The Power of Diversity to Get Really Big Things Done

Yesterday I had the pleasure of participating at an event at the National Constitution Center, and in the process met its president and CEO, Jeffrey Rosen, who was gracious enough to not only host the event but take the time before we started to tell me all about what has been going on at the Center lately.  I am so grateful, as an American and a Philadelphian, for this treasured institution.

The event was put on by Philadelphia Education Fund and it featured William Hite, superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, as well as seven of us members of the Philadelphia Board of Education.  Sitting on stage with everyone, I couldn’t help but think about the men who came together in this same city 230+ years ago to craft what would become the supreme law of our land, the Constitution of the United States of America.  Those men were farmers and financiers, merchants and doctors, northerners and southerners.  And they were brought together, not long after the formation of a new nation and a new experiment in government of/for/by the people, to establish a set of laws clear enough to inform all situations yet fluid enough to adjust over time to new situations. 

The document is by no means perfect, and there is no need to imagine it so.  Yet still it stands.  And that speaks to the power of a diversity of people representing a diversity of perspectives coming together for the common good. 

We imagine our Founding Fathers as great Americans, and they are.  But at the time of the formation of this great document, they were far more rooted in other aspects of their identity – their trade, or their home state, or their political party – than in the notion of “America,” which was still being formed.  In other words, it wasn’t a monolith bloc of Americans drafting the law of the land for America.  It was a motley grouping defined by differences and contrasts.  They didn’t agree so much as they negotiated and compromised and horse-traded and cajoled and conceded.  And look what a wonderful thing resulted.

In our times, it can be tempting to wish that the sausage was made differently.  We feel strongly about what’s good, and so we’d rather just dictate that to everyone else (or have our representative or voting bloc or political party do so), than to go through the process of, well, democracy.  And so we make “compromise” into a bad word, vilify the other side, and enter our echo chambers to feel better about our beliefs. 

To be sure, there are such things as absolute rights and wrongs, and history will judge when we are on the right or wrong side of those clear-cut issues.  Goodness knows even our Founding Fathers whiffed terribly on some really big ones.  So I understand the frustration when things take time to move towards consensus on issues that time will tell were no-brainers. 

But, by and large, when it comes to anything meaningful and complex, it is good to have a diversity of perspectives involved.  That goes for governance of an entire nation.  And it also goes for governance of a big city public school district, which is why I am so impressed by Mayor Kenney’s appointments and am so honored that I am one of them.  For the nine of us bring a diversity of perspectives to the tasks at hand, and I have delighted in learning from others’ while sharing mine.  

We have a lot of work to do, and we’re just getting started, but the diversity of perspectives represented on our team leaves me feeling very optimistic about our ability to make real change on behalf of the children served by our school district.   I am inspired when I see my fellow board members in action, because I so admire and respect their body of work and how they bring that wisdom to the issues before us.  Just as I was inspired yesterday sitting in the National Constitution Center thinking about another group of people with diverse perspectives who also did something great and lasting.