Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash

I am a firm believer that most of the time my social media feeds are only good for the memes. You know, those pictures with funny captions that you just have to stop and read.   Some of these are pretty clever and out of jealousy I have dabbled in making my own using a an app on my phone.  My newest one below has yet to debut and its really not funny but hey, its a start.

I have recently took a liking to Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash on Facebook.  If you are one of the more than 430,000 members of the Facebook group or you have friends that are, you have seen the dank memes come through your timeline.  They can be informative, funny or even insulting but it is born out of the minds of the users and meme creators.  This is the trend for news consumption in the world of social media, quick and easy.

I will fess up and say I am a Bernie supporter but that is not what draws me to these memes.  It is the movement that I'm drawn to.  What a fascinating unintended campaign positive.  Your supporters rise up on social media and share your message for you and its free.  Bernie has locked in the millennial vote despite being 74 years old and no signs of any "product" in his hair.  This is how millennials and soon to be people of any generation get their information, though quick spurts of funny and informative pictures.  It is hard to pass up information consumption like that as fast as information is moving.  It suits people and they do get the message even if they are not very political savvy.

Along those lines is the dark side of the meme.  When people that are not very politically savvy or not even politically knowledgeable begin making memes they tend to use profanity or they are riddled with falsehoods.  Or they use a context that not all people are familiar with such as one of my favorites below.  If you have not seen the Dark Knight movies you might fail to appreciate it and you might dismiss it.  The really bad ones can hurt the candidate because it always appears to come from you when your face is on the meme.  But what can a candidate do about this when they have no control over content that is user created?   

This is the internet as we have come to know it.  We like the quick information, especially when it supports our position, but we hate having to put up with those that may not support us or they are misguided in their support.  But this is America, Jack and we have freedom of speech even if it offends others.  The Bernie Sanders Dank Meme Stash is a great world to get into even if you do not support Bernie.  It will give you a taste of what a social media movement is all about.

You can find BSDMS on Facebook or on Twitter at @BernieSDnkMStsh

The Infamous March Board Meeting

The financial troubles in our state are well documented.  24/7 Wall St. has ranked us dead last in terms of how we are run at the state level.  This is based on many factors including poor housing markets, financial management and a poor credit rating.  Our General Assembly has missed the legal deadline for passing a budget and many people and organizations are being hurt.  Protests are mounting and relationships are being damaged. 

I wonder if our governor and lawmakers would visit a March board meeting in any school district in our region.  I bet they would see struggle, broken relationships and kids losing school staff that help them daily.  Take the recent John A. Logan College announcement of cuts for example.  The administration is reacting to a situation that is out of their control and the result is a packed house and more than two hours of pleas from students and staff to save programs and save opportunities for the students.  I doubt the board and administration disagrees with them but they are being dealt a lousy hand of cards.

The school districts of Illinois will soon be holding the toughest board meetings of the year.  Sadly, this is an established tradition in our state.  Board meetings will be filled with concerned teachers and staff waiting to hear the bad news.  This is especially stressful in our part of the state with more than 2/3 of our budgets coming from state resources.  The only way to make up large amounts in these gaps in funding is by cutting people.  This is a hard reality when you consider that some districts have lost millions over the last three years and have nothing left to cut.

The infamous March board meeting is a horrible tradition. In small towns like ours people love to hold on to traditions but this one we can live without. How do we change tradition? Tradition is a static concept. It is the opposite of change. To relieve the stress of the March board meeting we have to be willing to change in many areas of our culture and communities. It is a shared responsibility even if I point a finger at the state legislature. If we can change the minds of our electorate to finally believe that education is the single best investment we can make in our citizens then they will start to elect representatives that feel the same way. Maybe someday I will not have to attend tension filled board meetings and having heartbreaking conversations with adults and the kids that lose them.  Some traditions must change. 

Kids need parents, not defense attorneys

I play many roles in my position as a school administrator.  I take pride in being able to provide support to students, teachers and families in a variety of ways.  The one thing you can say about being a principal is that it is never boring given that you work with so many people with different expectations.  You really have to have a large professional tool box to serve so many and still be fair to the school building as a whole.  This can be tricky but you have to lead with your values and issues tend to take care of themselves.

I love to hear people say they couldn't be a principal because of the crazy parents.  I actually like talking to my crazy parents.  This is a great opportunity to communicate the fact that we should not be working against each other.  We have the same task of developing our kids but we have differing responsibilities.  I have a large number of parents that understand this and we have become great allies.  There are those parents that take some convincing however and it usually starts when their child had found themselves in trouble.

Many times when a student is in trouble (especially if it involves a punishment), parents tend to abandon the parent role and quickly turn into defense attorneys.  There is a stark difference between a parent and a defense attorney.  Consider the following:

Parents

• Understand that their primary role is the proper development of their child.
• Respect the fact that schools staff have a relationship with their child.
• Understand the expectations of the school building and expect their child to respect them.
• Understand the role of the school staff is to uphold the school expectations to the best of their ability.

Defense Attorneys

•  Assume that every interaction is an adversarial process.
• Seek to divert responsibility away from their client (child).
• Seek to eliminate or at least reduce punishment for their client (child).
• Attempt to intimidate and distract school staff with grandstanding and big talk. 
• Expect the outcome to be in the best interest of their client (child) and not the larger community.

I will be honest, I mostly experience defense attorneys.  My parents understand their role which means that a visit to my office is not typically necessary.  They handle their child's behavior at home and convey a high value on personal responsibility.  They teach their child how to manage themselves better and prevent other problems.  They help us develop their child as teammates and trust me we appreciate it.

If you are a defense attorney please know you are hurting more than the process, you are hurting your kids.  They will follow the model set before them.  If you are combative with others, they will follow your lead.  If you make a habit of blaming others, so will they.  When you make everything about them and not about us, they will grow up selfish.  You may not think they listen to you but trust me they do.  Here's some food for thought, if you and I have trouble getting along as adults then its a pretty good chance that I am correcting a lot of your child's behavior.  They will treat school staff in whatever way you set the tone.  Please realize your influence.

Trust me, I respect the fact that I'm speaking about a small number of people and I am truly blessed to have great families at my school.  But I challenge people to imagine what it would be like for all of our families to share the values of the school house.  Can you imagine how incredible that would be.  I'm not just thinking about improved behavior, I'm talking about the entire learning environment improving because we share the same goals for our kids.  Our kids need parents, not defense attorneys.