Holding the Tension
By Enaye Englenton McDonogh School • Owings Mills, MD
I want to start with something honest: this work is hard. And I think we do each other a disservice when we talk about it as though it isn’ t.
The past five years have tested schools— and the people in them— in ways most of us didn’ t see coming. A pandemic. A racial reckoning. Contentious elections. Legislative attacks on work that many of us have spent careers building. The pressure has come from every direction, and it has not let up. If you’ re reading this and feeling the weight of that, you’ re not failing. You’ re paying attention.
What I’ ve learned— slowly, imperfectly— is that the goal isn’ t to make the tension disappear. The goal is to learn how to hold it. And to build communities where others can hold it alongside you.
The Statement That Came First
I was drawn to McDonogh because of its Freedom of Expression and Civil Discourse statement. As I explored my interest in the school, I learned that for nearly two decades, a passionate group of teachers had advocated for a memorial to honor the enslaved and freed people of John McDonogh— the men, women, and children whose labor built the wealth that founded our institution. It was not an easy campaign. There was donor pressure, alumni resistance, and real institutional anxiety about what public acknowledgment would mean for a school that had long celebrated its founder without complicating the story.
Page 6 Summer 2026 CSEE Connections