Sunday, March 16, 2014

TOMMIE SAYLOR: Just pray for wisdom during the decision-making process



“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”
Aldous Huxley

By Tommie Saylor
Kennedy High School Principal

Early one morning, just as the sun begins to crest the horizon washing the sky in red and orange hues, three friends sit in a simple fishing boat located on Baseline Lake.  The early morning dew begins to settle as the cool, crisps night air gives way to the day, leaving a small cloudy haze to dance above the placid lake surface.  

Though it is only the beginning of summer, the bugs are out early skipping across the lake surface and nipping at the three friends, now fully engrossed in their early morning fishing activities.  Baiting hooks, setting bobbers and casting lings in a carefully choreographed ballet of sportsmanship without as much as a word spoken.  After wetting all their lines, each friend settled in for the long wait with visions of mammoth aquatic monsters coursing through their daydreams.

Just before the self-imposed silence became unbearable, and as the songbirds began to chirp welcoming the arrival of the new day, one friend posed a question to the others.  

“If you only had one wish, what would you wish for? I think I would wish for wealth,” he said in a deep baritone voice. “With wealth all other things are possible.”

The second friend picked up the conversation, declaring, “If I only had one wish, I would wish for fame.  With fame one can build wealth, and with fame comes the kind of recognition and respect that wealth alone cannot provide.”

Finally, after a long pause, the third friend spoke in a very quiet, almost inaudible whisper resembling the flutter of leaves in the wind.

“I would wish for wisdom. Much like the ripples on the surface of a lake when you drop a pebble, our every decision radiates through every person we know having effects well beyond our comprehension.”

I am the third friend.  Almost daily I pray for wisdom knowing that my every decision affects the lives of everyone around me. Careers and livelihoods – especially when it comes to this time of the year as evaluations are compiled – rest in my hands.  Student’s futures based on life altering decisions – such as do we suspend or not suspend a student, expel or not expel, grant credit or not grant credit, except an absence as excused or unexcused, offer this class or that – stand before me each day.  

Do we buy this set of books or that set of books? Do we pay for this repair or for that repair (no, we can’t pay for them all), what supplies do we put into the hands of teachers and what supplies we can do without are decisions placed on my desk day in and day out?

So it is wisdom I pray for, knowing that each decision will ripple through the school, the district, through the lives of both teachers and students, somewhat like dropping a pebble into a body of water. Those decisions hang all those with whom they touch, be if for good or for ill.

But, I’m not alone.  Every employee who makes decisions on behalf of students bears this same millstone.  It comes with each lesson taught, each grade given, each disciplinary referral and/or action taken and each phone call made home. It comes with each interaction with a student you send ripples throughout our little pond known as Kennedy High School and through the lives of every student placed within our care.  

For this reason I ask that you think before you speak, give your actions plenty of thought, be well prepared for any and all circumstances. For the love of God always keep the goal in mind.  For all that we do is not about us, it is about them. It is about turning young, raw, ungrateful, even spoiled and overly entitled young human beings into well-adjusted, highly functioning, productive taxpaying citizens of our society.

Simply, we are raising tomorrow’s America.  The one gift that we will all receive, and can never be wrenched from us no matter how hard they try, is satisfaction.  It is the satisfaction in knowing that we alone have built all the tomorrows.  

Because of all of this, for you I also pray for wisdom.

Remember, their future is in our hands. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.

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