In Our Experience: Co-Founder Paul Le’s Take on Belonging

No matter who your choice was in this week’s Presidential election, the prospects of the incoming Trump administration’s plans for public education and immigration policy will undoubtedly have immediate and lasting effects on English as a New Language students, and their immigrant families.

In that light, and as a follow-up to last week’s Educator Spotlight on belonging in schools as a student proficiency strategy, I wanted to share how both belonging and the lack thereof shaped my own outcomes.

As educators, we have a duty, more than ever, to center empathy in our practice, especially in uncertain times so that our students can also center themselves and thrive in schools where they feel they belong.

I hope sharing my own story, along with the slew of supports and resources that our team offers, can help you all thrive as well.

As an American-born child of refugees, belonging was an elusive concept. My family settled in a staunchly conservative Pennsylvania town. Sitting in a sea of white students as the only one who wasn’t, silence was my preferred tool for navigating those uncomfortable spaces. 

Paul Le and Bristol

My fellow students would use their fingers to make slanted eyes or call me racial slurs. I do not recall attending more than two birthday parties, sleepovers, or any events with classmates.  In high school, even with my brazen attempts to try to fit in, such as standing in the circle with the football team after lunch or trying out peer groups from the other elementary schools that formed our high school, I remained separate from my peers.  Bullying continued especially after I became well-known for grabbing all of the academic awards each year.  Kids poured honey all over my windshield one time junior year, so when I drove home, my parents bore witness to the lack of belonging their children endured from the school in which they enrolled me.

I didn’t experience a sense of belonging with peers until late high school when an upper-class teacher drafted me onto the speech team, and then the debate team, saying point blank: “You are starting speech after school beginning on Monday.  Let your parents know you won’t be taking the bus.” Soon after, I spent nearly every Saturday traveling to tournaments, meeting intellectual peers who challenged me in competition and offered camaraderie. Then my high school life fully changed when I embarked on a summer program that I applied to after seeing a flier in the guidance counselor’s trailer.   

That summer, I experienced a universe outside of my town with people who looked more like me, where every other student was a person of color.  The programming was intentional about creating belonging, community, and sharing our differences. Dozens of these students remain dearest friends today. 

I returned for my last year of high school feeling less alone.  The confidence and hope I felt helped me find my voice.  I spoke up in class when I disagreed, as opposed to providing the answers that teachers wanted to hear. I challenged the administration’s attempts to implement a school uniform. I disregarded the existing hierarchy of cliques and found different sets of friends with whom I identified on a deeper level.  I also gave an unexpected speech at the human rights assembly, speaking directly about the blatant racism and dehumanization taking place at our school, including that time when an older student honeyed my truck. That confidence must have shown in my college applications, as Yale overlooked my SAT scores and made me an alumnus.  Today, that lack of belonging in school fuels this organization that Dirk Tillotson and I began back in 2009: to create schools and communities where every child will discover and utilize their agency, and know that they belong. They are this country’s systemic change agents.

Reflecting on how and when I finally felt like I belonged at school, it all feels so random: a teacher I wasn’t expected to meet until junior year  A random flier on my guidance counselor’s corkboard.  When I became part of institutions with intentionally designed spaces for belonging, I flourished not only from being connected to others with whom I share a common bond, but also from the confidence derived from feeling safe, feeling heard, and feeling part of something bigger.  

Schools that create experiences of belonging can exponentially alter the academic outcomes of students, and also create a culture that retains teachers and builds a community of families who will fiercely advocate for their school long after their children graduate. Affinity groups, peer observations, and psychological safety for teachers. Authentic partnerships between schools and families, multicultural events and active PTAs for families with meaningful school support. Warm relationships with school staff, ample opportunities to exercise choice and voice, access to culturally responsive and relevant curriculum for students. All of these indicators of belonging are measurements of a school’s strength.

At LEDbetter, we help educators - founders, leaders, and teachers - create those meaningful spaces of belonging through a host of initiatives: 

For Teachers:

ENL Consortium: Our ever-growing consortium offers soon-to-be CTLE-eligible courses and live coaching to support teachers in developing whole-child practices, specifically for ENL students. 

Holding Space: Holding Space is our belonging-driven initiative to address teacher burnout.  Interested teachers from all over New York meet Wednesdays twice a month, to share the joys and challenges of the profession in guided sessions from our experts.

Customized staff training and development: our coaches can design professional development sessions, conduct classroom observations, and facilitate teacher cohorts of any type to institute best practices for belonging, for your specific student population, all of which is available in our ENL Consortium.

For Leaders:

Our Fellowship Programs feature direct and embedded content related to establishing belonging, including: how to create trust, work in teacher and leadership teams to analyze data,  use protocols to share information about specific students, and problem solve to reach consensus when identifying solutions to meet student needs. 

Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education: LEDbetter can jumpstart or augment your NYS mandated work by facilitating discussions and activities to support belonging.  We introduce and coach on the use of the Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education (CR-SE) Framework as a means to create a productive learning environment.  

School Culture Audit: LEDbetter can perform a one to three day site visit where we identify the presence and absence of indicators of belonging in your school and offer  recommendations to increase belonging to support student’s learning and staff satisfaction. 

To learn more about how we can support you, please email excelerator@led-better.org, or schedule a call with us.