Zebra Mollusks & Tigers

“We see the world not as it is, but as we are - or as we are conditioned to see it.”

- Stephen Covey

From 2010 - 2015, I was on the founding board of a K-4 charter school in North Nashville. One of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

Today Purpose Preparatory Academy (Purpose Prep) is one of highest performing elementary schools in Tennessee, especially compared to other schools with high percentages of students who receive free and reduced lunches because their families qualify based on income. The kids who attend Purpose Prep are mostly low income and black. They’re from communities where most people don’t talk about college. Where people don’t see college as a possibility.

At Purpose Prep, scholars (they’re called scholars, not students) are told in kindergarten they're going to college. The classrooms are named after schools their teachers attended - Vanderbilt, Fisk, University of Tennessee, University of Alabama, Georgetown, Tennessee State.

Six and seven year olds go on field trips to local universities.

Purpose Prep isn’t for every kid. And not every kid who goes to Purpose Prep will go to college. But every kid who goes to Purpose Prep will see the world differently. And they’ll know about opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise considered.

Once there was a barnacle who lived on a dock. Every day, he watched ships pass overhead as they unloaded and loaded their cargo. On one particular day, a peculiar looking box fell into the water and accidentally opened, revealing a genie. The genie, emerging from the box, saw the barnacle and assumed he was the entity who summoned him. "Sir, I am a powerful genie and I can grant you a wish. Being a barnacle is a drab existence, and I can fix that for you. If you could be anything in the world, what would you be?"


The barnacle was delighted by his luck. His dream was coming true. He eagerly replied, "A zebra mollusk!"

Zebra mollusks are beautiful. But have you ever seen a tiger?