Melanie Bailey vs. Red Sanders

Melanie Bailey is a senior at Devils Lake High School in North Dakota.  She advanced to the championship race in the Eastern Dakota conference cross-country event.  At the 2 mile mark of the 2.4 mile course she saw an injured runner.

Danielle Lenoue, a senior from Fargo South High School had torn her miniscus and her patella tendon.  Collapsing in pain, Danielle sat beside the course holding her knee and sobbing.  Other runners ran by her on the way to the finish line less than a half-mile ahead.  Not Melanie.

Melanie did not know Danielle.  They attended different high schools.  In this event they were competitors.  But Melanie stopped.  A fellow student was crying in pain.  Danielle was suffering and in need.  Melanie got Danielle on her back and carried her the remaining half mile across the finish line.  Melanie did not win the race. 

I do not know who won this event in North Dakota.  The winner did not make headlines.  Melanie and her effort to help a fellow student have made headlines.  Melanie and Danielle will remember this for the rest of their lives.  Melanie played Good Samaritan and won a much more valuable place in history than winning the race.

Red Sanders, the UCLA football coach, at a 1950 Physical Education conference said, “Winning isn’t everything; it is the only thing.”  In 1959 Vince Lombardi would repeat the quotation and for many was attributed with the saying.  But it was Red Sanders who first said it.  Regardless, the belief articulated in the quotation is flawed and Melanie knows that.  The runners who ran by the injured Danielle were driven to win.  Melanie knows there are things much more important in life than winning.  Selflessly serving a needy fellow human being will always be more important than winning an athletic event.

Melanie is wiser than Red and Vince.  She is a human being first a competitor second.  We should look to her as an example of what humans can be.  We will not do so with the student who won that particular race.

If there were a competition between Melanie and Red for most noble, honorable philosophy of living Melanie would win.  Thank you, Melanie.  And thank God.

Ebola Panic

Are you near panic about Ebola?  It is true that the Ebola survival rate is anywhere from 10% to 50%.  That sounds really scary.  But that is the survival rate in West Africa, not the US.  The US has had 8 cases, 5 cures, and one death.  We are in a panic.  Panic is not rational and this round of panic clearly meets that criteria.  And now schools are closing due to this fear.  Wow.  I believe one of the roles of educated people is to inform those who are more prone to emotional response so that their lives improve.  I am not in a panic regarding Ebola.  I am worried about the outbreak and am particularly concerned with those in West Africa who continue to die from this virus.  But I am not in a panic.  Am I stupid?  Do I have my head in the sand?  Perhaps perspective will reduce fear and panic, or not.

Suppose I wanted to contract Ebola.  Short of a trip to West Africa what would I have to do to ensure that I became an Ebola “victim”?  Ebola is not air borne.  I would have to have physical contact with someone already infected, the best candidates being those who are vomiting or experiencing diarrhea.  I would not only have to have contact, I would have to somehow get one of their bodily fluids into my body.  Shaking hands could do it if I touched my mouth or nose or ears after hand-shaking and before washing my hands.  So, I need to get friendly with someone infected with Ebola.  Where would I find such people?  Five citizens have been treated and released.  Three people were in the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.  Now one is dead and the other two moved, one to Bethesda and one to Atlanta.  It would be somewhat difficult for me to get to either of those out of state hospitals, but I could.  However, I suspect I could not get to the floor where they are isolated, much less arrange physical, unprotected contact.  Seems to me I am flat out of luck if I want to catch Ebola in the US.  If you are afraid of contracting the disease I encourage you to relax.  At the current level of this epidemic we appear to be very safe.  Yes, we should take steps to contain, monitor and treat those infected and those exposed, but 8 cases hardly merits panic.

For instance, do you remember the Swine Flu epidemic in 2009?  One in 5 people world-wide contracted swine flu, including yours truly.  H1N1 killed 12,000 people.  However, the survival rate was much higher.  Only .02% died from the bug.  We were concerned, but those in real panic mode were a much smaller group than the current Ebola panickers.  How quickly we forget.

How about enterovirus?  This nasty little bug (EV-D68) has infected hundreds of people in at least 46 states.  And the death toll is rising, well beyond US Ebola cases.  Are you in a panic?  Same strategies that keep one safe from a cold, the flu, Ebola, etc., work with EV-D68.  Wash your hands and avoid the exchange of bodily fluids.

I find other issues more fascinating.  On the average, 12 high school and college football players die each year during a game or practice.  This number represents a much higher percentage than Ebola deaths as the number of high school and college football players is a smaller population than all the rest of us.  I do not hear a panic regarding football, I do not hear about schools closing because they have a football program, I do not hear a demand from communities to stop such a sport that is literally life threatening to participants. 

