Chapter 20: Dr. John Lounsbury: The Most Important Lesson

In the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” world of middle grades education, Dr. John H. Lounsbury is our Kevin Bacon, central to our relationships and to our field. I am blessed to say that I have only one degree of separation from Dr. Lounsbury, and my relationship with him dates back nearly 30 years. He has been the most important influence on my professional life as a middle grades’ educator and scholar.

On the October day in 1992 when I first met Dr. Lounsbury, I was a relatively new member of the team for the Middle Grade School State Policy Initiative (MGSSPI), Carnegie Corporation of New York’s decade-long effort to support states and schools in implementing the recommendations for improving middle grades schools in Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development [CCAD], 1989). On that autumn day, I was standing in the back of a windowless ballroom in a hotel in San Diego, holding a legal pad where I kept an ongoing handwritten to-do list to keep things running smoothly during this first-ever MGSSPI national workshop for the school, state, and national leaders pushing to improve schooling for young adolescents. What I was about to hear from our next speaker would shift the trajectory of my professional life, including my work as a scholar.