“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.
