John Kuhn: Experience of a Lifetime

I want to take this opportunity to thank Raise Your Hand Texas for this experience of a lifetime. The environment inspired me, the speakers challenged me, and my new friends from around Texas (and the world) motivated me. I am not the same principal that left Texas on June 29. I am not even the same person. Thank you RYHT for investing in me, in my colleagues, and in the children of our state. We are bringing the Ivy League back with us to places as diverse as Mineral Wells, El Paso, College Station, and San Saba.

As a quick anecdote I want to tell you that I stole away one day to Concord and stood on the very ground where the first shot of the American Revolution found its mark. I could see in the distance the childhood home of Ralph Waldo Emerson and I was struck by this thought: the works of those Minutemen and the words of that writer are the perpetual inheritance of Concord's inhabitants. People of courageous ideals and transformative ideas leave their lands forever richer. I hope that we, the principals of Texas entrusted with this life-changing experience, will likewise raise our cities and towns on our shoulders and leave them richer, stronger, and brighter for future generations. No one can undo the good that we bring about.

Thank you also for your work on Accountability reform and for your tireless efforts to make our legislators aware of the very real concerns of educators. We needed a champion.

John Kuhn