KIPP's Dave Levin Responds to The Wall Street Journal
In response to The Wall Street Journal's July 7th editorial deriding KIPP’s decision to drop its motto, “Work Hard. Be Nice.,” as “woke nonsense,” Dave Levin, KIPP’s co-founder, wrote a letter defending the organization’s decision. The Journal published the letter on July 11th.
Levin wrote:
“Regarding your editorial 'KIPP Wokes Up' (July 7): KIPP’s decision to retire our slogan 'Work hard. Be nice.' has nothing to do with abandoning our standards and everything to do with meeting our community’s needs 25 years later. Last year, we gathered 6,000 students, alumni, families, teachers and school leaders to update our mission. In their stories, we heard a common theme: working hard and being nice did not sufficiently reflect the reality of their lives. Simply put, we all want a slogan that does.
“Too many of our students work incredibly hard and get into the college of their dreams—only to face a massive tuition bill, the need to work multiple jobs and a lack of paid internships in most career tracks. And once they enter the workforce, they will still earn significantly less than their white peers, be twice as likely to be killed by police and, now, be disproportionately hospitalized or die from Covid-19. In a world where our students confront anti-blackness and systemic racism at every turn, KIPP’s slogan needs to reflect the importance of identity, excellence and the boldness needed to create a more just world.
“Hard work is essential. Character matters. But neither is enough. We should not be afraid to tell our children that it takes more. It takes community, access and systemic change. And it takes a belief that we must be a part of this change.
“Ideally, working hard and being nice is all any student needs, but our country isn’t there yet. Retiring our slogan is a step toward both recognizing that fact and working to change it.”