This game is not just about the bats

I have really enjoyed coaching softball. When I was teaching at Mt. Vernon township high school I stumbled upon being the assistant softball coach and fell in love with the game and the opportunity it creates to lead and grow young people.  The game is fun and I have to admit coaching girls is fun too. During that time I met some great people, learned a ton about the game and it helped shape my perspective on leadership in athletics. It would be a crime if I didn't mention Steve Morris and the impact he made on me in that respect but he also became a great friend.

My wife came across an old photo of her playing in high school. To be fair she was a stand out player that played at Rend Lake College in the early 90’s as well. I love to hear her tell my daughter softball stories because they not only come from an experienced player but they have the parent slant to them. We often laugh when it's pointed out that my wife played when the ball was still white.  Just a simple observed difference between the game then and the game now.

I recently started thinking about the differences when my kid’s $300 bat came in the mail. They didn't have composite bats back then. A kid that was driving the gaps and hitting homeruns did so on pure ability without the help of technology. There were no face masks or heart guards. Kids weren’t scrambling to make a travel team and furthermore, parents weren't scrambling to create travel teams. That's right get mad, I said parents. The days when coaches just went out to coach are gone. It is very typical to see a parent learn the game with their child and follow them through the age groups seeking glory. This has flooded the travel team market and has begun to water down what used to be a truly unique institution.

I know what you're thinking, isn't that what you are doing with your daughter?  The answer is no. I was coaching before I had any kids. I learned and loved this game personally before I coached my daughter’s team when she was four. Let me tell you, going from coaching high school kids to four year olds is quite an experience.

I've wandered off topic. I was thinking that if I have a preference of coaching softball in the early 90’s or today, which would I choose?  This is tough. Back in the day you needed real strategy and small ball skills. Not to mention needing hard nosed kids. The bunt was an active part of the game and not an emergency plan.  If you played softball you were part of a unique subculture that few people understood. Plus you got to wear stirrup socks.

Today’s game is uniquely different.  Playing softball especially travel ball is a standard activity if your child is reasonably athletic. I run across lots of kids that are athletic but learn the game as they go because the opportunity is there. Even if your child lacks the ability they can do weekly visits to their nearest hitting or pitching coach. They seem to be everywhere now and if you run across one that actually teaches bunting fundamentals as part of being a good hitter, stay with them. They truly get the game and want to make a good player out of your kid.  

Don’t get me wrong.  I may sound a little grumpy on the subject but I’m just a little old school.  I get tickled when a parent asks me what kind of bat they should buy their kid.  As if they were shopping for a car.  The truth is whether it’s a bat or a car, your child has to learn how to use them before you invest in them.  It seems so often that we buy the bat and then hope they learn to hit.  Like the bat will fix everything and even might replace time, effort and game experience.  Folks I am choosing early 90’s softball over today’s game.  Simply because they learned the game and played it to their fullest ability.  I’m no fool.  The extra pop off the bat sure does sit well with me as I coach my Ripper kids, but my ultimate goal is they learned something about the game and about other players.  If you help kids continually learn the game they will always want to grow with the game.  That should be the goal of any coach at any level.

Why Ed Camp?

It puzzles me why I still talk to people about why Ed Camps are great.  I had my first Ed Camp experience last year when we hosted Ed Camp West Frankfort in my building.  I was on the planning team and I was supposed to be on duty but I found myself participating.  It is truly a great format for professional learning and networking.  I was so motivated by it that I held an Ed Camp for my students called RedCamp and the response was better than I expected.  It is easy to see why the Ed Camp format is such a favorable way to learn.

Simply put, an Ed Camp is a conference without presenters.  The participants gather to generate the topics and those ideas are placed on the board to be scheduled into rooms.  Once the schedule is set, everyone goes to the room that is hosting their desired topic.  That's where the magic happens.  Everyone is there for the same reason and dialogue is created around that topic.  Their might be people there to share what they are doing or people that need to know how to do what's being done.  There is no presenter there to dictate the content to you.  While I myself have been a presenter and I won't knock that format, I know there are times when I don't cover something in a personalized way for my attendees.  In an Ed Camp, the topics are covered as deep as need be for each person ensuring that their expectations are met.

Let me try another way to explain this experience.  Think back to a time when you were taking a graduate class and your instructor related a concept to a real administrative experience and there was that one guy that started a side topic.  His comments sent the class into a frenzy of pure engagement and Socratic discussion.  The instructor is not stopping the new dialogue because it is a teachable moment and the class activity is no longer about the syllabus, its about growth.  So much so that when its over, the class needed a break to relax.  Now imagine a whole day of that.

