The Crissy Cáceres Method for Transforming Student Energy into Leadership Gold

Children shape institutional policy at Brooklyn Friends School. Crissy Cáceres, who became head of school in 2019, spent nearly three decades learning from students rather than merely instructing them. Her approach centers on what she calls being “malleable to the human energy” present in any given moment.

“I am somebody who is malleable to the human energy that’s in front of me,” Cáceres explains. “My leadership walk is a responsive walk, is one that aims to truly know the heart breath of every human being that I engage with, to make space for the light that they bring in their own life’s walk.”

The 158-year-old Quaker institution in downtown Brooklyn serves approximately 725 students from age two through twelfth grade. Cáceres has maintained the school’s commitment to Quaker principles while adapting to contemporary educational demands. Her method positions student input as central to institutional decision-making.

Children as Primary Teachers

Cáceres began working as a camp counselor at age 14. Thirty years of engagement with young people shaped her understanding of how children perceive and respond to adult authority. Children possess an unfiltered capacity to read body language and sense authentic engagement, she notes.

“80% of what we say, we say with our body language, and a child knows if you are there in support of them, they know if you believe in them, they know if you’re taking them seriously,” Cáceres states. “Children have taught me that their voices should never ever be less than those of the adults.”

Classrooms at Brooklyn Friends School often arrange seating in circular or amoeba-like formations rather than traditional rows. This reflects the Quaker practice of Meeting for Worship where all participants face one another as equals.

Children identify pain and respond with empathy more readily than adults. Cáceres describes watching children recognize when someone needs support and taking action—standing closer, inviting them to play, initiating conversation. This capacity for recognizing and responding to others’ needs informs how the school structures student interactions and conflict resolution.

Protest as Partnership

Colleagues warned Cáceres about student activism when she first arrived at Brooklyn Friends School. Children across all age groups—from three-year-olds to eighteen-year-olds—had previously organized protests around various issues. Her response surprised those delivering the warning.

“I said, ‘That’s amazing.’ They’re like, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘That’s my favorite,'” Cáceres recalls. “Children remind me of who I am still as an adult. That was me, that is still me.”

Children express needs through wishes and hopes rather than demands, according to Cáceres. They propose changes because they believe these modifications will improve situations for everyone, not to cause harm or exclusion.

“They are always more curious than certain, and so they don’t bring forth demands,” Cáceres explains. “What they bring forth are wishes and hopes in the context of what they believe is going to be for the betterment of something.”

Brooklyn Friends School views student activism as evidence of engagement with Quaker values—peace, integrity, community, equality, stewardship. When students identify problems and propose solutions, they demonstrate the school’s educational goals. The institution treats these moments as opportunities for collaboration.

Building Through Student Vision

Cáceres describes children as “dream architects” who provide both inspiration and justification for institutional changes. Student input influences decisions ranging from policy revisions to donor solicitations. One child told her that implementing a proposed change would make things “gooder.”

“It will be gooder if you do this, Crissy,” the student said. Cáceres adopted this vocabulary: “I was like, ‘Yes, it will be gooder.'”

The head of school position at Brooklyn Friends School involves what Cáceres calls being a “way maker”—someone who identifies challenges and considers how their agency, insight, experience, power, and positionality can address present needs. This role requires distilling what students communicate and determining which institutional mechanisms can respond.

Student voices have influenced multiple aspects of school operations. Cell phone policies—implemented nine years ago in middle school and more recently in upper school—emerged from conversations about what serves student wellbeing. The school removed phones from middle school use before national attention focused on the issue.

Cáceres measures success not through traditional academic metrics alone but through how graduates utilize privilege throughout their lives. She asks whether alumni use their spheres of influence for positive social impact, whether they consider how their decisions affect others’ lived experiences, whether they expand their engagement beyond personal benefit.

“The measure of our success is who they are as 30, 40, 50, 60-year-olds in the world, it’s who they are and continue to be in relation to the privileges that they hold,” Cáceres notes. “All of us hold privileges in different ways, the question is, how are they utilizing it?”