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Mr. Edwards Letters for September 2007 |
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I iz starting over... on the letter thinggys Growth Just Doesn’t Happen
Friday, September 28, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Growth Masters!
There are lots of rules and laws in our world. Most of them are only understood and accepted, but never written. These laws are intangible beliefs. They are unlike the rules that a parent sets for a child or the rules that a school puts in its handbooks or agendas. They are even unlike the laws that appear in a driving manual or beyond that, they’re not even like the laws that are derived from the United States Constitution. They are just out there and come to the surface when people accept and believe them. They are there whether we choose to believe them or not. One that I would like to visit with you about today is the Law of Process.
What is the Law of Process? It states that a seed of an idea is taken, placed in a nurturing substance or location, observed and cared for closely, and given time and attention it will change into something desired. Time is a key ingredient. A word picture that explains it is this. Literally plant a seed in fertile soil and water it, offer it plenty of sunshine and heat, and provide it time, and a plant results. And in some cases, if it is sought after, the plant bears fruit or vegetable. Listen to the following words from a well-published American author.
Academic growth doesn’t “just happen,” any more than climbing a mountain “just happens.” You don’t wander up a mountain and surprise yourself when you reach the summit.
“Growth results from hard work."
All the learning that occurs in your life does so over time. That’s why you hear some people say, “If I knew then what I know now.” It doesn’t just happen. The growth you experience academically comes from your hard work and a diligent effort on your part. The work for you to learn comes mostly from you, not your parent or your teacher. Sure lessons are prepared for you, but you make the decision to work at your learning. And just like the tree out front of one of my neighbor’s house has stopped growing from lack of water and the right nutrients, you will not grow intellectually without you attending to sustenance of some kind academically. Look at the healthy trees outside the media center windows and you will see them sustained because of the rains and nutrient spikes that have been provided to them. Your mental growth results from hard work in your school day with all the academic opportunities that cross your path. Take it serious folks! It’s your future-------today!
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
School Is Life
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Keepers!
When was the first time that you got sent to the principal’s office? Now I do know that some of you have never been sent to any principal’s office. You must be living right and making consistently good decisions. I got sent to the principal’s office for the first time when I was in my first semester of my first year in school. I was a goofy six-year-old that learned a life lesson that day. I learned to be careful about who I hang with even when I’m not hanging out with them. Where I went to first grade there was no cafeteria. We ate our lunches in a classroom that had lunch tables placed in it.
I was sitting at a table with my good friends, Monte and Ricky, and some other first grade students and I had finished eating my mayonnaise sandwich and had taken out my coloring book. It was a great little coloring book with cartoon animals. I was enjoying what I was doing when a third grade student asked if he could see it a minute. He took it to a table with third grade students. One of the third graders was my older brother, Mike.
I watched as they took out pencils and started doing something to the pictures. I didn’t know what they were doing, but they were laughing and making too much noise. A teacher came over and saw what they were doing and wanted to know who owned the coloring book. Four third grade students turned and pointed at me. The next thing that I knew I was sitting in the principal’s office with the four third grade students. They were scared and nervous. I was crying my little six-year-old eyes out of their sockets. I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t stop shaking. I didn’t want to be in the principal’s office, and I sure didn’t want to see a man called the principal. I was just six years old and in trouble. Can you guess what the third grade students had done to my coloring book? If you think they took the pencils and made my cartoon animals anatomically correct, then you’re right. A lesson that I learned that day from the third graders and the principal was that my life was going to be impacted and influenced by a lot of people. I learned that I was not only going to get ready for life over the 12 years of public school, but that I was going to be in life. It was going to be a continuous experience of one lesson after another. Listen attentively to this anonymous quote that fits my story.
“School is not preparation for life; school is life.”
I learned in first grade that my school experience was going to be my life. I hope you know that is true about you and I hope you learned it in an easier way than I did. Do you wonder what the principal did to me in 1962? You’ll have to ask me. By the way, I visited the school for the first time in 43 years and looked into what had been the principal’s office this last summer. I could see exactly where I had been sitting and crying. It was a weird sensation to peer in that window.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Interesting or Interested?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Interesting Ones!
One of the more direct commercials being aired on television is one that has a celebrity asking questions. They have been showing them for 5-6 years. Here’s an example, movie and television star Anthony Edwards ask these questions, “what movie did I say, ‘I feel the need to speed’; and what was my nickname when we flew?; and how did I die?” He immediately asks parents this question, “What’s the name of the kid that sits behind your kid in math?” The point of the commercial is to tell parents they need to be more interested in their own kid’s life and know what is going on in it.
If the questions were geared towards middle school students they might be more like this. Do you know your classmates and friends well? Can you tell someone what your best friend’s middle name happens to be or what food is his or her favorite? Do you know why a friend becomes exceptionally happy? Or what makes one of your classmates sad? Which book is the favorite of most of the students in your English class? Could you talk about your friends for an hour, telling me what they are like, and what they are interested in other people knowing about them? These questions lead to this anonymous quote. Listen to it carefully.
“Spend most of your time trying to be interested in your friends rather than trying to be an interesting person to your friends.”