If you have never attended an Ed Camp, you are missing out.  Sure, I do love to sit and listen sometimes but we can all agree that educators love to give and take from other educators.  The interaction with people from outside your building or even your area can be very rewarding.  If you would like more information on the Ed Camp movement just follow this link.

If you are looking for an Ed Camp experience, the West Frankfort school district is hosting our second Ed Camp on July 11th.  We are not only having an Ed Camp for teachers, we are expanding to administrators and hosting an Ed Camp Leader at the same time.  If you would like to join us please use the links below to register.  There will be prizes and food in addition to a enriching learning experience.

Ed Camp WF 

Ed Camp Leader 

Ed Camp WF Web Page

Chronicles of a Free Lunch Kid (Part 4)

More than 1 in 5 kids (22%) in the United States live below the federal poverty line.  In my school district it is 2 out of 3.  This means that I have the abiltiy to reach out to many students and their families in way that I was not.  This also means that my own children will interact with many classmates that struggle with poverty.  My influence is two-fold and there is special responsibility here.

My parenting perspective is sometimes conflicted.  Being raised poor does create some values that I don't think middle or upper class people understand.  My experience is statistically rare.  Children who are raised poor are most likely to remain poor.

I realize that most parents look at their kids and see that they are different than them and raised different than them.  That is amplified for me.  My daughter, who is now 12,  had more possessions at six than I had my whole childhood and into early adulthood.  Supporting the notions about possessions Dr. Payne writes about.  She takes pride in her things and is always wanting more things.  Of course I'm slow to play along because my instinct is to provide the extras less so she will value them more like I did.  At 12 I had a paper route to help pay the bills and the little money I kept, I saved up to buy "normal" stuff.  It was a great day when I could buy a nice pair of shoes.  It was a little token to identify with a status that I actually didn't belong to.  I was just trying to look "normal".  My kids have closets of nice shoes, most of which do not get worn.  Those are things to them that have no value because they are just shoes.  They might find a great pair that they really like, but they are for specific purpose such as for basketball or to go with a certain dress or outfit.  I bought shoes to create an identity that might throw people off the fact that we couldn't afford any good shoes. 

I tell my kids all the time that I didn't have nice things when I was a kid in hopes they might show some humility towards their nice things.  There is a small part of me that loves it though.  They have the life that I had no concept of as a free lunch kid.  I'm happy that they will not have to see the world as narrowly as I had to.  My seven year old son actually pays attention to political candidates and we talk about it.  I knew who President Reagan was because we used to call government cheese, Reagan cheese.  My daughter and I began talking about colleges when she was in 6th grade.  I lived within 20 miles of a college and a university and had no clue they were there when I was in sixth grade.  They have the exact opposite childhood that I had and I am I am happy about that.  My struggle is how do I parent in a way that they that they can be middle class kids that can embrace and understand all other kids regardless of their income level?

I think the simple answer to this is by my example.  I don't make jokes about or speak badly about folks that don't have much.  I make sure to speak only of  their character and their worth.  Early this last school year my daughter told me about a couple instances in class where students were held back from participating in things because of money.  I seized the moment and quickly told her that she should never fault another kid because of the position they are in.  "It's not their fault." I told her, "and don't treat them any different than the day before."  I encourage her to play with anyone who wants to play with her.  My hope is that in her unguarded moments she sees value in people despite their background.  She sees me interacting all types of kids in the halls after school.  I treat no student different than the other.  She will be attending my building next school year and with luck her observations of my example are enhanced.

I never called my grandmother my grandmother, she was my mom.  Remember teachers, relationships count.  That's why you have a lot of students that will tell you they have a million cousins and you know better.  When I was awarded Principal of the Year recently, I blogged about how my mom would be over the moon for me.  She was always excited about me going to college and even more excited when I began teaching.  She passed away before I became an administrator but I can imagine her delight if she was around to hear that news.  I'm sure she was experiencing what I am with my kids, extreme pride with a pinch of cautious optimism.  I grew beyond her raising of me and reached my full potential.  With the right effort, my kids will do the same.

There is so much to say on this topic for a guy like me.  Free lunch kids are not data to be addressed, they are people that need and want to feel valued.  That kid in your class does not realize the things he does that might drive you crazy are the undeveloped skills that might him successful.  That free lunch kid on your child's ball team would not feel quite so socially defeated if your son or daughter offered to play catch with them.  That kid you didn't pay attention to in high school because there was no social gain from being seen with them, might just end up being your kid's principal.  

