Leadership ISD Heroes: Matt Barnes ('17)

The current health crisis has hurt millions of families throughout Texas. But it did nothing to diminish the dedication of these Heroes who stepped up to provide services and relief to those in need.  Every week we will take this opportunity to celebrate and thank our Leadership ISD COVID-19 Heroes! 

Matt Barnes

Harris County, Class of 2017

Founder, The Education Game

LISD: What are you currently doing in response to COVID-19?

Matt Barnes (MB): I’ve turned my belief about the pivotal role parents play in education into a new website: The Education Game.The site helps parents, who have been thrown into the teaching profession, navigate and embrace their new role as educators. The danger is that, if we’re not careful, we will miss the opportunity embedded within this crisis. The opening is this: now that parents are back in the driver’s seat, if they are supported in their work at home, they will feel equipped to continue – and possibly even accelerate – their educational leadership once the pandemic has passed. The result would be the Holy Grail of education reform — that both teachers AND parents participate in driving academic progress.

LISD:  HOW HAS LEADERSHIP ISD PREPARED YOU FOR THIS MOMENT?

MB: “Ready, Aim, Fire.” Before one does anything, they should follow this well-worn approach. Leadership ISD prepared me by filling in numerous gaps in my understanding of the educational system. Although I do not consider myself an “expert” on education, Leadership ISD gave me the strategic, political and practical tools to step further into the educational space. Were it not for Leadership ISD, I would not have run for school board, would not have command of the educational pressure points that I am trying to exploit, and would not be taking on more personal and professional risks by blogging, conducting webinars, and podcasting publicly. I tell my wife, “It’s Leadership ISD’s fault!”

LISD: WHAT WOULD BE YOUR ADVICE TO OTHERS WHO WANT TO TAKE ACTION IN THIS TIME OF CRISIS? 

MB: That's easy. Get angry. Let the implications of educational failure hit you on a personal level. Then read the quote below which I read every time I want to quit -- which is almost daily. Then call me and let's have a beer. 

"It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt

To learn more about The Education Game, visit theeducationgame.com.