Harder to explain is the fact that there are about 30,000 deaths in this country each year due to firearms.  I hear no panic regarding this horrendous number.  In fact, I hear passionate almost panicky rhetoric defending the ownership of firearms.  Imagine someone today standing up and defending travel to and from West Africa as their Constitutional right regardless of outcomes.  I can hear it now, “Ebola does not kill people, infected people kill people.”  Yes, we have had a death from Ebola.  One death compared to 30,000 does not merit the panic we are experiencing.

Bottom line for me is that panic by its very nature is irrational.  Fear can be helpful.  Our fear mechanism can give us wisdom and teach us lessons as in the walk down a dark alley late at night.  Fear heightens our senses and informs our behavior.  Fear run amuck is panic.  Ebola merits fear, respect, and precautions.  It does not merit panic.

You are much more likely to be struck by lightning, die from playing football, die from contracting enterovirus, or killed by a firearm today than you are to contract Ebola.  Even if you contracted the disease you are much more likely to survive it than not.  Ignore the panic mongers and seek the facts.  And please, keep schools open!

Relax.

New Nepotism Rules

My daughter teaches in an affluent, suburban high school.  She called the other afternoon very frustrated because some students in her math class were not putting forth the effort to prepare for a test.  When confronted, the students responded that they would simply go see a certain assistant principal and get a new modification on their 504 plan so they could do better on the test.  Rightfully incensed, the issues at stake here were large.  By high school, the modifications for both 504 and special education should be decreasing, not increasing.  These students had never needed such a modification at any time in their educational experience and were clearly using this as a foil for study.  An assistant principal that was known to be a push over for the wishes of a kid versus supporting sound education practice highlights the highly politicized school environment as well as a secret desire by the AP to be loved rather than be professional.  I shared in my daughter’s frustration and lament, and we discussed professional strategies to help right the world.

My son teaches in a less than affluent, highly diverse mid-urban, school system.  He is one of 5 teachers who teach a science elective, among other things.  Three of the five teachers of this subject are coaches.  My son and another teacher are full-time teachers.  In a grade distribution analysis of the 5 teachers it was revealed that in the coach’s sections kids were almost all making A’s.  My son and the other teacher had few A’s and a few failures.   The administration communicated to my son and his fellow full-time teacher that their grades were not appropriate and recommended that they more reflect the distribution found in the coach’s sections.  He was irate and I agree.  High teacher expectations are a critical component of student success and he was informed that his expectations were too high.  I shared in my son’s frustration and anger, and we discussed professional strategies to help right the world.

My wife teaches in a very diverse low income elementary school in a mid-sized quasi-urban school system.  She came home to relay the story of a 5^th grade student who literally punched a teacher in the chest.  Her frustration was that the police were not called and charges will not be pressed.   The student will end up in a disciplinary alternative school but will not experience the full force of the law for assault, much less assault against a public servant.  Clearly, if the police had been called for an assault at the campus the local media would have jumped all over the story, parents would likely have been fearful regarding the safety of their kids, and the school’s reputation could have been damaged.  Again, I shared in the frustration and anger.  If students do not get the message that discipline will be strictly enforced and teachers will be totally supported then future disciplinary incidents will grow worse.  A false public image is no image at all.  Better to take a stand for the right reasons and take the heat rather than experience a false sense of success.  In this case, there was little my wife could do as she was not a part of the dynamic, but her observation of the response hurts the climate in her school.  I shared her frustration and anger and we discussed policies and procedures that would help right the world.

On the surface these three events might appear to be fodder for a discussion about the real temptation on the part of administration today to do what makes kids and parents happy and decide to take steps that promotes a false image of the school rather than support an educationally correct solution.  That topic merits serious discussion.  But that is not what prompts me to post.

It occurred to me that my response to these three incidents would have been very different were I either my daughter’s, my wife’s or my son’s superintendent.  If any member of my family taught in a school system where I was superintendent I would have heard their stories very differently.  I know me.  I would have met with the building principal and discussed the reputation and behavior of the assistant principal who was promoting student low performance and her reputation as a wimp.  I would have met with any principal who argued that teacher expectations should be lowered to achieve more A’s for students.  I would have met with a principal who was reluctant to enforce discipline and the law.  I could not have simply sat on that knowledge.  I love my family.  I respect them as professionals.  When they share such stories I am angry and amazed and dumbfounded.  I am not objective.  I forget that there are always at least two sides to every story.

So, it is a really good thing that I am not their superintendent.  If I were, then others would quickly learn that whatever my family members told me I would believe and act on.  That would make each of my family members perceived as either the campus snitch or would be used to convey information to me outside the chain of command.  I can see no good outcomes if my family were employed in the same system where I served as superintendent. 

So my first proposed amendment to the nepotism law is to make it a policy violation for an administrator to have a family member employed in the administrator’s chain of command.  No principal may have a family member on his or campus and no superintendent may have a family member employed in the district.