I honestly have no idea if I have accomplished what I have set out to communicate.  I just know that I am the sum of the relationships I've made and the investments people have made in me.  When I experience any type of success, I feel indebted to so many people especially to my wife.  When we met I lived in a one room shack of an apartment working two jobs.  On the surface I had nothing to offer, but she knew better and I'm glad she did.

Thank you for sticking with this rambling but it was time to let it out.  If you know a free lunch kid, I hope you see them through a different set of lenses.  If you are a free lunch kid, I hope you feel encouraged.

Chronicles of a Free Lunch Kid (Part 3)

During high school I experienced a turnaround during my junior year.  I had a teacher that took genuine interest in her students.  She showed concern for us outside her class requirements and got excited for new opportunities for her students.  I had her for two classes a day and it was the best two classes of the day.  Now I will admit they were woodworking and art but they were a place for me to grow personally.  I had a chance to grow because I was taught to set goals, work to achieve them and then take pride in my work.  This was a great setting for a free lunch kid to not have to think about what I was experiencing but on what my possibilities were.  I began being confident and started to work to earn money but I also continued those qualities that allowed work to be an escape.  I began to feel like one of those kids that paid for their lunch.  I would like to thank Kathy Morgan for being a spark for me.

Dr. Ruby Payne is the education expert on teaching children of poverty.  When I was teaching at Mt. Vernon Township High School, her training was mandated to us as a school improvement activity.  Remember, free lunch kids can be a measure of how a school is performing.  The training was completed to satisfy a goal.  This training was much more to me.  I finally was able to connect my childhood to my new profession.  This was literally an eye opening experience that shaped the way I would approach teaching and schools because I finally understood myself.

In A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Dr. Payne teaches educators the nature of poverty and the hidden rules that middle class educators should know about their free lunch kids.  So much of this is true from my first hand experience.  I began to compare the hidden rules among classes and truly understood why Mrs. Morgan had such an impact on me.  Take a look at this chart from her book:

Teachers typically come from middle class backgrounds and this small sample of the hidden rules is a lot to consider in their everyday teaching practice.  Her book provides ways for teachers to create teaching methods activities that reach the free lunch kid.  Mrs. Morgan had no idea she was a pioneer 25 years ago but she did understand and practice the most impactful element of Dr. Payne's book, creating relationships. 

Dr. Payne teaches that relationships are made by making emotional deposits to students, emotional withdrawals are avoided and students are respected.  An example of a deposit would be "Respect for the demands and priorities of a relationship."  I interpret that as not blowing off what is important to a student's social situation or problem.  I listen first and help them apply middle class rules to their dilemma.  This works.  I gain student trust and even when we disagree, they continue to see me as an ally and not the principal.  Sure there is payoff in the form of better work situations for me, but the real payoff is that the relationship is made and maintained.  

Though I am not a paid spokesperson, I encourage any teacher, coach, mentor, social worker and others to familiarize yourself with Dr. Payne's work.  Even if you didn't grow up a free lunch kid it will have an impact on you.  Developing real relationships with free lunch kids makes the difference and could change a life.  It did for me.

I saw Mrs. Morgan in Walmart many years ago.  She was excited to hear that I was a teacher.  I love running into my old teachers, especially since I became a building principal.  I didn't have any bad teachers or any mean teachers but I do selfishly love for them to see what I have done.  Maybe its a small lesson for them that being a free lunch kid was only the surface and my real potential was waiting to be unlocked.

In part 4 I will examine how my adult life has changed my approach to parenting and just whether or not my poverty past rears its head.  How does my childhood compare to theirs?

Chronicles of a Free Lunch Kid (Part 2)

I took the long drive to the new and wonderful Marion High School to seek out my student records.  I was able to only obtain my high school record but that's okay.  There is enough to be said about that data and even more to be said about what is behind that data.  Lets take a look at the common academic setbacks for free lunch kids according to the research.

Lower School Attendance

I missed 49 days over the course of my four years in high school.  That's not great and it's not horrible.  Most notable about that is that I missed 28 days during my sophomore year.  Two thoughts on that.  At the start of the school year we suffered a house fire.  Sure there was insurance and the house was restored but families of generational poverty to do not have the support system or the minimal financial obligation for the initial disaster.  With a disabled grandmother as a care giver my brother and I had to move us to a rental and get settled.  We had to be the men of the house and school was not a priority, surviving was.

Another note on attendance.  At 28 days in 2016, I could have been referred for truancy services.  This might entail meetings and a possible visit with the State's Attorney.  This is another at-risk label thrown upon many free lunch kids.  There are many data points that can put a kid into a system of some kind.  

