Act Well Thy Part

This morning I listened to a BYU Devotional speech Sharon Samuelson gave on January 5, 2010. In her speech she cited the following scripture from the Bible: Revelation 3:8: “I know thy works; behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength….

As I look over the years it becomes obvious that many doors have been opened in order to design a school such as Esperanza. In spite of obstacles, no man (or woman) can permanently shut those doors.

Sister Samuelson also related in her speech an inspiring story concerning the former President of the LDS Church, David O. McKay. On his mission in Scotland David O. McKay had an experience that gave him the motto which he used his entire life. After he and his companion returned from visiting Stirling Castle, they passed a building where the stone above the door had a carved inscription: "What-e'er thou art, act well thy part." This message struck David O. McKay forcefully, and he decided to devote himself completely to always doing his best in whatever responsibility he had.

As all of us associated with Esperanza devote ourselves to acting well our part wherever we may be at each point in time, especially these next two years before opening Esperanza the fall of 2013, doors will continue to open for us to create a school that will have a profound impact on our future Esperanza scholars and their families.

Raising the Bar for Everyone

Ron Clark addressed in his book End the Molasses Classes the fallacy of teaching to the middle. If an educator does that, the top scholars will be bored and the lower scholars will be lost. He suggests that instead educators should teach to the top scholars and scaffold the others. I really like that. It's similar to the Pareto Principle--20/80 Rule.

I believe this can also apply to our Esperanza educators. If I devote 80% of my time and energy to the top 10% of our educators I can then use them to help scaffold the others. The lowest 10% of the educators probably shouldn't be at Esperanza, and we should replace them.

Doing this for both our Esperanza scholars and educators will raise the bar for everyone...and everyone will achieve more than they would otherwise.

Be Inspired By the Best

Some time ago I read a letter (a "letter to the editor" I believe) written by some teacher who said that she was offended by all the attention given to educators like Erin Gruwell and Jaime Escalante. She said that by recognizing them and holding them as role models undermined her as a good teacher because she could never be like them. This teacher's comments disturbed me.

I just finished reading this morning Ron Clark's book The End of Molasses Classes. Even though I may not ever be a Ron Clark, and I don't even agree with all of his ideas, what a loss it would be to use these as excuses to not read his inspiring book and implementing what I can. Ron Clark along with other educators such as Marva Collins, Erin Gruwell, Salome Thomas-El, Jaime Escalante, etc. have inspired me to raise the bar and reach a little higher. I'm a better educator for having learned from them.

If we are going to give our Esperanza scholars the best education I want our educators to learn from the best and be inspired.

A School Like No Other

I have been reading Ron Clark's new book The End of Molasses Classes. In the Preface of the book he wrote, "For me, the best way to initiate change in the way we educate our children was by starting a revolution from the ground up. I decided the most effective way to ignite the revolution would be to build a school unlike any other in the world." In the Introduction he went on to say, "I was on a mission. I wanted to build the best school in the world--a school that would be full of innovation, creativity, and best teachers anywhere."

Clark put into words what I have been feeling in my heart. This is what I want Esperanza Elementary to be--a school like no other. This is my mission.

Connecting Scholars and Poetry

I read For Laughing Out Loud this morning. It is a collection of children's poems selected by Jack Prelutsky. It was fun to read these poems that played on words and experiences. Young people will enjoy them.

Although I thoroughly enjoy these poems and sharing them with scholars I don't want scholars to miss out on poems written by some great thinkers throughout the years. One of my favorite books is 101 Famous Poems. I used this book with scholars and had them memorize a number of poems in it. I know that memorization is looked down upon in this day and age but I personally feel there is still a place for it. What better way for a young person to fill his/her mind than with the inspiring thoughts and insights of others.

Rose, Where Did You Get That Red? by Kenneth Koch is a great resource for involving scholars with famous and ageless poets--reading and writing.

Assets Rather Than Deficits

The last chapter with the same name in the book An Anthropologist On Mars by Oliver Sacks told the fascinating story of Temple Grandin.

Temple Grandin is an autistic biologist who has a doctorate and teaches at a university and has her own business. Temple ended a lecture saying, "If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not--because then I wouldn't be me. Autism is part of who I am." She is alarmed at thoughts of "eradicating" autism. She wrote in a 1990 article:

"Aware adults with autism and their parents are often angry about autism. They may ask why nature or God created such horrible conditions as autism, manic depression, and schizophrenia. However, if the genes that caused these conditions were eliminated there might be a terrible price to pay. It is possible that persons with bits of these traits are more creative, or possibly even geniuses...If science eliminated these genes, maybe the whole world would be taken over by accountants."

Temple's words are a great commentary on how to look at our Esperanza scholars and their families. Rather than seeing deficits that need to be overcome we need to recognize that what may appear to be deficits could very well be assets.

We Were Meant to Be Unique

Today I read the chapter "To See and Not See" in the book An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks. It was a true story about a man--Virgil--who without sight for 40 years. He then had an operation to restore his sight. Instead of being a pleasant experience, it caused him to have a lot of confusion. It was like the sightless man had to die--losing all the wonderful and enhanced other abilities he had developed because of being sightless--to become a man who could see. Quite an amazing story. This story reminded me of the the fable "The Animal School" by George Reavis.

The Animal School: A Fable
by George Reavis
Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the problems of a “new world” so they organized a school. They had adopted an activity curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming. In fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in school so nobody worried about that, except the duck.
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in swimming.
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down. He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D in running.
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get there.
At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceeding well and also run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian.
The prairie dogs stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.
Does this fable have a moral?
Note: This story was written when George Reavis was the Assistant Superintendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools back in the 1940s! This content is in the public domain and free to copy, duplicate, and distribute. If you would prefer a full-color, illustrated book, one is currently available from Crystal Springs Books at 1-800-321-0401 or 603-924-9621 (fax 603-924-6688)

If we become so obsessed with thinking that everyone needs to have the same gifts and talents we will not only cause confusion and chaos for the individual but we will also miss out on each person's unique individual gifts and talents.