Ernie's Subs

Strangely enough, the thing I miss the most about working and living in Greenville had nothing to do with my job or where I lived. I miss my frequent access to a small, cinderblock building restaurant named Ernie's Subs. Coach Willis was nice enough to bring me an Ernie's pepper steak sub this week and I was in heaven! For those of you that are not familiar with Ernie's, you have probably driven by it hundreds of times and never noticed it. The outside is nothing to look at. The restrooms are outside and remind me a lot of the men's restrooms under our press box. The only furniture inside consists of a non-matching plastic patio table and chairs. While they make several different kids of subs, but almost everyone orders the peppersteak. It is the best sandwich I have ever had and I can literally taste it as I am writing this.

While Mrs. Willis and I were enjoying our sandwiches this week, she mentioned our school was a lot like Ernie's. (She's always looking for a metaphor.) The building is old and we are a rural, low-income school. From the outside, people may not expect much. But on the inside, there is so much to love. While we have our struggles like any other place, we also have so much to be proud of. This year's senior class has already amassed over $500,000 in scholarships and we have two semi-finalists for the Park Scholarship and a semi-finalist for the Morehead-Cain Scholarship. Simply put, good things can come from small, unassuming places. Each of us is a part of the recipe that makes our school and our students what they are. You are all ingredients to student success. Over the break, please take time to rest and recharge and come back ready to put those ingredients to work.

"Do you know how lucky you are?"

When I came to Greene Central five years ago, the school was in a huge transition. I had to quickly verse myself with all of the terms and requirements of a priority school, the School Improvement Grant and a programs like STEM, READ 180 and Carnegie Math. Some of you remember this transition very well and for others that have arrived since then, it may be all that you have ever known of the school. Within my first couple of years, it seemed like we were also showing off the school or some program within it to legislators, federal transition coaches or groups that were interested in doing something similar. At the time it felt like I couldn't get anything done for having to talk with this group or that group, but over the years, the frequency of those tours has started to slow down.

We recently had two of these visits to our school that helped remind me of a lot of things. Last Friday I had a visit from a group of principals that I help mentor from across the east. They have schools with similar backgrounds and they have similar problems of poverty in their districts. On Monday, we were visited by a representative from the Successful Practices Network, a group that studies STEM learning and technology in schools across the United States. These site visits may have done more to remind me about just how great our school is, than it did for our visitors. Much like you do in your classrooms, I also focus on the problem areas. Too often I see problems of student discipline, problems of teacher effectiveness, problems with facilities that need repair or even more long term problems of programs or budget. With all that focus on problems, I think I had lost sight of all of the solutions that were in front of me. It wasn't until one of the principals from last Friday's visit asked our student leaders, "Do you know how lucky you are?" that I paused to ask myself the very same question.

It sounds simple, but do take time to step back and focus on the positives and not just the problems. They are all around us. They walk our halls as kids that we connected with. They come back to visit as ones that are success stories. They teach down the hall as new teachers that learned from you. They are there as parents that appreciate what we have done. While we will always have new problems to solve, it's also important to take time to look around and count our blessings to appreciate where we have come.

Adversity

This fall has been a tough time for several students and teachers. Several have lost family members or have been there for devastating medical news about a family member. Several students have received some tough news about their own health as well. Undoubtedly it is hard to focus on teaching and learning when things like this fill your attention and drive your emotions. In the face of this adversity I have seen students and staff members show true compassion for one another. I have seen students worry about grades and attendance because despite their troubles, they recognize that they still have goals to meet for their future. I have seen teachers show up and teach when every logical reason says that they could have taken another day or two off.

Even though no one would ever wish this type of adversity on themselves or anyone else for that matter, there is some truth to the idea that adversity builds strong character. Persisting through adverse times and troubling situations has statistically shown to build strong leaders and character traits of compassion and empathy. One of the most common characteristics among United States Presidents is that an unusually large number of them lost a parent as a young child. We think of this type of adversity leading to troubled teenagers that would be at risk for failure. But when we see people that face adversity and work to succeed in site of it, we often see tremendous results.

Thank you to all of you that help our students face their own forms of adversity, large and small. And thank you for choosing to stand and deliver for your students, when bad things come your way as well. Tremendous results are waiting.