I began my teaching career at the Charter High School for Architecture and Design (CHAD), a predominantly African American and Hispanic Title I school in Center City. My insistence on values grounded in my Indian upbringing, such as discipline, obedience and persistence, were often panned by school administrators as "overly demanding" and "unrealistic." In opting for their version of a more student-centered approach, these administrators ignored research that highlighted the importance of structure, order and grit in a student's academic and personal development. Asian American student enrollment at CHAD declined by two-thirds in five years to just 1 percent in 2017-18. Not surprisingly, the School Reform Commission voted this past June not to renew the school's charter citing poor academic and discipline standards in its report.