This quote tells me how important it is for all of us to be students of each other. We need to learn about each other. True lasting friendships come from knowing another person well. The better you know your friend will make it the better you understand your friend. All of us should be interested in the lives of those around us. We spend such an extended part of our lives together; we should be interested in each other. What do I mean by an extended part of our lives? One example would be like the two eighth grade guys I had in my office the other day that have known each other since first grade and have been friends over that time period of 8-9 years, better than half of their life. Another example is that I have worked in the Sequoyah office with Mrs. McElvany for 19 years, that’s almost 40% of my life. I have known several of the people in this school for almost 30 years. I think that I have tried to be interested in their lives on a daily basis. A person can’t help but observe changes in other people in that period of time.
As people who are together each day, day in and day out, we owe it to ourselves to be interested in each other and to invest in our friendships long term. The students that you’re sitting with in class each day will be part of your graduating class within a few short years. Don’t worry about being interesting to them. But instead, spend more of your time and energy being interested in their lives. I challenge you to know your friends well. Study them in an informal manner and know them for a lifetime.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
What Do You Want?
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Wise Ones!
What do you want in life? Do you ever think through what the answer is to that question? All of you are somewhere between 11 and 15 years old. What you want in life is going to become serious in the next three to six years. There has to be a decision by you on your wants about your future eventually. Some of you know some of the answer already and are on course to obtaining what you want in life. Some of you want to be successful in music, some of you in academics, some of you in athletics. A lot of you have secondary plans for your wants. I was talking to an eighth grade student the other day and he wanted independence from the situation that he is currently living. He recognized that most of things that seemed to be happening to him are outside his control. He and I talked about how his best chance for control right now was how he responded to the events in his life. He definitely has a plan for what he wants in life.
Some of you simply want good opportunities. You want different chances to be available. You have in mind that you will work hard and be successful at anything you try, as long as the opportunities are good and fair.
One of the toughest characteristics to maintain in life is focus on what it is you want out of it. It doesn’t have to be a written plan of great length. It does have to be something that states clearly what you desire is. It could be something as quick and easy as three words. I’ll give you an example from one of the great philosophers of your pre-school days. He is a great big, blue, fuzz ball named Cookie Monster. Do you remember the three words? Listen to them.
“Me want cookie!”
We can laugh at those words now, but if you think about them, you will see that the Cookie Monster was focused on what he really wanted in life. He said it often enough that he eventually achieved his goal. He was focused on what he wanted and went about doing the things necessary to succeed. He was only temporarily distracted if he ever did lose his focus. Even as a little kid you understand purpose and desire. In fact I bet some of you actually learned to repeat that phrase to get yourself a cookie or two in your young life.
So I ask you these two questions. Are you focused on what you want in life? Will you go about doing what is necessary to achieve your goal? I trust that most of you will. I can say that because I have witnessed thousands of middle school students over the last 30 years leave Sequoyah, go to high school and graduate with a diploma and then continue on with their plans. For example, I get to see four former students sworn in as attorneys on Thursday. They figured out what they wanted and have pursued it. I challenge you to do likewise with your dreams. I trust that you will do so.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Still - We Are the World
Monday, September 24, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Caregivers!
I have written about this subject multiple times in the eight years I have been sending letters to students! Listen carefully to what I have to say today.
In 1985, years before you were born, there was a great hunger in this world; focused primarily on the African continent. It was unlike any starvation situation that the world had seen in its history. There were simply millions of people starving and dying from malnutrition. The causes were numerous for the horrible, devastating event, but the biggest reason was that there were too many people in areas where there was not enough food. At the same time, the United States was in an economic recession, but we were still producing more food than our citizens could consume. There were piles of wheat in open air three to four hundred feet high just wasting away. In other words there was plenty of food on the planet; it was just in the wrong place in the world.
A group of varied musicians got together to perform a song that would allow all the proceeds to be used to purchase and send the food to the areas on the planet that needed the food. Most of the musicians would be recognized and remembered by your parents and teachers, but you might not know many of them. Two of the musicians wrote a song that became an anthem for the citizens of Earth. Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie wrote the song, “We Are the World.” It was an instant hit as a single and an MTV music video that raised millions of dollars for the best cause history had seen yet. If the people in the world did not have to starve to death, then they shouldn’t. The food surplus in the United States was sent to the people in need. The song actually recruited other countries to help in the crisis as well. It was released in over two-dozen other languages. The reason people responded so well is because it was a simple message. Listen to 17 of the simplest words to move the people in the world.
"We are the world, We are the children, We are the ones to make a better day."
The message over 22 years ago was this. If not us, then who? If not now, then when? If not for this reason, then is there ever going to be a good enough reason to work together? Can those words in the quote mean something to us now? How do they relate to our school? Can we begin by impacting our immediate world called Sequoyah? These are questions that can really only be answered through our actions. Now, as then, I encourage you to see that we are the ones to make a difference. We can choose to make it a better day. All of us have that responsibility.
Our decisions can keep us out of trouble. Our decisions can make our school a pleasant place for everyone. Our choices can make Sequoyah the best place to be a student. I challenge you to make it so. We are Sequoyah!
