Personal Factors--Message from Jaime Escalante

Jamie Escalante, the incredible math teacher who inspired the movie Stand and Deliver: "Children of the barrio have enormous obstacles to overcome to get an education...Minority students may be affected by these barriers, but they are not victims of them.  Students can learn to overcome any barrier they will every face."

Jaime Escalante's wisdom is a great introduction to the personal factors that we'll address for the next couple of weeks.

A Different Approach to Circumstances

I reread a story this morning that has had a tremendous impact on me.   It's a story Elder David Bednar relates from the journal of Daniel W. Jones titled Forty Years Among the Indians during a BYU Devotional speech he gave on October 23, 2001. 

"Game became so scarce that we could kill nothing.  We ate all the poor meat; one would get hungry eating it.  Finally it was all gone, nothing now but hides were left.  We made a trial of them.  A lot was cooked and eaten without any seasoning and it made the whole company sick.  Many were so turned against the stuff that it made them sick to think of it...
"Things looked dark, for nothing remained but the poor raw hides taken from the starved cattle.  We asked the Lord to direct us what to do.  The brethren did not murmur, but felt to trust in God.  We had cooked the hide, after soaking and scraping the hair off until it was soft and then ate it, glue and all.  This made it rather inclined to stay with us longer than we desired.  Finally I was impressed how to fix the stuff and gave the company advice, telling them how to cook it; for them to scorch and scrape the hair off; this had a tendency to kill and purify the bad taste that scalding gave it.  After scraping, boil one hour in plenty of water, throwing the water away which had extracted all the glue, then wash and scrape the hide thoroughly, washing it in cold water, then boil it to a jelly and let it get cold, and then eat with a little sugar sprinkled on it.  This was considerable trouble, but we had little else to do and it was better than starving."  (p.81)

Daniel Jones goes onto say that they asked the Lord to bless their stomachs and adapt them to this food.  In other words, he did not pray that his circumstances would be changes, but he prayed that he would be strengthened to deal with his circumstances.

There will be numerous times as we build Esperanza that we will wish that we could change certain circumstances but it might be wise for us to learn a lesson from this story of Daniel Jones---and seek to be strengthened to deal with the circumstances rather than murmur because the circumstances aren't what we would desire. 

Valuing Those Who Came Before Us

I love this picture.  It is important to help our Esperanza scholars value the contributions of those who came before them.  Therefore, we want to think of ways to connect generations. 

Christmas

Even though celebrating Christmas and saying "Merry Christmas"  at Esperanza are acceptable it still behooves us to be sensitive to the religious and cultural beliefs of others.

A Slogan Needs to Be More Than a Slogan

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/joe-paterno-fired-penn-state-football-coach-president-graham-spanier-child-sex-abuse-scandal-board-of-trustees-meeting-110911

This scandal at Penn State has taught me some lessons.  I loved the slogan they had--"Success with Honor."  Yet, what good is a slogan if it doesn't have an influence on one's behavior.  I want us at Esperanza to have short and crisp slogan at Esperanza that inspires us and that all of us strive to live up to each and every day.    No matter how much good we do it can be wiped away by one unwise decision and/or action. 

Name Calling Is Unacceptable

If you were like me your mother probably taught you the phrase, "Sticks and bones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."  Although I know my mother was well meaning this phrase is not true.  Names do hurt.  In an inviting school setting calling others names is unacceptable. 

Incidentby Countée Cullen
Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

Be True to Oneself

I was so sad to hear of the death of Andy Rooney last Friday.  I liked him so much!  He loved his life and he lived it on his own terms--even when it made others angry. 



This above all:  To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
(Polonius' Advice to Laertes in "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare)