Why I'm Leaving for Grad School

Recently I accepted an offer of admission to the MA program in Private School Leadership at the Klingenstein Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. I'll enroll full-time for the 2013-2014 academic year.

This means leaving my beloved position at King, foregoing a year of salary, and taking on debt. It probably means deferring home ownership.

It means wrapping up or setting aside countless projects I'd planned to carry into next year, and giving up the chance that every teacher looks forward to: the chance to teach it, whatever it is, just a little better beginning in the fall.

It means giving up petty things like my school-owned devices. It means resuming an hour-plus commute only a year after ending it--this time, in the opposite direction.

It means a whole lot of uncertainty, when just recently I'd felt pretty certain about the next few years.

...It also means becoming a full-time student again for the first time since undergrad.

It means reading: reading constantly, reading insatiably, reading immediately what I'm told to read, instead of just adding it to a "to-read" pile buried beneath more pressing work.

And writing, of course. How I look forward to a year where the most substantial writing I do isn't in student comments and parent emails!

It means gaining a new cohort of peers from across the country to learn with and learn from; three years on, I'm so thankful for my network of peers from the Klingenstein Summer Institute.

It means new mentors, as well. New inspirations, new models, new advice. I'm thankful for the mentors who helped me choose this path.

It means strapping into the Klingenstein rocket again, yielding to Mission Control, and launching into a year-long exploratory mission to orbits way beyond where my PLN alone can take me.

Surely, it means beaming back glimpses here, and returning with a lifetime's worth of specimens to share.

Ultimately, that's what this decision is about: all I'll bring back. Inspiration, aspirations, momentum. Perspective.

As I decided, some of the best advice I got was this: the best time to make a change is when everything is going right.

This has been the most professionally rewarding year of my life. It's not easy to step aside, but I think it's right.

T-minus five months and counting!