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
The World’s First Greatest Athlete
Friday, September 21, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Oklahomans!
Some of the letters I write this year will be triggered by the fact we are in our Centennial Year as a state. I plan to always begin them by calling you “Sequoyah Oklahomans.” I will call you that whether you were born here or not, whether you have lived years or days. For this school year consider yourself an Oklahoman. Today’s letter is about a person called “the world’s first greatest athlete” by King Gustav of Sweden in 1912. It was after this Native American won gold medals during the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. I’m talking about Oklahoma’s own Jim Thorpe.
James Frances Thorpe was born in a farm house outside Yale, Oklahoma. He excelled at anything athletic or physical. He readily admitted that he struggled with academic studies. He was forced to attend Indian schools in Kansas and Pennsylvania. He hated that because he was away from his mother and father. While at Carlisle Institute in Pennsylvania, his true athletic talent surfaced. He was fortunate to be coached and trained by the legendary “Pop” Warner. He played football and found great success in all the other sports that he tried.
It was 95 years ago this last July 7 that he competed in the Pentathlon at the fourth modern Olympiad. He won four of the five events in the pentathlon. This was an unheard of accomplishment at the time, and it stunned the Europeans. They thought that they had the best athletes in the world. He won the long jump, discus throw, 200 meters and the 1500 meters. He placed third in the javelin throw. He even surprised the Americans with his gold medal performance. They thought he had done a sensational job. Six days later he competed in the decathlon, which was ten events. Again he was spectacular in his performance and set a world record with his final point total. The Olympic decathlon record stood for 20 years. The high hurdle time he set was a record for 36 years. The King himself hung the two gold medals around Jim Thorpe’s neck. That was when he was declared the “world’s first greatest athlete” by King Gustav. Jim Thorpe responded with a quiet, “Thanks, King!”
After his return to the United States there was controversy that we now know was unfair and unjust. If you read The Importance of Jim Thorpe by Don Nardo, you will get the idea of how crummy a deal it was. He had many hardships in his life, and yet lived the glory of being the best athlete most people had ever seen. His attitude fit this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Listen carefully.
"Our greatest glory consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we do fall."
During that second decade of the 20th century, Jim Thorpe played professional baseball for several years with the New York Giants, and professional football with one of the original NFL teams, the Canton, Ohio Bulldogs. I encourage you to learn about Jim Thorpe, one of the great Oklahomans in history.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Reading for Pleasure
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Pleasure Readers,
I wonder at times if reading is a lost cause when it comes to reading just for the joy of it. I know that reading for instruction or for specific information will continue to be needed for a few more decades. Technology continues to change how we learn. Fewer people read newspapers for information and not many read them for pleasure any longer. Fifty years ago most homes had parents that read the newspaper to relax in the evening or to enjoy a few minutes of reading at the breakfast table. Most people today are getting their news from 24 hour news stations on television or from internet news services that provide instant video feed to computers or even cell phones.
A research study released this summer stated that one out of four adults in the United States did not read a book in the last year. That amazes me because the ability to read should be exercised. The author who visited us the second Monday of school, Wendelin Van Draanen, says it this way, “Everyone needs to exercise their right to read.” The week after her visit, Mrs. Hasenfratz said that every one of the books that our media center contained written by the author had been checked out. That’s 295 books. You guys were exercising your right to read, and you were doing it for the simple pleasure of a good story. You have shown me that people do choose to read for enjoyment.
My wife and I decided to exercise our right to read a little bit more than we have in the last few years. The first week of July, we chose to get the two televisions out of our house. So we gave them away. We have enjoyed reading for pleasure even more now. So although I wonder if reading for fun or entertainment may be lost, I know that it can be kept and practiced more. Why is it important that we choose to read for pleasure? Listen to this quote from an article I read. “Several years ago the Los Angeles Times reported on the findings of a research study that showed the single most significant factor in determining a person’s success in life to be whether they read for pleasure.” It went on, “That they read was important—what they read was not.”
Your very success in life is impacted by whether you read for pleasure or not. If a person says to me, “Well, I don’t like to read.” I would say to you that it’s not too late to find what it is you do like to read. Every person can learn to read for pleasure. It will be the single most significant factor in determining your success in life!
One person who went from being a non-reader to becoming a voracious reader and eventually he became a writer that still reads as a passionate habit is Gary Paulsen. In fact Gary Paulsen said it this way.
"Reading saved my life."
His biography explains that quote very clearly. I am going to encourage you to choose to read the book Gary Paulsen by Edith Fine to find out what he meant. It’s a great story!
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Avoid Being a Hole Driller
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Cougars!
Mrs. Arthur, one of our school’s English teachers, once shared a short comment from her church’s newsletter. I loved the image or word picture that was presented and want to share part of it with you.
“Once there were these two older men who were in a wooden rowboat out in the middle of a large lake. They were a great distance from the shore when all of a sudden one of the men begins drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat. ‘For crying out loud, what on earth are you doing?’ his shocked boat mate asked. The other guy looked up and quickly replied, “Mind your own business! I’m drilling a hole under my own seat.”
