Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Demont Pope, an Atlanta educator, Air Force veteran and founder of Demont Pope & Associates, challenges Dougherty County School System employees to lead with purpose, accountability and empathy during the district’s 2026-27 Back-to-School Convocation Friday at the Albany Civic Center. Staff Photo: Kathryn Crockett

ALBANY — Demont Pope thought he was about to teach his 7-year-old daughter a lesson at the dinner table.

Pope, an Atlanta-based speaker, educator and Air Force veteran, is the founder and CEO of Demont Pope & Associates. He is the author of “Purpose Over Pointless Excuses” and has spent more than a decade working with schools nationwide through keynote presentations, leadership training and mentoring programs focused on student engagement, school culture and resilience.

Speaking Friday as the keynote speaker at the Dougherty County School System’s 2026-27 Back-to-School Convocation, Pope shared a family story to challenge educators and parents to become partners in helping children grow.

A father of five, Pope’s daughter had ignored the meal on her own plate and reached for his instead. Then, in the few seconds he turned toward the stove, she dipped a piece of sausage into her fruit-punch Gatorade.

Pope immediately corrected her.

“Don’t be that type of person,” he recalled telling her.

Instead of apologizing, his daughter looked back and answered, “Don’t be the type of person who tries new things and likes it?”

The room inside the Albany Civic Center erupted in laughter Friday morning as Pope admitted realizing he had just lost an argument to a second-grader. His wife avoided eye contact. His son braced for the punishment that never came.

Instead, Pope gave his daughter a high five.

The story wasn’t really about sausage or Gatorade. It was about perspective — and about adults remaining open to seeing the world through a child’s eyes.

“What we think is weird and crazy, to the next generation is normal — it’s innovation,” Pope said, urging educators not to be so quick to correct behavior that they miss the creativity behind it.

That lesson became one of the defining moments of the Dougherty County School System’s 2026-27 Back-to-School Convocation, where Pope challenged educators and parents alike to rethink how they lead, listen and learn alongside children.

Pope built his keynote speech around a simple question.

“Why did you say yes?” he asked. “Not to the title. Not to the position. Not to the contract. Why did you say yes to kids?”

From there, Pope broadened his message beyond the classroom, making clear that the question applied to everyone in a school district: teachers, bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, counselors, administrators and school resource officers alike.

“Before we see one kid, I’ve got to let you know that you matter,” he said. “Before you go pick up those kids on the school bus — before they see a teacher — you’ve got to know that you matter.”

The message resonated because it was rooted in Pope’s own life experiences.

Growing up in inner-city Atlanta with an incarcerated father and a mother raising the family alone, Pope said he attended nine schools by the time he reached ninth grade. As an adult, he battled depression, divorce, homelessness and unimaginable personal loss, including the deaths of his twin sister, his father and one of his sons.

He told educators those experiences shaped his belief that excuses, even understandable ones, cannot become permanent obstacles.

“There are some losses that you don’t get over,” he said. “You just learn how to carry.”

While much of the keynote focused on educators, Pope reserved some of his strongest messages for parents, emphasizing that accountability begins at home.

Children, Pope said, are “the fruit” of the tree adults cultivate.

“They hear what we’re saying, but they see what we’re doing,” he said, arguing that children learn more from what adults model than from what adults say.

“Inconsistent adults create strategic students,” Pope said, explaining that children quickly learn to exploit inconsistent expectations, making adult accountability essential for both parents and educators.

Rather than criticizing families, however, Pope challenged educators to respond with empathy.

“When those parents are acting weird, remember they’re only doing what they know,” he said. “We’re the professionals. We’re supposed to model excellence.”

Throughout the keynote, Pope returned to the same theme: While people’s circumstances are real, they cannot become permanent excuses. He challenged educators and parents alike to focus less on blame and more on the choices they control, insisting that progress begins with personal accountability.

Pope acknowledged that many families and educators face genuine hardships but argued that lasting change begins by taking responsibility for what is within their control.

“You can’t cry and complain about the results you didn’t get from the work that you didn’t do,” he told the audience.

Following his keynote, Pope expanded on that message during an interview with The Albany Herald, offering practical advice for parents as students prepare to return to school.

“The first thing they need to do is show their kids that they care,” he said. “Kids respond when they know that their problems matter to their parents, their struggles matter to them.”

Rather than rushing to solve every problem, Pope encouraged parents to begin by listening.

“When we show them that they matter so much that we’re ready to clear whatever we’re doing right now to hear them for those few moments, that in itself is the baseline and the foundation of building resilience,” Pope said.

He also encouraged parents to share their own mistakes instead of pretending they have always had the answers.

“They think dad is Superman,” Pope said. “When they find out that I made some of the mistakes they made … they see me as a human.”

That philosophy, he said, begins in his own home.

“I never want to be a public success and a failure at home,” Pope said. “Every message that I speak from a stage, I’ve spoken it at home in my kitchen, driving in the car.”

Pope’s message dovetailed with the district’s own priorities for the coming school year. Superintendent Kenneth Dyer echoed the partnership theme throughout the morning, comparing the coming school year to Nehemiah rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls.

“It takes all of us,” Dyer told employees, recognizing teachers, transportation workers, nutrition staff, custodians, facilities personnel and support staff as essential members of the district’s mission.

The emphasis on school-family partnerships was reinforced by several initiatives for the new school year, including implementation of Georgia’s all-day student cellphone restrictions, expanded campus security technology, continued investment in artificial intelligence tools for instruction, and an ongoing emphasis on early literacy and improving academic outcomes. Parents were encouraged to download the district’s mobile app and ensure their contact information is current so schools can communicate effectively during emergencies.

“As we begin this school year, our focus remains unwavering: ensuring every student receives a rigorous, relevant and supportive educational experience that prepares them for success in school and in life,” Dyer said.

For Pope, however, lasting change will not begin with technology or policy. It begins with adults.

His message wasn’t that parents and educators would always have the right answers. It was that children are watching how adults respond when they don’t.

As the audience rose for a final standing declaration before the new school year, Pope reminded them that the greatest influence on a child’s future wouldn’t come from a keynote speaker, a policy or a strategic plan.

“I’m not the most powerful person in the room,” he said. “I’m not the most influential person in the room. You are.”