Muhammad Ali is the greatest boxer to have ever lived. Even greater was the way in which he lived his life and stood for what he believed in. That was his true greatness. His life was a testament to many values I hold true to doing what is best for students. Muhammad Ali was innovative both in boxing style and global vision. He was a fearless self-promoter that constantly wanted the world to know his ideas. Ali fought for what he believed it.
While I never had a chance to see Muhammad Ali fight in person or live on television, I have been a student of his life for as long as I can remember. He was a person that had an undeniable self-belief in himself.
Think back to his first title fight. Cassius (at the time) is a young undefeated Olympic gold medalist that is a huge underdog to the world champion Sonny Liston. Sonny Liston at the time was seen similar to how many felt about Mike Tyson in the late 80s. He was strong, ferocious, and an ex convict. Of the over 40 writers polled that would be at the live event, only 3 picked young Clay (at the time) to win. Did the young fighter put his tail between his legs and walk away from this challenge? No. He, ‘SHOOK UP THE WORLD’ and dominated Liston in impressive fashion.
I see parallels between Ali and myself in regard to our initial transition to Daily 5 and small group instruction. While I certainly am not the world champion of elementary school principals, very few believed that we would turnaround our school with these instructional methods. My team and I steadfastly defended our vision until the end when we were able to reap the rewards of our success through a Level 1+ rating.
We could have listened to the numerous outside opinions that said we were going in the wrong direction. Ali could have listened to those writers that said he was too thin, too young, and not aggressive enough to give Liston a challenge. We both didn’t and found success in different fields at different times.
Has anyone ever thought of what Muhammad Ali would be in our time? He was the “meme” before it was ever thought of. He was a sports writers dream with his one-liners, KO predictions, and harassment of opponents. Fighters during his era didn’t know what to do with Ali. Very few were even able to stay on the same lap as Muhammad as he berated them with insults. The point is that Muhammad was a master at changing the narrative of his journey.
CICS Lloyd Bond is a school that resides on the Far South Side of Chicago within Chicago Housing Authorities’ Altgeld-Murray Homes. The promotion of our school is an essential part of funding and recruiting families that will provide word of our work as a school. We have students that travel from as far north as Bronzeville because parents will travel as far as possible if they have a chance to be at a good school. At parent and teacher fairs, it is not easy to promote our school. There are a lot of negative ideas that come from our part of the city. Instead of accepting these facts, I consistently work as Muhammad did; I work diligently to change the narrative.
Social media is a huge part of our promotion. Pictures are constantly sent out to make sure the positive is seen about our school. Our students, teachers, and parents work hard to create a loving, warm, and welcoming environment for our school. It is the job of me (Ali) to put the best story forward. The result, we have been a fully enrolled school from the day we opened out doors eight years ago.
While I may never become the Muhammad Ali of education, I will continue to use his life as a role model for what I can become through hard work and a desire to win. He has given us a legacy that will live on forever.
KINGSMITH.
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