It’s kind of an odd, but insightful word picture, isn’t it? How many times does one person’s actions impact another’s life, but the one person refuses to see the impact? We are all sensible people and can see that the drilled hole will cause complications for both men, even if it is under the one guy’s seat. The boat will sink and make life difficult for both men, not just one. One person’s poor decision does impact other people’s lives, even when it’s not a harmful decision. I am sure that all of you have experienced plans changing because of an error by a friend. One example would be: you wanted to go to a movie with a friend, but she got in trouble and was grounded. Your plans changed. Another example is you agree to share a project with a friend and you do your part, but the friend fails to complete his work and you suffer a grade you wish you could change. Those are examples of the impact being harmless. They were more inconvenient and bothersome than anything else. Listen to this anonymous quote.
"Think and realize the repercussions of your decisions on the lives of others."
Why is the quote important to remember? Because sometimes the impact is extremely harmful. The best example that we all share is the person who has been drinking getting in a car and driving. We don’t know which person has done that when we are out driving, but you can bet that some of the cars that pass us are driven by people that are inebriated and maybe close to being incapacitated. There are thousands of innocent victims every year in America that lose their lives because someone else is driving drunk. Every individual has the responsibility of thinking through their own decisions and realizing the repercussions of the decisions. I strongly encourage you to practice avoiding drilling holes. I challenge you to not negatively impact someone else’s life. Avoid being a hole driller. We have a shared responsibility to watch out for each other and prevent harm or problems started by us.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Laughter Can’t Be Denied
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Laughers!
Sometimes you can’t deny laughter. There is nothing that you can do but let it come out and then, sometimes you can’t stop it. It happens to all of us once in a while. The worst it ever happened to me was in August of 1978. I was 23 years old and enjoying life with my friends. I even did things that I wasn’t good at just to be around friends. I can’t sing at all, but my friend Rick Henderson (he didn’t have much of a voice either), and I joined the Sunday evening men’s choir at church. It was called the Iron Bucket Brigade because the only way some of us could carry a tune was in a heavy, iron bucket. Somehow that evening, Rick and I were in the front row standing next to each other. We were holding the music hymnals he-man style, with one hand. There was no way we were going to look up, so we just stared at the music and sang the best we knew how.
Everything was going fine. I held my hymnal in my right hand and Rick had his in his left hand, so they were side by side. All of a sudden Rick had to sneeze and he pulled his right hand directly to his nose. The right hand on the way to his face knocked his hymnal about four feet above our heads and on the backside of the song leader. We were stunned for a second or two and then immediately started to laugh. I shared my hymnal with Rick, and we continued to try to hold back the laughter. We were in front of the entire church and couldn’t get our composure. Our effort to hold back the laughter wouldn’t stay put. We laughed and then we tried to stop and then we laughed some more and then we tried to stop again. We were laughing so hard that we were crying. We couldn’t breathe. I pinched my leg with my left hand to create pain, but I couldn’t stop laughing. If I got settled, Rick would laugh more. When he almost got control then I would lose it and start laughing uncontrollably. Needless to say we were both cherry red with embarrassment and lack of oxygen, but not even that stopped the laughter. We looked up at the congregation finally and saw that most of them were laughing as well, and the music minister was still trying to get everyone to continue to sing. Now, in my mind’s eye, I continue to see Rick’s hymnal flying away from the choir and hear that sneeze occurring simultaneously. And you know what? I start laughing again.
Listen to this sentence from Stephen King’s book, Heart in Atlantis.
"You can’t deny laughter, when it comes; it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants."
I challenge you to remember the good laughs in your life and revisit them often. If Rick walked into the school today, we would share that laugh all over again.
I need to share with you an interesting fact that I provided the teachers last week. The average kindergartner laughs some 300 times a day. By the time people become adults it is cut to only about 15 times a day. That tells me that we need more laughter in our lives. It needs to be genuine, and yet it needs to be appropriate.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
The Most Important People
Monday, September 17, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Great Ones!
Who are the most important people you interact with everyday? What makes one person more important than another to you? Why aren’t all of us important? Or is it possible that we all are important?
A book that I enjoyed reading more than once is titled Dancing in Cadillac Light by Kimberly Willis Holt. I got a kick out of the whole story. The one thing that I took away from it that has stuck with me though is the relationship the grandfather had with his grandchildren. Maybe I appreciate the relationships most because I didn’t know either of my grandfathers. Maybe it is because I look forward to being a grandfather someday. Regardless of why it has impacted me, I know this to be true. He was amazing at being a grandfather. He loved life and he loved sharing it with the people around him, especially his grandchildren. Other characters in the novel didn’t realize how amazing he was until he died about halfway through the book. Soon it was evident that the grandchildren all felt the same way. They each felt that they had been their grandfather’s favorite grandchild. How did the man do that? How was he able to make them believe how important they were as individuals to him? It wasn’t magic. It was focus for him. He gave each individual child attention and plenty of it, an abundance of it. He had a relationship of great value with each of them. That’s why they each thought that they were their grandfather’s favorite. That was a wonderful gift that he gave each of them. It was a gift that they would have all of their lives.
Can each of us give gifts of that nature? Listen to this anonymous quote I found a few years ago.
