“A teacher affects eternity; he can
never tell where his influence stops.”
Henry Adams
By Tommie Saylor
Kennedy High School Principal
It was 4 a.m. on a late August
morning of 1986 when I opened my eyes and saw a mountain of a man inches from
my face screaming at me. I had no idea what he was saying and my mind was still
foggy. All I knew was that a big, black man was bent over my bed shaking with
rage screaming at me as his spittle covered my face.
Then, like a slow computer finally
booting up, my mind caught up with my body and I realized that this was Day One
of basic training in the U.S. Army. From this point on, this V-shaped big black
man – wide across the chest, thin at the waist with arms bigger than my legs –
became known as Drill Sergeant Cole.
He always spoke in a deep growling
voice and targeted me with an unrelenting passion. To this day, I swear that
Drill Sergeant Cole’s only mission in life was to make my life a living hell,
to break me, to make me rue the day I was born.
I couldn’t speak without dropping and
giving him 50 pushups, I couldn’t look at him without dropping and giving him
50, I couldn’t breathe without dropping and giving him 50! Day, night,
meal time, bathroom time, Drill Sergeant Cole was always there, raging like a
mad dog, never satisfied with my performance, never yielding, always pushing
for more and still more.
At one point, early in my training, I
came to the conclusion that Drill Sergeant Cole was going to be the death of
me, but I was not going to go easily.
I was not going to let him beat me.
So, I started fighting back in the
only way I could. When Drill Sergeant Cole told me to drop and give him 50, I
gave him 60. When he told me to run two miles in less than 18 minutes, I
did it in less than 12. When he told me that I needed to hit at least 26 targets
out of 40 at the firing range, I hit 39 out of 40.
I was going to get him back by
breaking every standard he set, I was going
to prove to him that I was more than
he expected, that he had nothing on
me.
Then one day it was over.
We graduated from basic training and
I was truly surprised. I did not think that I would ever make. On that day
Drill Sergeant Cole came up to me, in a rather formal, ceremonial manner, and
placed on my collar my E-3, Private First Class stripes.
Without even knowing it, I earned two
steps of rank while in basic training trying to prove something to Drill
Sergeant Cole. I’ll never forget the words he spoke to me.
“I’m proud of you. I knew you could
do it”
Immediately following all the pomp
and circumstance of graduation, I searched for Drill Sergeant Cole in the crowd
and finally found him on the edge of the mass of humanity gathered on the
parade field. Loved ones fell into each other’s arms, hugging and holding each
other in celebration and relief following such a long absence.
I caught up with Drill Sergeant Cole
just as he was beginning to walk away and asked him, “Why did you say that your
were proud of me? You hated me …”
Drill Sergeant Cole turned around. I
waited for his wrath. Never before had I challenged him. But instead of
blinding rage, Drill Sergeant Cole smiled, walked up to me and spoke to me
words that warped my world and changed me forever.
Drill Sergeant Cole said, “I saw
something in you, and I knew that I had to reach deep inside of you and pull it
out so that you could see it, too.”
With that, he walked away. I stood
there slack-jawed. I did not know what to say.
I wrote this story because we need to
do this with our students. We are not their friends. We have a much higher
calling.
They may hate us now, but in time
they will see the wisdom in our actions.
Think back: The most influential
people in your life are most likely the ones you disliked, maybe even hated
when you knew them, yet today you silently thank them for helping to mold you into
what you are today.
The best gift you can give your
students, the way you can truly show them that you care, is not by being
easy on them. Don’t allow them to get away with anything less than their
absolute best. It’s by pushing them, forcing them to live up to demanding,
obtainable goals, that we mold them into quality individuals. That includes
having their ID cards, checking them during hall sweeps, making sure that they
have their passes, and the like.
These initiatives only work if
teachers make it work. The administration can spin our wheels all we want creating
these programs, but until the teaching staff buys in and enforces these
programs with fidelity, nothing will change.
Don’t be afraid to be hard on
students. It is for their good. Later is life when your students are employed
because they learned the lesson of the importance of being on time to work,
they will silently thank you. When danger is averted because we check ID cards
at the door, or when your students are able to maintain their future employment
because they have become accustomed to having their ID cards with them, they
will silently thank you.
Remember, we teach more that just
science, math, English and social studies. We teach lifelong lessons. That
often means the difference between success and failure.
With this I make the call to all
staff members at Kennedy High School to show your students that you care by
holding them to our standards. You must choose to be their friend today or be
their hero tomorrow.
If you choose to be their lifetime
hero, you must be hard on them today.
Enforce the hall sweeps. If the tardy
bell rings and they are not in your classroom, turn them out and make them go
to ISS. If they are not properly displaying their ID cards, do not allow them
in your classroom. Take attendance by having your students showing you their ID
cards and only answer your student’s questions
by having them first show you their
ID cards, Make ID cards an issue and
your students will comply.
Don’t allow your students to have
their cell phone out during class. Don’t allow your students to charge their
cell phones in class. Don’t take a student’s cell phone from them if they
violate your directive: Simply write them up if they do not comply and send them
to ISS. Follow pass procedures: One student one pass, no passes the first and
last 10 minutes of class, anyone in the halls between classes without a pass
will be sent to ISS.
These procedures may seem hard, but
they carry with them aspects of self-discipline, security, command
and control, self-reliance and personal responsibility that will serve your
students well throughout
their entire lives.
You can be a hero. You can be part of
some future story your students will tell their children and grandchildren. Or
you can be their buddy today. The choice is yours.
Remember, their future is in our
hands. Making Kennedy the school of Choice. Excellence by design.
