No matter how hard teachers and administrators work, they cannot fulfill society's enormous list of demands for schools without addressing the four basics of public sentiment: community understanding, trust, permission, and support. They can do this through the Great Conversation, a positive, ongoing discussion between educators and the public that promotes the growth of social capital that leads to increased child well-being and student success. The great Conversation runs on both an informal and a formal track. The informal track means that those who work in schools must stop bad-mouthing schools in public and regularly share something positive about their schools, students, and coworkers. The formal track involves mapping the community, deciding on the message, developing a script, building teams, conducting a communications audit, creating a presentation schedule, and launching phase one. (Contains 1 endnote.)