"For everybody you meet each day—make them feel like the most important people around."
According to this quote, if we focus and give each individual plenty of attention, we can make him or her important people. We can add value to the relationship that we keep. It becomes real and we each recognize how important people are to us. That is how the grandfather did it. He really made his grandchildren the most important people in his life and they felt that every time they were with him. I challenge you today to try the advice of the quote. Who knows, maybe someday you will have friends or children or grandchildren that believe they were your favorite person to be around.
I want to remind you that Ms. Holt will be coming to Sequoyah Middle School a week from tomorrow. She will make a presentation after school at 4:00 p.m. in the media center, and it is open to everyone interested.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Listen to Heroes
Friday, September 14, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Students!
If you were given an opportunity to be with someone that our society claims is a hero what would you do? Would you tell her what your life is like? Would you show her what is important to you? Or would you ask her questions about her life and her act of heroism? We might all react in different ways.
Most students in the eighth grade will get the opportunity to read a book by Susan Rottman called Hero. It’s not about an athlete, or a politician, or a general, or an actor. It is about a boy who has family problems that he needs to work through and about a man that is willing to help him. Through the different events of the story the boy reaches a definition of what a hero is, but maybe more significantly he settles on how we should respond to a genuine hero. Carefully hear this kid’s words of advice:
"If you find someone who is brave, loyal, and willing to do those extra things for you, don’t say anything to him, just stay close to him, and pay attention. You could learn a lot."
He gives three specific recommendations. First, when you find a hero, don’t say anything to him initially. Keep quiet and observe the person. You can learn a lot by just watching what a heroic person does. Secondly, he suggests staying close to him. Proximity is important to observation and learning. The closer you are to the heroic person teaching you the better the learning will be. And finally, the kid says to pay attention. Stay focused on the heroic person you are observing. See everything they do that is right and learn to replicate it. If you do these three things, you can’t help but learn a lot from a hero.
If I have the opportunity to meet a hero soon, I think I will follow the kid’s advice. He sounds like he knows what he is talking about to me.
Talking about heroes the last couple of letters was brought on because of a great movie my wife and I saw once. When it came out on video, we purchased our own copy, and I have fully viewed it seven times. It is titled “Hero” and stars Jett Li. It deals with the genesis of the great empire of China. The hero, Jett Li, shows an act of heroism that was beyond prediction. The story and cinematography in the movie is spectacular. I encourage everyone 6th grade and up to go see it. It does require a mature understanding of human interactions, both in warfare and friendship. If you have seen it, let me know what you think. By the way, it is in Chinese, so you will have to read the captions in English.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
What Is a Hero?
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Terrifics!
What is a hero? Does a person that scores a ton of points in a basketball game qualify as a hero? Or what about a football player making a game saving open field tackle late in a contest, is he a hero? Or how about a movie star that has won Oscars and appears in a new movie every six months? What do you think about someone that can dominate the news on television and in print? Does a person with high rank or even a high-elected office get to call her self a hero? To me, most of these people would count as celebrities, but not much more. They receive a lot of attention, but that alone does not make them heroes. They are not going to be heroes in my mind. What is a hero? I like the definition that young adult fantasy author, T. A. Barron provides. He has written a number of books with heroes in mind. Listen carefully to his definition.
"A hero is very different from a celebrity. A hero is someone who has overcome tremendous odds and difficulties and has to reach down inside himself or herself and find the inner strength to do that."
Heroes do exist. We see or hear about them everyday. One of my favorite stories about a real hero happened not too long ago. An engineer on a locomotive train was approaching a trestle bridge when he saw several boys running off the bridge towards the train. He looked ahead and on the bridge was another boy. He was unable to get back off the bridge before the train came onto the bridge. The boy froze. The engineer slammed on his brakes, but trains don’t come to a stop quickly because of metal sliding on metal. Sometimes it takes a train up to a half-mile to stop moving. The engineer knew that the train was going to hit the boy at 10-15 miles per hour and probably hurt him fatally. So he climbed out and yelled for the boy not to jump off the bridge because the 80’ fall would probably kill him. The engineer then climbed down onto the very front of the locomotive and as it got closer to the boy; the engineer reached out and grabbed him up and pulled him onto the train a split-second before the train rolled over the spot. The tragedy was avoided because of the inner strength of the engineer to do something to save the boy from sure death. The engineer was a hero. It was not a scene from a movie; it was the real thing. Heroes do exist. Everyone in our school has the potential to do something heroic, if we find that inner strength when necessary.
Another example happened this last weekend, when a teenager saw a lady trapped in her car on train tracks with a train coming full speed. The boy disregarded his own safety and ran up to the car and helped the elderly lady out of her seat belt and out of the car and off the track just seconds before the locomotive smashed her car. It was demolished, but the woman was saved because of a teenage hero. We all have that inner strength, and may choose to use it at the appropriate time.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Honor People in Your Past
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Fantastics!
