JOHNSON EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER prepares snacks!

During small group time at Johnson Early Childhood Center, children were cooking and they made some pudding popsicles that they enjoyed for snack the next day. 

MYERS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL student body takes a trip to Skateland

On May 20 the entire student body at Myers Elementary School took a whole field trip to Skateland. All of the students and staff had a great time skating and celebrating a wonderful school year.

JOHNSON EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER shows outside learning is fun

Warm days and preschool equals lots of outside learning fun at Johnson Early Childhood Center. Children are having a good time as they engage on eye-hand coordination and balancing as they play with paddles and balloons and jumping bags. Bubbles are a must as well!

CAREER CENTER holds farewell picnic

Here are pictures from the Career Center Farewell Picnic held at Papp Park. What a great day for students and especially the seniors. The food was great, the weather wonderful and the event was a hit.  The students enjoyed the day and it marked a good end to a great year. 

HOOVER MIDDLE SCHOOL students to face Taylor Police

Hoover Middle School students and member of the Taylor Police will face off in a charity volleyball game at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 1, at 9 a.m.

 It’s similar to last year’s event when Hoover students faced the Taylor Firefighters and will be held in the school gym, with the band on hand.

Hoover is holding the game to give back to the community and Taylor Police. They will be donating all of the proceeds raised from the game to the Officer Matthew Edwards Legacy Foundation Hero 5k run, which will be held in July. 

This game will also promote positive interaction with our three school police liaisons, each of whom will be participating.

The Taylor Police will be presenting a career presentation to some selected students who wish to have a career in law enforcement immediately following the game. They will be able to see and touch various police gear and will be touring the undercover police Charger vehicle and a regular patrol car.

TOMMIE SAYLOR: Despite the drawbacks, it's still a noble profession

“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” 

Henry Adams

By Tommie Saylor

Kennedy High School Principal

Have you noticed that many families seem to gravitate toward specific professional fields?  An attorney has children that grow up to become attorneys. A doctor has children that grow up to become doctors. A police officer has children that grow up to become police officers. 

For the most part, this makes sense: Growing up in a household where discussions around the dinner table are centered on a specific profession, where day-to-day struggles and victories are easily observed, where children are encouraged to join a profession when they are of age, enable generations of a family become embroiled in a specific profession. 

Firefighters, nursing, truck driving, HVAC, auto mechanic, business owners, stockbrokers, and so on.

This hypothesis seems to hold true until you come to one profession – a profession that a vast majority of the professionals discourage their children from entering.

“Don’t be like me, don’t become a teacher.” 

This may seem odd, but given all the heartaches, barriers, disrespect, contempt and disdain the public openly displays toward educators, most tell their children, to find another vocation. 

With every new school year, teachers face additional budget cuts while at the same time being told to do more with less. Teachers face horribly written and career-affecting standardized tests that must be given to their students, often not knowing which test the state is going to use or what is on the test to better prepare their students. Teachers face attacks from the media, abuse from the public and subversion from their own government.

Given all of that, there is no wonder why educators work so very hard to turn their own children away from the profession.

But then something happens, like an honors’ convocation. A young lady came up to me and said, “This place changed my life.” A parent with whom I have had more than one disagreement with over the last few years comes up to me and gives me a hug, thanking me for looking out for her child’s future.

With tears in my eyes, I looked out at all those young adults, hands filled with awards – one will be attending the West Point Military Academy, another has a full ride to the University of Michigan-Dearborn – and I know we are making a difference. 

The path we have chosen in life may be difficult, but the fulfillment one can feel is indescribable. For those of us in the field of education, job satisfaction is quite often “off the charts.”

I think I will still encourage my children and grandchildren to take the bitter with the sweet and become a teacher.

How and where will you lead them. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence by design.