The Poetry of Leadership: Moral Courage & Belonging in an Age of AI

Leadership in 2025 is under pressure. Between AI’s promise, deep polarization, and shifting expectations, it’s easy to drift into purely transactional or efficiency-obsessed models. But the piece “Moral Courage, Belonging, and the Poetry of Leadership” reminds us how much more — how much humaner — leadership must remain.

Resonance > Results

Jerry Larson, the subject of the article, viewed leadership not as a set of outcomes or metrics, but as resonance — the subtle, human thread connecting lives across time and circumstance. Policies, programs, technologies — they matter. But the stories we tell, the dignity we affirm, the voice we invite — those are what echo long after spreadsheets close.

Listening First

One central lesson: the leader’s role isn’t to be the loudest voice in the room — it’s to insist on listening first. Because the clearest insight often comes from the person who felt unheard. When leaders create space for courage, dissent, and truth-telling, they strengthen belonging, not weaken it.

Belonging Is Practice, Not Promise

Belonging isn’t crafted with slogans or posters. It’s realized through daily practices that ensure every human at the table has a voice — and a meal. Inclusion isn’t a checkbox — it’s an ongoing renovation of space, of culture, of attention.

Technology as Tool, Not Teacher

In his new book Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity, the author argues that whatever AI and technology bring, they cannot replace empathy, dignity, moral courage, responsibility. Schools — and organizations — are not pipelines to outputs; they are communities where young people must practice humanity.

A Call to Action

Let your first act as leader be listening — even (especially) when you think you know the answer.
Invite dissent; reward discomfort.
Use metrics of humanity — for example, how many people shared something hard or true this week?
Treat AI as a tool to free human attention, not replace it.
Remember: your legacy is less about what you did, and more about the spaces you left open for others to live.

Jerry believed, deeply, in people. He believed in me. In many of us. The greatest tribute we can pay is not in eulogy but in practice — in leading with courage, humility, and humanity.

Will Schools Exist in Ten Years?

By Kalyan Balaven | October 22, 2025 |

I finally met Captain Kirk at a fan event this past summer in the Bay Area.

To me, William Shatner was more than an actor—he was the embodiment of a childhood imagination that dared to chart galaxies. The Captain’s hunger to explore, his willingness to consult Spock, his readiness to push boundaries—these qualities shaped how I thought about learning. To this day, my annual ritual of watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is no mere nostalgia; with my son, it’s a ritual in lineage, reminding us of what loyalty, sacrifice, and wisdom demand.

After our conversation, I thanked Mr. Shatner. He lingered, spoke with fans, teased nervous questioners, even sparring—jokingly—with Neil deGrasse Tyson. He opened a hailing frequency across generations, asking us “Do you love what you do–and how do you reckon with change?”

That was more than a pleasantry. It was a challenge, a mirror, a subspace transmission summoning me onto the ship.

In that moment I was transported back to my early teaching days at The Athenian School. During a faculty inservice, we had watched a Mike Wesch talk about culture change—how a simple census book disrupted tribal life in Papua New Guinea, foreshadowing how social media would reshape our shared sense of humanity. After it ended, Bruce Hamren, a wise senior faculty member, gently placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “It’s just another professional development theme. Keep doing what you do.”

At the Fork in the Road: Choosing Humanity in the Age of AI

When I wrote The Fork in the Road for ATLIS, I was wrestling with the very tension I live every day as a school leader: how do we embrace innovation without losing our humanity?

Independent schools stand at a crossroads. One path leads us toward efficiency, automation, and the temptation to let machines do the work of people. The other asks us to use AI not as a replacement, but as a tool that frees us to invest more deeply in what matters most: relationships, belonging, and Whole Student Education.

In the article, I offered three truths that feel even more urgent now:

Relationships are our anchor. AI should never erode the time teachers spend mentoring and truly seeing students. It should create more space for it.
Small schools can lead. Our agility allows us to model discernment and experimentation, showing larger institutions what thoughtful integration looks like.
It’s about stewardship, not resistance. The question isn’t if AI will be part of education — it’s how we will guide its use toward human-centered learning.

That’s the fork. And every school has to choose.

Reading to Steer the Ship

I was also honored to see my book, Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity, featured in Top 10 Books on AI for Educators, Parents, and Anyone Who Still Believe We Can Steer the Ship (Daily Kos).

That list is a gift. Alongside works like AI for the Rest of Us, Unmasking AI, and Empire of AI, it points us toward wisdom, ethics, and discernment — a reminder that the road ahead is navigable if we choose to walk it with courage and humility. For me, it reaffirmed that progressive education has a critical role to play in guiding AI toward outcomes rooted in equity and belonging.