Not too long ago, some students asked me how I remember some of the things that I wrote about in my letters. I try to remember things in my past, especially people. One way is to sit and reflect on different periods in my life, for example my childhood or maybe the first few years of my marriage. Another is to try to remember the first time some things happened, like the first time that I got sent to the principal’s office or the first time I saw the Grand Canyon or the Pacific Ocean. I remember the first time I helped my father mow the lawn, and the first time I ran a quarter-mile against the clock. All it requires to remember things is a little bit of effort and the focused intent to do so.
I remember the first time a teacher gave me a compliment. It was on the first day of school when I was in first grade. The teacher was the first real teacher I had because preschool didn’t exist in the late fifties/early sixties and I didn’t go to kindergarten because I lived outside of town on a farm. My first teacher, Mrs. Dixon had wanted to see what our capabilities were on that first morning. She spent time talking to all of us and teaching us classroom procedures and then late in the morning she had us copy what was on the chalkboard into our tablets. When we were finished we could use the time to sit and look at books or color pictures. I took another sheet of paper out of my Big Chief Tablet and colored a design of triangles that I had made. I used my brand new box of 8 Crayola Crayons to do it, and I did it with care because I was going to take it home to my mother. When Mrs. Dixon saw the picture she shared with me that she thought it was beautiful and that I was creative. I was six years old and she said I was creative. I didn’t know what creative was, but it had to be good with the way she said it.
I have kept that memory for 45 years. I keep the memory not for me, but for Mrs. Dixon. I honor her when I remember her fondly. I haven’t seen her since May of 1962, but I will always honor her with that memory. If I don’t reflect and think about people in positive ways from my past, then I fail them. Listen to this quote from the book titled Burning Up by young adult author, Caroline B. Cooney:
"You have to think about people! It dishonors them if you don’t think about them!"
I encourage you to spend time thinking about the good, positive people in your past, remember them, talk about them, and honor them. I challenge you to make it a focused effort on a regular basis, and even to write about it once in a while. I am always willing to listen if you want to tell me about someone you honor.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Going Through Changes
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Cougars!
A musician that has been writing and performing music for a long time usually impacts lots of people. Sometimes they write and sing for money. Sometimes they write for others. And sometimes they write and sing for themselves. And I guess sometimes they do all three. One musician that started when he was a middle school student and is still performing today is Ozzy Osborne. Most of you know who he is because of the outrageous television show about his family. Forget that show for a moment though and listen to this. He wrote his first song when he was 13-years-old. It is my favorite one that he sings and just a few years ago he rerecorded it with his daughter, Kelli. The title is very simple and it was a song that he wrote for himself and only himself initially. And with my mind’s eye, I can see him as a teenage kid sitting on his bed, alone, singing this song over and over. The song’s title is Changes. His one repeating line should be the motto of every person as they age. Whether it is someone 11-14 years old like you guys or someone in his early fifties like me, the line fits as a rule. The repeating line is four simple words.
"I’m going through changes."
Change is inevitable. We can’t stop it, even if we recognize it happening. It’s important how we choose to respond to change, since it is going to happen. We can influence it, and sometimes we can direct it, but we can’t stop it. Our response makes the difference. Do you try to ignore change when it happens? Do you try to make believe that it hasn’t happened? If you fail to recognize it then you are choosing to respond by sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich. Guess what? The change still goes through.
A personal example is when my eyes started going bad about seven years ago. I could have ignored the change and continued to read blurred words. My sight is fine until I try to read small print and then I need help. The help I chose was to go to the eye doctor and get appropriate glasses. I chose to respond to the change, and the change continues to happen, so I go to the eye doctor every year now. I directly influenced the change by going to the doctor and also by choosing the glasses that I wanted.
Sometimes change is huge. For example, when death takes a loved, or a family chooses to go in different directions the change seems overwhelming. And yet, you still have control over how you respond. I encourage you to keep that control and make decisions that are best for you and everyone involved, not necessarily in that order. What ever changes happen, you have still got the power to respond according to your choice. This will remain true no matter what age you find yourself.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Fish Are Friends, Not Food
Monday, September 10, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Friends!
One of the best-animated feature films created in the last half decade was also the all-time top money grossing animated movie until recently. It was probably a movie you saw yourself when you 5,6, or 7 years old. Finding Nemo used intense adventure and well-written humor to draw in an audience representing all ages, that in some cases went to the theater three or four times to see it. The characters the artists created were likable and memorable for many different reasons.
I didn’t see it until it came out on video, but the character I got a kick out of the most was Bruce the Shark. He’s a big guy that is trying to find the gentler side of his life. He wants to be a better shark, and he wants others to perceive him differently. Bruce and two of his sidekick friends are willing to support each other in their decision to change. Listen to the pledge they make to themselves and each other.
"I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food."
Although the animated scene is meant to be humorous and a spoof of some actual support groups, the middle line of their pledge is absolutely true. “If I am to change this image, I must first change myself.” All of us have had some desire to make changes in the way people think about us. We want others’ perception of who we are and what we stand for to be different. How do we individually influence and change that perception? It is by changing something specific about ourselves. Again I ask you to listen carefully.
If we are viewed as being a bully or thug or mean person, we must make sure people see a kinder, calmer, more understanding person in everything we do. We must demonstrate that we wish to help people. Others must witness a solid friend, willing to sacrifice for people around them. We each, individually, must say to ourselves, “People are friends, not enemies; people are friends, not targets.”
