Everything Will Be Okay

Near the end of the school year, our English classes were giving how-to speeches.  One young lady wanted to show her classmates how to plant flowers.  She asked if there was a place on the property that she could do this.  Selfishly, I saw an opportunity for myself.  I usually plant the flowers around the flag pole and I water them each day only to see the deer come out and eat them every year.  I try hard and I have good intentions, but there are times it falls short.

So I told her to do my job and plant them around the flagpole.  I went out and watched that day.  She did a very good job with her presentation and had students help her plant the flowers.  When they were done, the soil work looked a little rough and I was mildly concerned for their survival.  Out of respect for their work, I did not try to correct it and after all the deer would be out soon to eat her flowers which I had warned her of.  I began to honor my commitment to her to water them each day, but I felt bad that I hadn't tried to make sure the planting work was better.

A few weeks went by and the deer had not touched the flowers.  In fact, the flowers were taking off and getting much bigger.  A couple weeks later the small little plantlings she started with had grown to fill the entire planting area around the flagpole.  The next week I had to leave for vacation.  When I returned I was prepared to see the flowers in very bad shape once I turned the corner.  To my surprise, they were thriving.  One of the custodians told me that he took over the watering duties while I was gone.  I was relieved because I had grown attached their success and didn't want to see her work be in vain.  It was sign of hope after a tough year.

This little story is simply a nugget to remind me that everything is going to be okay.  Educators often worry that they are not doing enough for their kids.  Did we not teach enough, where we not available enough and when some of our students fail, is our fault even if our effort was more than enough.  When you are a school leader, you feel that you might be falling short for your students and for your staff as well.  It is stressful and even small victories don't erase those feelings.

I want my people (educators) to know that its going to be okay.  This year hurt us, but we will recover.  Our students and their families will recover.  Just don't stop watering the flowers.  And know that if we can't, our school families will step up and water them for us.  Everything is going to be okay.

100 Pages In

I have decided to write a book.  Lets hope that at this time next year it is finished, but hey I'm writing a book.  I honestly wasn't getting too serious about telling folks until I hit the 100 page mark.  Now I'm there and things are getting real.  I don't have a publisher so yes, I'm doing this the hard way.

What's it about?  Is it a revolutionary new way to educate kids or lead schools?  That's not the intent, but I suppose it could be used for those purposes.  It is a deep dive into the changing political landscape and how dysfunctional it has become?  No, but it definitely provides policy recommendations to help people.  So what's the book about?  It is about my story and how it can shape other people's stories.  I'm a big Kevin Smith fan and I stumbled across this quote that empowered me to believe my story was valuable.

I am a product of generational poverty.  I am a survivor and now occupy the middle class.  I used to not give much thought to how I made it, but now that I look back on the cast and crew of my story I know this was no accident.  I'm not a rags to riches story of an inner city kid that made into professional sports.  I'm a little less boring, but my journey was aided by tremendous people and opportunities.  

In my book I will tell my childhood story and what it was like growing up in a rural area in a poor, non-traditional family.  Those experiences have taught me what people need to do to lift others up and prevent the cycles of poverty that keep people out of the middle class.  Many of the social ills that keep people in poverty can be addressed in a meaningful way.  I will look at being fatherless, being a free lunch kid at school and being a low wage worker.  With each chapter I will ask and answer a guiding question such as, Can post secondary education be a pathway out of poverty?  My colleagues know the answer to this, but I will use my experience and available data to show why.

Who knows?  Maybe I will get published and sell a million books.  Or maybe just a 100 books.  Either way, I want to tell my unique story and maybe help others in the process.  This writing stuff is difficult but rewarding and I have gained a lot of respect for authors.  I am excited about the prospect of becoming one of them.

Selfishly, I would like to ask for help.  The last chapter is about people like me.  If you know anyone that would like to be a case study for the book, please send them my way.  They can email me at ccass810@gmail.com.