Tag: Loving Schools

Luckiest Superintendent in the State

Today is a stressful time for educators.  The state puts more and more demands on our students and our staff with mandated tests and extra requirements.  It seems like every legislative year, they add three times as many mandates and take away almost none of the pre-existing ones.  As I inch closer to the halfway point of my twenty-first year in education, though, I have realized one thing that never seems to change.  Our teachers continue to have a passion for kids, and our students never fail to surprise me on how far they rise to meet the ongoing challenges of our world today.  I have people tell me over again that kids are different today than they once were.  You know what, I agree. They are different, but they aren’t different in the negative manner that the people who say that think they are.  They are different because it is a different time than when we grew up.  People complain that their kids are always on their phones, and those same people can’t put their phones down when having a conversation with me about it. I see Facebook warriors put down kids and put down schools by saying that the schools have gone downhill since they took religion out of the schools, but those same warriors keep their children home from church on Sundays.  I hear folks make comments about students needing a good spanking, but they don’t spank their own children. This may sound negative on my part, but I assure you that my main point is that in these past twenty-one years, one thing has remained certain.  Kids are inherently good, and the more and more pressures that the world places on them, they continue to demonstrate to me that they are inherently good.  

In our school district, that has never been more true!  I think that we have the best students in the country, and I firmly believe that I am the luckiest superintendent in the state!  I have a very small twelve foot by twelve-foot office, but I have two windows to the outside that remind me how lucky I am every single day.  Out of one of them, our Pre-K students come to the window and pound on it until I come over to talk to them for the day.  They knock and knock and knock until I get away from my desk and open the window to talk to them.  They don’t want much, but they all have smiles on their faces and they tell me about how much they have learned for the day. They want to show me their shoes or what shirt they have on, or they want to show me how fast they can run.  Sometimes they ask me if my “mama” is in the house with me, so I ask my office ladies to come to the window to say how to them.  I won’t say in this blog which one of the office ladies they consider to be my mom, but she knows!  Those kiddos are excited to be in school. They want to learn. They want to see their teachers every day, and they are innocent and sweet.  Their teachers love them, and they love their teachers. That was the same twenty-one years ago, and it is the same today. Every year, a new group of students come to my window, and they tell me the same things and show me the same things and hope for the same things. They want to love and be loved.  The first picture that you see above is of this year’s group of kiddos who come to visit me at the window.  They aren’t my kids, and yet they are… and I love them.

Someone may point out that those students are sweet and good because they are so little.  I would argue that no matter what grade a child is in, they are the same. They want to love and be loved.  From our Pre-K to our seniors, our students want to fit in, be accepted, and be praised.  Our teachers want to praise them, and build positive relationships with them. Certainly, our kiddos do things from time to time to that are unacceptable, but I would argue that kids are kids.  When they act out, they get disciplined.  Students acted out when they were our age, and they act out today. Nothing has changed with that.  Every single day, I see our elementary, junior high, and high school students and think how proud I am and how respectable they are.  I was reminded of this the other day when our football players, coaches, and principal welcomed the chance to go and cheer on our band so that they can return the favor of the band cheering them on every Friday night.  It made my heart feel good to watch them respect their classmates and honor them in that way.  It doesn’t stop there, though. I see this positive atmosphere out of our students every single day.  While the community usually only hears about or witnesses negative actions from our youth, I wish they could see what I see on a daily basis. Como-Pickton CISD truly has great kids, and yes, they mess up from time to time. The other picture that you see above is of our football team at the band contest the other day.  They aren’t my kids, and yet they are…. And I love them.  I am the luckiest superintendent in the state.

Angel Wings, Air Bubbles, and Snot Bubbles

For this week’s blog, I struggled with a little bit of writer’s block.  As I stood in the cafeteria today and watched the Pre-Kindergarten teachers bring their students out of the cafeteria on their way back to their classrooms, that writer’s block quickly dissolved. 

There I stood, at the exit door of the elementary cafeteria, waving at all of the little ones who were lining up to be taken back to their classes. They were all restless as you can imagine little four years olds to be. Watching them in their sweet little lines reminded me of watching an ant mound after someone poked a stick into it. They were all smiling, shifting in their places, and generally doing everything except standing still. Several were talking to me at the same time, trying to tell me their names or how old they were, while others were waving at me and trying to give me fist bumps.  Then their teacher, Mrs. Lynn, addressed them all and they started the process of leaving the cafeteria.  As they left with air bubbles and angel wings, Mrs. Lynn focused on one young man who had the largest snot bubble I have ever seen in my life and which covered an abnormally large area on the side of his face.  Though I was drawn into my own thoughts of how could that much snot exist on one child’s face, I remembered my own child as I am sure all of you have fond, or not so fond, memories of a similar instance happening with your own child.  I looked at Mrs. Lynn and said with as much sincerity as I could muster at the time, “Mrs. Lynn, better you than me.”  And I can promise you that I meant exactly what I said.  (Let me stop here and explain air bubbles and angel wings for those who do not know the terminology.  For those of us who spend, or spent, their teaching careers in secondary schools rather than in elementary, we are not accustomed to such terminology.  Since beginning my tenure as a superintendent, though, my elementary colleagues have taught me that air bubbles are what teachers tell their students to hold in their mouths in order to occupy themselves in order that they may not talk in the halls and disturb other classes. Angel wings are what they look like when they place their hands behind their backs as they walk down the halls so that they may not disturb each other.  This has been an invaluable lesson to me, and I am thankful for my elementary staff for enlightening me!) 

I have no doubt that as soon as Mrs. Lynn got that student inside of her classroom where she had at least an entire roll of paper towels or a full box of Kleenex at her disposal, she cleaned that young man up.  The reason that I have no doubt that this happened even without having to witness it, is because I know that Mrs. Lynn cares for and loves her students.  I also have no doubt that any other teacher in our elementary school would do this very exact thing for a child in their classroom.  The best thing about our school, is that our teachers love children. They are not their own children, but they love them enough to clean wads of snot off of their faces every single day. They love them enough to do it caringly and patiently and often times with more dignity than that child’s own parent might show.  School is most certainly intended to be a place where students learn, but I insist that it can’t be just that.  School has to be a place where students are loved, guided, cared for, and even cleaned up when needed. For students to be successful in school, which often times transfers to success in later life, they rely on professional educators who live by an unspoken oath of loving their students unconditionally.  The world needs more teachers who take on this oath, and I am thankful that our school is full of them.

*Side note – None of the students in the picture are our students. I used this particular picture to illustrate angel wings and air bubbles.