Being a kinder, gentler, more caring person is just a conscious decision away, made with a conscientious effort every day. We must choose to be more mature about life and our decisions impacting other people.
Follow Bruce’s lead and provide the image that draws friends to you and makes you the kind of person you really want to be.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
The Greater Good!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Altruists!
On Friday evening of July 6, 2007, I left my home around 11:30 p.m. I drove to Best of Books and with my daughter there and about 150 other people, I waited to purchase the newest and last Harry Potter book. While I was there, I saw several current and past Sequoyah students. It was kind of a new experience to be at a crowded bookstore at midnight. I loved it!
Of course, I enjoyed reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I found a wonderful quote that I share with you today.
“Sometimes you’ve got to think about more than your own safety! Sometimes you’ve got to think about the greater good!” – Harry Potter
If you have read this book, you know what was getting ready to happen when Harry made this statement. If you haven’t read it, and aren’t planning to read it, then you will just have to wait for the movie to observe the situation.
This quote can stand by itself and bring great meaning to any one who reads it and gives it some reflection time. If you watched any of the national news about the I-35 bridge collapse in Minnesota, you know that there were people who thought about more than their own safety. Or if you watched any news about the trapped miners in Utah, you know that there were men and women that thought about more than their own safety. In fact, at least two of the rescuers lost their lives trying to get to the trapped miners. It was tragedy upon tragedy, but the rescuers were trying to do what they were trained to do and they knew it was the right thing to do.
During all of the flooding this last summer, there were countless incidents of individuals that repeatedly ignored their own safety, and rescued or attempted to rescue victims in the high, rushing waters.
Harry’s quote reinforces our obligation to help others that share this planet with us. Whether a person is for the Iraq War or opposed to the United States being there, they have to agree that the men and women wearing the military uniforms of our country are thinking about more than their own safety. Those soldiers that have given the greatest sacrifice possible were all thinking about the greater good.
Harry’s quote reinforces our obligation to help others that share this school with us. It means that we have to stand up for others when someone is treating them wrong. It means that we aren’t going to permit bullies to have their way with our friends and classmates. I encourage you to be ever mindful of the greater good in our school.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Complain or Rejoice
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Decision-Makers!
There are people in this world that love to complain about anything, and there are people that love to rejoice about everything, and then there’s the rest of us. The rest of us complain or rejoice on a situation-by-situation basis. We use our judgment and it is filtered through how we feel at the moment and what all the factors and conditions are in the specific situation.
Here’s an example from my life. In 1971, my brother and I both had driver’s licenses, but we didn’t have anything to drive. Like we did in many situations, we pooled our money and went shopping for a car. First we knew that the vehicle was going to be a used car because we didn’t have much money. Our summer jobs were decent incomes, but in the early 1970’s minimum wage was only $1.35 an hour. We looked for cars on different car lots and we scoured the newspaper for possible purchases. The more we searched, the more we realized that our pickings were going to be slim. We finally found an ad for a 1967 Volkswagen Bug. The man selling it wanted $1154 cash. Since we each had roughly $600, we knew that not only could we buy it, we would still have money for gasoline. Gas was well under 50 cents a gallon in those days. So we gave the man our hard earned cash and drove the bug home. Mike was the first to drive the VW.
That evening, Mike and I washed and waxed the car in our parents’ driveway. We vacuumed and cleaned the inside out with Windex and 409. We didn’t complain about the nicks and scratches we found when we washed the car. We didn’t complain about the small crack that went across the wing window on the passenger side of our VW. We didn’t complain about the stain in the back seat. It looked and smelled like the man had hauled a couple of old fuel filters around for a while. We didn’t complain about the torn strap above the driver’s door. And the list goes on of what we could have complained about, but we didn’t. We really didn’t complain about anything, and do you want know why? We were way too busy rejoicing about owning a car. We rejoiced because we had a beautiful used, four-wheeled vehicle that could get us to school or to football practice or to the movies. We rejoiced because our 1967 Volkswagen Bug meant transportation. And self-provided transportation meant one word, “Freedom!!!”
Listen to this appropriate quote given to me by Hannah.
"You can either complain because roses have thorns or you can rejoice because thorns have roses!"
Mike and I were rejoicing because the little defects we saw while cleaning the VW meant we had a car. We didn’t complain that our car had defects. I challenge everyone to check your perspective on things. After using your judgment and weighing the situation, you will find in most cases that the choice is to rejoice. In fact, we should all recognize that with the beauty of roses in our life, we should rejoice the thorns existence. Check your perspective so that you can choose to rejoice.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
Mistakes Happen
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Mistake Fixers!
We all have the opportunity to make mistakes, and I can tell you from personal experience that some of us make a ton of mistakes. But we also have the chances to work on and fix our mistakes. It takes a calm approach most of the time to fix mistakes that we are responsible for creating. Why do most mistakes occur? It is because we temporarily stop thinking clearly.
