Sit With Me —

A woman with long dark hair sitting at a white desk, smiling, with a white HP laptop open in front of her. The desk has a stack of books, a pair of glasses, and a white vase with dried pampas grass. There is also a large white vase with dried pampas grass on the floor to the left of the desk. The background is plain white.

Sit With Me: Field Notes from the Threshold

Essays and stories on the culture of belonging, the art of leadership, and the work of healing.

I write about the human stories that shape who we are and how we live together. My work lives at the intersections of education, culture, leadership, and community — in the tender, complicated spaces where belonging is nurtured, identities take shape, and people find the courage to imagine something different.

Through essays and stories, I reflect on the people who hold our communities together and help them grow: those who teach and learn, raise children, build organizations, lead with care, and create spaces where others can flourish — the creative nurturers of our society. I’m interested in what happens when the systems we inherit meet the lives we are trying to build, and how we might transform both through deeper listening, honest reflection, and a renewed sense of what’s possible.

My work has appeared in local Austin media and national wellness platforms.

Support This Work

This blog is free and community-facing by design. If it's been useful to you, consider contributing to keep it that way. Your support sustains independent writing on local, state, and national education policy, school finance, and the organizing happening in communities across Texas — with no institutional funding and no outside agenda. Contribute at whatever level feels right.

Some of this work has been featured in local Austin media and national wellness platforms.

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H. E. Wong 9/23/26 H. E. Wong 9/23/26

Sit With Me, Austin

Webb and Burnet parents are being asked to sign petitions to close their own children's schools rather than risk a state takeover, and this piece expores the nuance and traces that "choice" back through a fear-based political climate, Texas accountability law, AISD's own closure history, and a statewide pattern of dismantling public education, through the eyes of a sixth-generation Texan, AISD parent zoned to Webb, and former Dobie instructional coach.

H. E. Wong 6/12/26 H. E. Wong 6/12/26

This System Was Never Meant to Hold Us

H. E. Wong 6/12/26 H. E. Wong 6/12/26

Rethinking ADHD Awareness: Presence, Support, and Liberation Awareness Month Reflections

H. E. Wong 5/11/26 H. E. Wong 5/11/26

Who Gets to Heal? On Access, Integrity, and the Real Costs of Holding Space

H. E. Wong 10/26/25 H. E. Wong 10/26/25

Lessons From the Past: Building a Public School System That Learns, Listens, and Lasts

Public education is one of our greatest collective responsibilities. We’re all navigating systems that ask families and educators to make impossible choices within structures never built to serve everyone fairly. And yet, the promise remains: to provide every child access to a free and equitable education.

That’s why I stay. That’s why I speak up. Because public schools carry something no other system does—a commitment to every child, in every neighborhood. That promise is worth protecting.

H. E. Wong 9/3/25 H. E. Wong 9/3/25

Whose Schools Matter? Centering History, Equity, and Community in Austin ISD’s Consolidation Decisions

H. E. Wong 7/7/25 H. E. Wong 7/7/25

Who Gets to Lead in a Broken System?

What does it mean to be “qualified” in a system that undervalues relationships, context, and community? This firsthand reflection from a former Dobie Middle School Instructional Coach exposes the human cost of Austin ISD’s turnaround policies, and calls for equity, transparency, and leadership rooted in trust.