Why Both Matter Now

Taken together, The Fork in the Road and the Daily Kos list chart a vision of education that refuses false choices. We don’t have to pick between humanity and technology. We can insist on both: progressive education that uses AI wisely to expand belonging, deepen learning, and prepare students for a future they can shape — not just inherit.

This is the essence of moral courage in education: to lean into difference, foster dialogue, and build resilience in schoolsrather than retreat into fear.

My Invitation

To my colleagues, parents, and fellow educators: read, share, and wrestle with these pieces. Bring them into your classrooms, your boardrooms, your dinner tables. Let them provoke dialogue. Let them push us toward courage in how we choose to lead.

The fork is here. The choice is ours.

— Kalyan Ali Balaven
Founder, Teaching Humanity | Also known as Professor A.L.I.

The Fork in the Road: AI and the Future of Independent Schools
Top 10 Books on AI for Educators, Parents, and Anyone Who Still Believe We Can Steer the Ship

A Sense of Responsibility in the Age of AI

by Kalyan Balaven, September 9th, 2025

The Call to Authentic Humanity

When A Sense of Responsibility in the Age of AI appeared on Round Square, it captured a truth that resonates across progressive education: the rise of Artificial Intelligence amplifies, rather than diminishes, the urgency of teaching authentic humanity.

As Head of School at Dunn School, my work is grounded in whole student education. AI can analyze data, draft essays, and even simulate dialogue. But it cannot do what schools must do: nurture belonging, cultivate purpose, and guide young people to navigate multiplicity without losing their humanity.

Tommie Lindsey and the Gift of Forensics

I cannot approach this conversation without honoring my teacher and mentor, Tommie Lindsey. Through Forensics, Speech and Debate, Mr. Lindsey taught generations of students—including me—that truth is something you seek in dialogue, not something you wield as a weapon.

Forensics was never just about winning rounds. It was about dignity, empathy, and the courage to let words carry our humanity. Today, in a world mediated by algorithms, those lessons feel even more vital.

Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity

My book, Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity, is a continuation of that lineage. It insists that education must be more than performance—it must be transformative. Truth must be spoken, yes, but it must also be taught with care and lived with integrity.

The title was born from my own journey as a student of Tommie Lindsey, where I first discovered the power of story and speech. Now, as AI reshapes how we learn, create, and communicate, I find myself returning to that same ethic: to teach humanity alongside technology, to emphasize courage alongside code.

Progressive Education in the Age of AI

Progressive education has always been about preparing students for the world as it is and shaping it for the world as it should be. In the age of AI, this means equipping students to ask not only “what can the machine do?” but “what should we do with it?”

This is why whole student education is essential. Students must not only master skills—they must wrestle with ethics, learn to listen, and develop the courage to act responsibly. These are the questions of democracy, justice, and belonging that no algorithm can solve.

Forensics, Speech, and Debate as Formation

In Speech and Debate, students practice what machines cannot replicate: presence. They stand in vulnerability, argue with courage, and allow themselves to be moved by another’s point of view. In debate, the mind is sharpened. In oratory, the heart is stretched. Together, they shape citizens capable of carrying authentic humanity into every space they enter.

Conclusion: Our Compass Forward

If Round Square’s article calls us to responsibility, and if Tommie Lindsey showed us that Forensics is about finding our fullest selves, then Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity is my contribution to that lineage.

AI will keep evolving. But our compass must remain the same: authentic humanity, spoken aloud, lived in community, and taught through progressive, whole student education. That is how we honor truth in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

Meta Description: Kalyan Balaven reflects on Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity, the legacy of Tommie Lindsey, and how Forensics, Speech and Debate, progressive education, and whole student education can guide us toward authentic humanity in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

The Other Side of Education: Building Authentic Humanity in the Age of AI

The Story of “The Other”

In The Other: Kalyan Balaven, I shared my story of growing up marked as “other”—a boy navigating Tamil and West Indian ancestry, carving out space in systems not built for him. That sense of being unseen became a lifelong call to action: to ensure students, families, and communities experience belonging.

Today, in an era reshaped by Artificial Intelligence, the story of “the other” takes on new resonance. Technology promises efficiency, but it also risks flattening individuality into data points. My responsibility as an educator—and now as Head of School at Dunn School—is to ensure that our students remain whole, not reduced.

Forensics as Formation of Voice

Much of my resilience came from Forensics, Speech and Debate. Under the mentorship of Tommie Lindsey, I discovered that voice can be both shield and sword. Debate rounds were not merely contests of logic—they were laboratories of identity, places where I learned that speaking my truth was not an act of arrogance but of survival.

This is why I continue to insist that Forensics belongs at the center of progressive education. In a world where AI can simulate speech, young people must learn to distinguish performance from presence, noise from authentic voice.

