Three Children Bought a School for a Day

That is leadership. The staff dresses down. The boss dresses up. I have worked in offices that never figured this out.

In May 2025 a student at the Saklan School in Moraga, California, wrote up her own turn on the school blog. She stood out front at the morning carline, greeted families and a visiting golden retriever, visited classrooms and surprised her class with a pizza lunch. Her last big decision of the day: extra recess and popsicles for everyone.

A year later another Saklan student took the job and wrote about it while the day was still going. She would still get free recesses, she noted, and would not miss the classes that give homework, "so the schedule is clearly well thought through." The school's Art Show opened the same day. She had been in the class that made it, and she gave a "HUGE shoutout" to Lauren, the art teacher, for keeping the conversation on the art, because getting a room full of middle schoolers to sit down and work quietly is "a gigantic feat," one she could never come close to.

She was head of the school, and the job she said she could not do was the art teacher's. That is a better review of a school than most consultants produce.

Every child who has ever been handed a school has known exactly what to do with it, which is more than I can say for most of the adults.

For my birthday the youngest gave me a handmade coupon: Head of the House for a Day. I gave it back and made her head instead. Her platform: no homework, extra dessert, pajamas for all. She wore my tie. At bedtime she said that being in charge was very tiring, and that tomorrow I could have it back, and that I should do it better.