The Better Leaders Better Schools Podcast with Daniel Bauer

Quick take: If you think skipping lunch and glorifying stress proves your worth as a school leader, this episode will hit different. Danny and Jethro rip the mask off martyrdom in education and offer a new, healthier way to lead.

Jethro Jones is a former principal and host of the Transformative Principal podcast. He's coached school leaders around the world and is passionate about rejecting outdated norms, rethinking leadership, and helping principals stop chasing busy and start leading with clarity.

In this episode, Jethro Jones challenges traditional education paradigms:

• What's broken: Leaders believe being "too busy for lunch" proves dedication.
• The shift: Prioritize wellness and boundaries as leadership assets.
• Impact: Better energy, focus, and longevity in the role.

• What's broken: Treating every job — no matter how meaningless — as mission-critical.
• The shift: Work smart, not sacred. Prioritize impact.
• Impact: Leaders reclaim time for what truly moves the needle.

• What's broken: Believing chronic stress is just part of the job.
• The shift: Normalize recovery and intentional leadership.
• Impact: Principals feel more human — and more effective — again.

"Busyness is the choice of a hopeless mind." — Jethro Jones

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

• Tomorrow: Block 30 minutes for lunch. No excuses. No interruptions.
• This Month: Audit your weekly tasks. Drop or delegate 3 things.
• This Semester: Redesign your calendar around what matters most.

Quick take: Most schools are stuck in the past. But Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth is building a future-fluent model that fuses AI, global citizenship, and joy — and it's working.

Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth is Head of School at Pine Street School, a private International Baccalaureate school in Manhattan. A trilingual leader with global roots in Montessori and IB education, she's also the former Head of School at Battery Park Montessori and founding leader of Del Mar Academy in Costa Rica.

In this episode, Anna Rita challenges traditional education paradigms:

• What's broken: Prioritizing rigor and standards over student well-being.
• The shift: Designing school experiences that build cultural intelligence and center joy.
• Impact: Students thrive as whole humans — not just test takers — in multilingual, multicultural, AI-integrated environments.

• What's broken: Matching kids to static school models rooted in alumni legacy and compliance.
• The shift: Creating agile, tech-empowered, globally connected schools that prepare for the unknown.
• Impact: Students design AI startups in middle school, build confidence through constant exposure, and graduate with real-world skills.

• What's broken: Under-appreciated staff, toxic culture, and reactive leadership.
• The shift: Intentionally recruiting joyful people, investing in appreciation, and building feedback loops that matter.
• Impact: Strong retention, deep belonging, and a campus culture where karaoke, dumplings, and the "Green Book" fuel morale.

"Raise thinkers, embrace humanity, and teach for tomorrow." — Anna Rita Pergolizzi-Wentworth

Ready to implement these ideas? start here:

• Tomorrow: Audit how you balance rigor with relationships — where are the gaps?
• This Month: Create one small moment of surprise and delight for your staff
• This Semester: Launch a student-led project that fuses creativity, technology, and cultural learning

Quick take:

What if the most powerful classrooms in American history operated under segregation? Dr. Karida L. Brown reframes our understanding of Black education during Jim Crow and offers a compelling vision for nurturing students through ecosystems of care.

Dr. Karida L. Brown is an NAACP Image Award-winning author, professor at Emory University, and public intellectual. Known for her groundbreaking research on systemic racism and Black life, she's the author of six books, including The Battle for the Black Mind.

• What's broken: The myth that schools can be politically or culturally neutral.
• The shift: Acknowledge that education operates within a social context — and choose to humanize, not homogenize.
• Impact: Creates space for students' full identities and lived experiences to be seen, respected, and affirmed.

• What's broken: Emphasis on compliance, test prep, and disconnected pedagogy.
• The shift: Look to the Black teachers of the Jim Crow era, who taught with deep care and high expectations.
• Impact: Reignites student pride, dignity, and purpose — and helps staff reclaim meaning in their work.