Progressive Education and the Whole Student

Progressive education asks us to teach the whole student. That’s why at Dunn School, we build programs that foster not only intellect but empathy, curiosity, and resilience. The future demands innovators who know how to code and care, who can wield tools without forgetting the people those tools are meant to serve.

Whole student education is not a slogan—it is a safeguard. When students learn to connect their inner life to the outer world, they are less likely to dehumanize others in pursuit of progress. That is how we move from being “the other” to being whole.

Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity in the AI Era

In my book, Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity, I argue that our greatest task in the AI era is not teaching machines to think like humans, but teaching humans to remain human. Authentic humanity is our competitive advantage.

When algorithms reward division, we must train students in dialogue. When deepfakes blur reality, we must train students in discernment. When AI makes knowledge instantly accessible, we must train students in wisdom. That is the responsibility of educators who take the whole student seriously.

The Other Becomes the Compass

My story of being “the other” has become my compass. It guides my work at Dunn School, my commitment to progressive education, and my insistence that Speech and Debate remain central to forming young people.

And it shapes how I see Artificial Intelligence—not as the enemy, but as the latest context in which we must insist on our humanity. The task is not to erase difference but to dignify it. The task is not to fear technology but to hold it accountable to human flourishing.

Conclusion: Belonging as the Antidote

If The Other began as a story of exclusion, it now expands into a vision of belonging. As educators, parents, and leaders, our calling is to make sure no student is left unseen—whether by their community or by the algorithms shaping their world.

That is why I believe the future of education lies in the intersection of authentic humanity, whole student education, and progressive pedagogy. It is why I continue to carry Tommie Lindsey’s legacy of Forensics and Speech and Debate into the age of AI. And it is why, no matter how the world changes, I remain committed to speaking truth and teaching humanity.

Meta Description: Inspired by The Other: Kalyan Balaven, this article explores how progressive education, Forensics, Speech and Debate, whole student education, and authentic humanity can guide us through the challenges of Artificial Intelligence.

Breaking Barriers: What Faith Gatherings Teach Us About Progressive Education in the Age of AI

From Churches to Classrooms: A Shared Lesson

The Santa Barbara Independent recently reported on a remarkable event: two communities, the Santa Barbara Mission and the Lompoc Baptist Church, came together across history and difference to build understanding.

Reading it, I was reminded that breaking barriers is not the work of faith alone. It is the work of schools, too. In many ways, progressive education is the same project: to gather people who might not otherwise come together, to wrestle honestly with difference, and to find belonging in the shared act of learning.

The Forensics of Belonging

In my own life, it was Forensics, Speech and Debate that became a gathering ground. Under the guidance of Tommie Lindsey, I learned that standing at a lectern could be a bridge between “the other” and the community. Speech tournaments were not just contests; they were spaces where students carried their lived experiences into dialogue and left more connected than when they arrived.

That same spirit animated the Santa Barbara event. Faith leaders crossed lines of tradition to discover new ground. Students in Forensics cross lines of difference every time they debate with empathy or tell a story with courage. Both remind us that community is not found by erasing difference but by dignifying it.

Whole Student Education and Authentic Humanity

At Dunn School, we call this whole student education. The project is not only academic—it is relational, emotional, and ethical. When two churches gather across divides, they are practicing what schools must practice daily: the cultivation of authentic humanity.

In my book, Speaking Truth, Teaching Humanity, I argue that truth-telling and humanity-building are inseparable. This is as true in faith communities as it is in classrooms. Both must model belonging if the next generation is to inherit something stronger than fear or division.

Progressive Education in the Age of AI

And here is where Artificial Intelligence enters the picture. Machines can simulate sermons and generate essays. What they cannot do is replicate the lived power of two communities gathering across boundaries, or the courage of a student delivering a story that makes an audience weep.

This is the challenge of progressive education in the AI era: to ensure that belonging and dialogue remain at the center of learning. As algorithms grow more sophisticated, we must not outsource the human work of compassion, reconciliation, and truth.

Conclusion: The Work of Gathering

The Independent’s article shows us that gatherings across faith, race, and history are still possible. My own journey through Forensics and my work now in education remind me that such gatherings are also necessary in classrooms, boardrooms, and civic spaces.

If faith leaders can model reconciliation, and if teachers can model dialogue, then students will learn not just how to live with technology, but how to live with one another. That is the work of whole student education. That is the task of authentic humanity. And that is why, even in the age of Artificial Intelligence, we must keep gathering, speaking, and teaching across every barrier.

Meta Description: Drawing from the Santa Barbara Independent’s story on barrier-breaking gatherings, Kalyan Balaven reflects on progressive education, Forensics, Speech and Debate, whole student education, authentic humanity, and Artificial Intelligence.