Well, the KIPP rebranding could’ve been a lot worse. Last year, after the famed charter school network memory-holed its longtime slogan of “Work Hard. Be Nice.” as a vestige of white supremacy culture, one could have imagined a rebranding that genuflected to some truly toxic sentiments. (I thought the new motto might be “Slack Off. Be Mean.”) KIPP didn’t go there.
KIPP recently announced that it will be replacing its "Work Hard. Be Nice." mantra with "Together, A ... [+]
Instead, KIPP opted for gauzy sentimentality. Last week, a year after jettisoning its foundational quarter-century commitment to hard work and kindness, KIPP adopted a new mantra: “Together, A Future Without Limits.”
Well. This seems rather like the kind of thing that PR flacks at some advertising firm would dream up if asked for a pleasant-sounding slogan that wouldn’t offend anyone or mean anything.
KIPP’s old motto meant something. It featured specific actions and values. It said something about the kind of place KIPP was supposed to be.
The new slogan? Not so much. It’s a mantra that’s banal enough and vague enough that it could serve equally well at any school, nonprofit, or tech start-up. You can even envision it as a passable motivational poster, superimposed over a sky diving team or an elegant flock of birds soaring across an open sky.
But, of course, that rather seems to be the point—that KIPP wanted something pleasant and innocuous.
The explanatory materials that accompanied the new slogan didn’t do much to clarify things. KIPP explains, “We see each student as an individual, matching what sparks their curiosity with what and how we teach. We challenge their minds while nurturing their joy of learning — whether they are working to read their first word or solve their first calculus problem.”
That’s all certainly nice enough. It offers no particular insight into values or pedagogy, but it’d be hard to take issue with it. The missive goes on, “We prepare every student for college and celebrate all paths to a fulfilling life. And we join together with families and communities, partnering to pursue the more just world we all want to see.”
Sure. In fact, it rather reads like the bland brochures blasted out by any school system with the funds to afford them. But it still doesn’t offer much sense as to why KIPP is walking away from working hard and being nice.
The remarkable thing is that KIPP is walking away from values that are straightforward, broadly shared, and universally understood. After all, 4 out of 5 parents endorse having their kids learn concepts like “hard work,” “being well-mannered,” and “being responsible.” In fact, black parents are slightly more likely than white parents to say traits like “hard work,” “being-well mannered,” and “persistence” are important.
In a notable tweak, after a quarter century, KIPP also opted to alter its name so that it’s now “KIPP: Public Schools.” On the one hand, this is small potatoes and I don’t really want to be churlish. On the other hand, the timing is terrifically curious. After all, this is a moment when prolonged school closures have made the meaning of “public school” less clear than ever, and when parents are voicing unprecedented support for and interest in home school and private options. Given all that, it’s hard to avoid the impression that this is a crude bit of political pandering, especially as a time when teachers unions and the ideological left are working hard to depict charter schools (which are public by definition) as something untoward.
This could’ve been worse. But KIPP has abandoned something solid and clear in favor of the nebulous and synthetic, seemingly in the hope that it won’t offend those troubled by old-fashioned notions like hard work and being nice. Is that really a flag that educators should fear to plant?
This exquisite sensibility to the ideological fashions of the day would make a certain kind of sense if KIPP were a blue-state vendor of ice cream or hair products. But schools are formative institutions. Knowingly or not, in opting for empty, anodyne rebranding, KIPP seems bent on teaching students that it’s okay to be craven.
After all, I don’t know whether KIPP’s leadership truly believes that hard work and kindness are part of some kind of “white supremacy” culture (despite being honored in many different cultures around the globe). If they don’t really mean to abandon those foundational virtues, then the troubling lesson is that it’s okay to walk back your beliefs if it’ll placate the ideologues.
And if they do mean it, they should’ve unambiguously articulated their new values—the ones they now want students to absorb. If not hard work and kindness, just what do the KIPP Public Schools now value, anyway?