• What's broken: Assuming equity exists because students share a classroom.
• The shift: Recognize and dismantle invisible systems of advantage and disadvantage.
• Impact: Equips students from all backgrounds to navigate — and transform — institutional structures.

"Walk these halls like somebody fought like hell for you to be here." — Dr. Karida Brown

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

1. Tomorrow: Ask your staff, "What invisible messages does our campus send?"
2. This Month: Create space for student or staff storytelling to elevate empathy and insight
3. This Semester: Rethink your discipline or feedback systems through a lens of equity and care

Quick take:

Most leaders ask the wrong question. They obsess over what to do next instead of who they're becoming. In this episode, Dr. Chad Dumas unpacks how self-awareness, non-verbal cues, and intentional presence shape your entire school culture before a single decision is made.

Dr. Chad Dumas is an international consultant, author, and award-winning researcher who helps educators build capacity for self, team, and system improvement. A former teacher, principal, and central office administrator, he's the author of Let's Put the C in PLC, An Action Guide to Put the C in PLC, and The Teacher Team Leader Handbook.

In this episode, Danny Bauer and Dr. Chad Dumas dive deep into the inner work required to lead effectively. They challenge the surface-level "what do I do?" mentality and replace it with a leadership identity rooted in humility, empathy, and self-awareness.

• What's broken: Leaders jump straight to tactics — constantly asking, "What do I do?"
• The shift: Begin with who you are as a person and a leader. Your mindset, humility, and assumptions shape every result that follows.
• Impact: When leaders ground their actions in identity, they build trust, clarity, and authentic connection across their schools.

• What's broken: Non-verbal cues are ignored — rushed meetings, shallow breathing, and reactive tones quietly erode safety and collaboration.
• The shift: Master the pause, breathe deeply, and use intentional body language that communicates calm, curiosity, and respect.
• Impact: The culture shifts from tense to trusting. People start showing up with ideas because they feel seen and safe.

• What's broken: Leaders avoid hard conversations, turning tension into silence or resentment.
• The shift: Reframe conflict as a space for growth. Separate the person from the problem, focus on shared goals, and invite multiple perspectives.
• Impact: Teams move from defensiveness to collaboration. The best ideas emerge, and relationships deepen through honest dialogue.

"It's not about the do. It's about the who. Who you are as a person and as a leader — that's where everything starts."

— Dr. Chad Dumas

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

Tomorrow: Before your next meeting, take one deep breath and pause before you speak. Notice how it changes the tone.

This Month: Identify one assumption you hold about your staff that might not serve you. Replace it with the belief that they're doing their best.

This Semester: Build time for reflection into your team meetings. Make space for silence, processing, and joy.

Quick take:

What if everything you believed about math education was wrong? In this episode, Ted Dintersmith, bestselling author of Aftermath and What School Could Be, pulls back the curtain on how math has been weaponized — and how school leaders can transform learning by teaching the math that actually matters.

Ted Dintersmith is a bestselling author, education advocate, and former venture capitalist who believes traditional math education has failed our students. In Aftermath, he unveils the life-changing, real-world math skills students deserve to learn.

• What's broken: We spend billions teaching rote math no adult uses.
• The shift: Teach students estimation, decision-making, game theory, and data literacy.
• Impact: Students gain tools to make sense of the world — and avoid being replaced by AI.

• What's broken: Tests reward regurgitation over reasoning.
• The shift: Focus on deep thinking and real-life application instead of the "one right answer."
• Impact: Students build critical thinking and communication skills that machines can't replicate.

• What's broken: Schools track kids into college or label them "less than" if they pursue trades.
• The shift: Elevate career-based learning, internships, and real-world skills for all students.
• Impact: Confidence, agency, and community impact — plus real jobs post-graduation.

"The math that really matters in life does not have one right answer." – Ted Dintersmith

Ready to implement these ideas? Start here:

• Tomorrow: Audit your math curriculum. Are you teaching skills students will actually use?
• This Month: Host a screening of Multiple Choice and start a community conversation on real-world learning.
• This Semester: Design or pilot a learning experience rooted in data literacy, estimation, or decision-making.