see really good teachers trying to find the right way to reach their students, and I know it has to be very difficult. I remember substituting during COVID when everything was online, and I was reading 'The Things They Carry,' this incredibly brilliantly written book, and I finished a passage and said 'this passage is so amazing,' and there was crickets. They probably were out on skateboards for all I knew. I think there was one response, and I thought, wow, how difficult. So yes, it's a challenge, but we need really good teachers, and we need the arts more than anything, I believe. So I would encourage people to go into education.

One of the biggest challenges is the rapid pace of change in education, especially with technology and shifting classroom engagement. However, there is also a strong opportunity to reinvigorate the role of arts in education and to use storytelling and creativity as tools for reaching students more effectively.

Each day, I try to pick a word I write every morning, and I try to pick a word - just kindness. I believe that was my word today. There's so much divisiveness these days that I think it's so necessary to just find the places where you can be kind. And that's fine - I can't change the world particularly, but I can do it on a small level. I feel very lucky that I had the combination of theater and education because there's nothing like the arts that provides you, particularly theater, where you meet every single kind of person imaginable. It made me feel that I'm pretty open-minded, and I attribute that, beside my parents, but also because of being in the theater.