Let me tell you about one of my many, many mistakes I made as a twelve year old kid. This particular error had its roots in my walk home from school. For whatever reason, I missed the bus ride home one day. My parents believed in consequences being natural or normal in most cases. Therefore, I had to walk home because the bus wasn’t coming back and I knew my parents would not provide a ride for me.
As I was walking down Patterson Road, I found a can of red spray paint along the curb. Rather than leaving it alone, I picked it up, saw that it was full, and carried it home. I admit that I sprayed it on a couple of places on the sidewalk as I found my way to my house. After I got home, I put my books in my room and grabbed a snack and went into the back yard with my recently found prize. I tried a little on an old can and it looked a little different, then I sprayed some on a tree and the bark appeared better.
I looked at our back yard fence and did not see nice wooden stockade structure. What I saw was big clean canvas. Therefore, I went over and sprayed a big face on the fence. It had a smile, and I added some spiked hair and sideburns. I stood back and admired my artwork. As I gazed at my handiwork, a question surfaced in mind. “Jeff, you idiot, what did you do?” I went into immediate panic mode. I grabbed a couple grilling mittens and rubbed at the paint. It did nothing to change the face. I sprinted around the corner of the house and rushed back with the water hose and squirted the artwork with full pressure. The oil based paint didn’t change its appearance at all.
Finally, I paused and tried to catch my breath and think clearly. I made the decision to pin it on someone else. Rusty was the kid that lived across the street. He was in trouble all the time. So I continued the artwork and sprayed more designs on the fence. After each piece of red artwork, I sprayed these two words, “by Rusty.” I viewed the entire length of the fence and was satisfied that it looked like it was Rusty’s responsibility. I threw the can of paint over the fence and raced inside the house to do my homework. It was impossible to focus on the school work. At least half a dozen times, I viewed the fence, and after each examination, I had a tougher time convincing myself that Rusty was going to get the blame. Around 5:30 p.m., I made a change in strategy. I decided to sit on the front porch and wait for my father to arrive home.
When he pulled up in his pick up, I stood up and walked to the driver’s side door. He said, “Jeff, what’s wrong?” I responded, “Dad, I need to tell you that I went temporarily insane, and I did something really bad.” Rather than trying to tell him, I asked him to follow me and I showed him. He was not happy with what he saw, but I was already apologizing and begging him to forgive me. Long story short, he took me back to his pickup, and we pulled out of the drive and drove to a Kmart. He purchased several cans of white paint. I spent the next several afternoons painting the fence legitimately. It was a beautiful fence when I finished.
That was just one of my mistakes. I did own up to it, which permitted me then to find a way to fix it. I believe that we need to review our errors at different times in our lives because we learn from them. Listen to these words from Charlie Brown.
"Sometimes, I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a small voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night.'"
During your lifetime, you will have the opportunity or misfortune to make several mistakes. I encourage you to examine them, fix them, and then reflect on them once in a while. It will benefit you in life, if you will review the times that you may have gone wrong. It will make you a better person.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
True Resume
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Good day, Sequoyah Great Ones!
Starting every spring and then for several months I receive an abundance of resumes from people wanting to teach at Sequoyah Middle School. Sometimes there are over 100 resumes mailed or hand delivered to our office. Even now, I still receive resumes; two last week alone, even though it was our second week of school and we didn’t have any job openings. Someday, most of you will prepare a resume to be given to prospective employers. So what is a resume and why is one necessary?
A resume tells me all kinds of good information about the applicants and what they have to offer the students and teachers in our school. A resume almost always presents a positive, appealing image of the person; in fact some times it is beyond the truth. Every once in a while I get a resume that very simply is unbelievable. There have been numerous examples in the national news the last few years of people in spotlight jobs having falsified information on their resumes in order to appear to be better applicants for a job. When a person sits down and writes a resume, they do their best to let a possible employer know who they are and what has happened in their life that gives them experience and credibility. Guess what? The old line, actions speak louder than words, includes words that are written. It includes words written on a resume. Listen to this anonymous quote.
"Your best resume is not what you write, but how you live."
What does the statement mean? Well, to me, it says that people are going to watch how I live. They want to see how I react to things that happen to me. They will know by what they see and observe, how I will respond to a lack of fairness, how I will treat other people, and what I believe to be important in life. Let me ask the question again, but a little different, may be, make it a little more personal. What does the statement mean to you? What does your living resume say to others about you?
Every teacher in this building has two resumes. One can be prepared on paper and distributed to other people or possible employers. The other resume is witnessed every day by their friends, colleagues, students and me. Right now, the students at Sequoyah have really only one resume. It is the one observed by how you live.
I had the privilege last Thursday night to view the resume of about 40 8th grade boys in our football game against Cheyenne Middle School. I want everyone to know what I saw. I watched over three dozen young men handle a very difficult and strenuous situation with maturity and integrity. I was as proud of the decisions the guys made after the contest as I was any of their decisions made in the game. I didn’t see a loss of a football game. I watched the best of resumes being formed by 8th grade young men.
With words that I would like you to consider and reflect upon, make yours an exceptional life – or not. The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. Please choose wisely.
-Melodic Time- · Mon Jun 16, 2008 @ 04:36am · 0 Comments |
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