Changing the World

Paraphrased from Friday, when we had lunch with Kemmons Wilson, Jr (the son of the founder of the Holiday Inn):

"The DNA of Memphis is laced with risk-taking innovators who through their hard work and creativity, absolutely changed the world. That's what we do in Memphis. We enter into our field, and with a great deal of innovation and creativity, we change the world. And as new citizens of Memphis, that's what we're going to do-- we did it in hotels, in package distribution, in music. And now we're going to do it urban education. We're going to change the world."

Our heritage in this city:

Elvis

Fred Smith & FedEx

Pitt Hyde & Autozone

Kemmons Wilson & Holiday Inn

Memphis is poised in a unique spot for (specifically urban) education reform. We will receive around $100 million from the Bill Gates Foundation over the next 7 years... Tennessee was recently awarded $285 million from the national government's Race to the Top. Teach for America is here. New Leaders for New Schools is here. The Efficacy Institute is here. The New Teacher Project is here. And of course, the Memphis Teacher Residency is here.

So next on the list of fields in which Memphis contributes great innovation?

urban education

(MTR 2011 with Kemmons Wilson, Jr.)