It Got Hotter

Anyone that works with the public will likely develop theories about why attitudes and emotions change in groups of people from time to time. Many blame full moons or changes in barometric pressure on emotional acts or erratic behavior. One of the changes that I believe in is the relationship between temperature and behavior. Many psychological studies show a direct correlation between increased temperatures (especially humid heat) and increases in violent behavior. While most people report preferring warmer weather, statistics show increases in violent crime during the warmer months. The explanation is that heat increases our body temperatures, raising testosterone and increasing our likelihood for being agitated or aggressive. Perhaps that's why the warm front that changed our otherwise seasonable weather early in the week to near 80 degree temperatures also brought a couple of fights and a lot of students that needed to talk some heated situations out. Adults were also impacted this week. I heard from several of you that were highly frustrated and I sat with several parents that genuinely did not know how to deal with a problem and had had enough. 

By comparison, all of this pales to the violence that occurred this week in Parkland, Florida at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it was a mental health problem, maybe we should blame gun laws, the government, his parents, students that perhaps bullied him...the list could go on and on. But what can you do? Just like the arrival of summer weather is inevitable, we tend to shrug our shoulders at school violence with a somewhat helpless attitude. We have come to accept this as the new normal. It catches headlines in our media like word of a fight quickly spreads through a school, but also like gossip on a fight, we tend to lose interest quickly and life goes on. What can we do?

It turns out that there is a lot we can do. In the same way we can prevent school fights through good management and supervision, keen observation of students showing signs of being agitated and responsiveness to those signs, we can also take action to lessen the opportunity for school violence of all kinds. None of this is a silver bullet that will prevent all bad things from happening, but it certainly can make a large impact. We can help, even if we cannot change gun laws or eliminate broken homes, we can be the first line of defense while we are here. As the adults that are on that front line of battling school violence of all types, please take time to think about how your practices can impact your students. Your attitude and energy can impact theirs. Your patience can be what deescalates an adolescent temper. Your relationships can make students take a second thought on their actions. Your eyes and ears can be what prevents everything from students that are depressed enough to harm themselves to a fist fight and perhaps even something much worse. We cannot choose helplessness.

Taxes and Tithes

Back when I was teaching, I worked for a couple of years at a church as a youth pastor. That title got me on the church board where I got to learn about the business side of running a church. Monthly reports showed when tithing was up and the church was in the green or when contributions were down and we had to dip into the reserve fund to pay bills. Overall things usually evened out over the year, but if contributions were down for two months, you could almost expect a Sunday with a sermon on tithing. I never really found those sermons uplifting or motivational, but from being at the meetings, I could see how the minister found them necessary. Tithing is optional, and people give different amounts at different times, based on personal preference and individual decisions. Unlike tithing, taxes are mandatory. They accomplish the exact same task. Money is needed to run the services for the group of people. One you do freely because you feel it is right, the other you do out of obligation.

I want us to start thinking of professional development in this same context. Our school (and district for that matter) takes a pretty unique look at PD. We offer choice based on what you need and change up other things based on school initiatives and what our data says that we need. What I hope is that everyone chooses to tithe of themselves the time and attention it takes to get better at the craft of teaching. Working through the PD challenges that Mrs. Garcia and Mr. Shaw send out or getting the most from in-house workshops by following through takes a contribution of your time and effort, and just like tithing, our organization is better as a whole. We are stronger and more purposeful about what we do. But just like a church, when everyone does not contribute, it takes more from the ones that do to make up what is needed. That's when tithing turns to taxing to make things fair for all. The funny thing is that we feel good about tithing, but we loathe taxes.

So this is me, encouraging you to tithe of yourself in the name of professional development and teacher growth. I want you to want to take initiative and personally, I think initiative should be rewarded. (Congratulations to the English department for earning the first department breakfast for the Objectives Challenge!) Personal initiative keeps me from being the tax collector, even if that means I just had to give a sermon on tithing.