Tell Your Story

Maybe it's because I've been traveling and occupied with so many other things in the past year. I'm sure that the distractions meant that I had to focus harder on the problems that arose when I was away instead of the good things. Maybe I didn't take a second to notice what was going on. Maybe it was a little of all of it. But Wednesday night at Ram City did my heart a lot of good. Students were proudly supporting their different clubs and organizations. Adults gave their time and effort to support them and had smiles on their faces throughout it all. Some cooked food, others coached flag football and some volunteered to be everyone's amusement in the dunk tank. Everyone had a great time.

I've been working on an initiative at the state level to get public schools to tell stories like this one more. Let's face it, parents have options now and those options are marketing themselves. Private schools and charters have budgets for that sort of thing, and we do not. But what we do have is a culture and a tradition of doing great things for kids. Events like Ram City and the myriad of other things like it that we just do as a part of "school" today tell a story and it's one we should be sharing louder. It's those stories that build relationships that convince students to try a little harder or stay when they would have otherwise given up. They set an example and they build character traits that aren't found in a curriculum. They build young adults. 

So this week, I'm giving you some homework. Go tell your story. Tell people about how cool it is to see students, teachers, and families come together for something really positive at school. It's a story that no charter can mandate and no voucher can purchase. It is our unique identity and it's what is really great about what we do.