Grade Failure and Dropping Out of High School

I failed a semester of Geometry my junior year.  It was not required to take so I easily slid into an early bird class and stayed on track.  I did manage to earn seven D's during my freshman and sophomore year.  The transition from junior high to high school is tough for most kids and is a significant factor in high school dropout rates.  Most of these low grades came in Math and English which are core academic areas.  Research does support this as a characteristic of a free lunch kid.  In fact I scored a 18 in English and a 19 in Math on the ACT.  Those scores are not horrible but being in the middle of the road does not usually trigger the notion that I should be in some kind of support program.  There is a reason that I rebounded well in my junior and senior years and stayed on course to graduate.  I will save that for part 3.

Behavior Problems

I never had any behavior problems or exhibit risky behaviors.  I never got swats in school because I knew what would be waiting for me when I got home.  We didn't have much but I was brought up right.  Emotional problems are another story.  The stigma you carry when you walk up to the lunch lady and have to verbalize that you are a free lunch kid is devastating.  I remember in grade school they gave us a small sheet of lunch tickets each week and we had to tear them off when we got our tray.  Most kids were paying with money and I had a little white slip.  It was easy to tell early on that you were different.  

That stigma becomes greater in junior high and high school.  The haves and have not are more noticeable and defined.  For free lunch kids this sets off a huge lack of self worth and confidence issues.  It was tough for me to really find my place socially.  I had friends and the occasional girlfriend but surprise surprise, my first couple of girlfriends were from a different town that I had met at the skating rink.  They were not from my school and did not know my standing there.  It was easy not to connect with my peers early on because I felt disenfranchised.  

In a lot of ways my youth did fit what research tells us about free lunch kids.  The summer between my sophomore and junior year would be pivotal.  The real way to reach a free lunch kid was revealed to me and I still work to reach all my free lunch kids the same way.  Maybe its not a secret to some but I know what worked for me.  In Part 3 I will offer my turn around story.

Chronicles of a Free Lunch Kid (Part 1)

It's taken me a while to write on this topic despite my connection to it.  My hopes are that school leaders and teachers will change their perspective when it comes to the low income children they serve.  The ultimate hope is that a free lunch kid like me will hear the message.

If you are employed as a school teacher or administrator you know that low income students have been a part of school improvement conversations.  In the No Child Left Behind era it was a subgroup that you had to plan for and plan around for raising standardized test scores and for some, they are an excuse for poor standardized test scores.  Either way there is no doubt that poor kids are part of the conversation for schools.  In short, your free lunch kids can determine achievement for your school especially in areas where low income percentages are high.

Schools now have a national standard to reach in terms of standardized test achievement.  Schools work hard to bridge the gap between low income kids and middle class kids when it comes to learning.  Whole bodies of research have been developed on reaching the low achieving poor kids in schools.  After all, if we help them score better than the school building's scores go up and we save ourselves from sanctions.  The effort and training sounds like it is worth the payoff.  I'm 40 years old and I went to school in the late '80s and early '90s.  I was a free lunch kid.  I don't ever recall being reached out to and definitely didn't feel important to my school's performance but that was a different time.

I was raised by my grandmother since I was a year and half old.  Her last husband died when I was ten leaving us with just social security and disability income for five family members.  When I was ten the federal poverty line for a house of five was $13,259.  Her income was approximately $10,000.  To make up the difference we got other forms of government assistance including food stamps, a medical card and Reagan Cheese.  This is how free lunch kids are identified in school.  You live below the poverty line and/or receive government assistance.  Today that line is at $28,440.  If a kid lives in a house of five at that income level they can be one of the 31 million that are served by the national free lunch program.  This line of funding is the largest from the federal government to local school districts totaling $16 billion.

Now that we have those numbers straight, each of those kids is now part of a metric.  This percentage will determine the effort made by your school district to raise test scores.  This include training, changing teaching methods and establishing programs for the disadvantaged.  If they can improve you and other members of subgroups, like those receiving special education services, then they can enjoy prosperity in the world of school accountability.

To avoid sounding cynical and to be fair, giving this kind of attention to free lunch kids is not a bad thing.  Under NCLB, the number of children living below the poverty line was rising.  It makes good sense to address children in poverty at the same time you are emphasizing higher test scores.  My struggle with this attention is that we free lunch kids are being treated like policy and not like people.  My experience as a free lunch kid has compelled me to write about it.  In my next post I will dig into my school records to see if I fit the description of a kid that the poverty research tells us about.  Researchers tell us that poor kids suffer from lower cognitive and academic development, higher grade failure, lower attendance and are more likely to drop out.  it's time to see if the shoe fits.  Stay tuned for the next post.