School Board members are subject to the same kind of input and non-objective decision making if they have a family member employed in the system, or if they have kids in the system.  I know board members who have formed strong opinions regarding teachers based on what their sons or daughters tell them about the teacher, and have formed strong opinions about administration or other teachers based on what an adult employee family member tell them about those employees.  Not only are board members not qualified to evaluate professional staff, they are prohibited from doing so.

My second proposed amendment to the nepotism law is to make it a policy violation for a board member to have any family member employed by the school system regardless of when that employment began.  It would be good if we could prohibit board members from having their kids in the system, but I fear that would eliminate almost all board members.  I will say that every teacher who has ever taught a board member’s son or daughter clearly is aware of the additional pressure when doing so.

(As an aside and disconnected from nepotism, I also support policy that would prohibit a person on a public school board from placing their children in a private school.  The message to the system in such a case is disastrous.)

Teachers are much the same if their child is in their classroom, in their school, or on an athletic team they coach, etc...  The teacher and the child can do nothing right.  Any success the kid has will be attributed to teacher or coach favoritism.  The response to any problem the kids has will be attributed to favoritism as well.

My third proposed amendment to the nepotism law is to make it a policy violation for a teacher to teach any family member and for a coach to coach any family member.  There would need to be some exceptions to such a policy for smaller schools and schools where only one teacher teaches a given grade level or subject.

I struggle with an additional proposal regarding superintendents’ children in a school system.  As long as superintendents are required to live in the system where they superintend their children will attend school in the system.  Just like teaching or coaching a board member’s child, superintendents are swayed by the stories their kids come home and tell, and professional staff are influenced by the awareness that they are teaching or coaching the boss’s kids.  I see no good way around this as long as it remains OK for superintendents to be married and have children and that they are required to reside within the boundaries of the system.  I would strongly recommend that any superintendent with children in the system bend over backwards to ensure that there is no favoritism reaping rewards or sanctions for their kids.  Hard to do, but professional.

If we are to be a professional learning organization then we should practice such professionalism.  Our decisions must be based on the law, on best professional practice and on research.  They should not be based on who one knows or to whom one is related.  That sort of old time paternalistic approach to public education needs to be eliminated.  To do so will result in weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for those who are connected to public education to provide additional perks and protection for family members.  If so, the amendments to nepotism policies are even more needed.

Imagine a school system that is in fact a learning organization where decisions are made based on best practice and research, not on whom you know or who you are.  Sounds good to me!

The Scottish Vote

55% of the voters in Scotland cast their votes to remain part of the United Kingdom.  Wow.  I am both very surprised and very pleased.  Had I wagered on the election outcome I would have lost.  The CNN sub-headline this morning says, “Scotland rejects independence.”  I do not see it that way.  I see it as Scotland rejects secession.

It appears to me we live in an age of secession.  Unhappy in your marriage?  Secede.  Unhappy with your church?  Secede.  Unhappy with your government’s policies?  Secede.  Unhappy with the ethnicity of those in leadership positions?  Secede.  And has there ever been a teenager frustrated by parental oversight who has not contemplated running away from home?  Secede.

The American Civil War was a classic example of this approach.  The “South” left the union.  The “North” fought to get them back.  We usually do not think about the fact that there were many in the North who supported the South and many in the South who supported the North.  It was not a universal split, it was a majority split led by those with power in the South, and it was mainly done for both economic and cultural reasons.  The South lost and technically became a defeated nation that waged war on the United States of America, and the idea that one or more of the “united” states may withdraw from the union was put to rest.  Well, put to rest everywhere but Texas, but that is another story.

I remember the battle over the City of Stafford and the Stafford Municipal School District.  In 1977 the City of Stafford was booming as Houston expanded.  Stafford was a small part of the Fort Bend Independent School District, a district that was at that time mostly rural.  Stafford knew that their property values were higher than Fort Bend and that they would be better off if they could secede and spend their wealth on themselves rather than share it with the rest of Fort Bend.  A lengthy court battle ensued and Stafford eventually won the right to secede becoming the only school district in Texas that is governed by a city council rather than a school board of trustees.  Sadly, Fort Bend boomed and the values in Fort Bend are now well beyond those of Stafford.  Stafford cannot grow.  The short sightedness of the folks in Stafford continues to hurt them.  But, as is typical, if I think I will be better off by cutting and running, I will cut and run.

The Ukrainian conflict seems to me to be a secessionist story.  The conflict between branches of Islam in the Middle East appears to me to be a secessionist story, and ISIS clearly wants to rule the world with their own brand of faith.  In the Presbyterian Church where I grew up a secessionist movement is underway to split off churches that do not support the notion of allowing gay pastors.  In my church there has been a successful secessionist movement to split the worship service into two services, one following traditional Methodist liturgy, hymns, anthems, etc. and the other very informal celebrating what I call radio music led by guitar strumming and drum beating lay people.  The two groups rarely interact.  The early service, or “contemporary” service, has their own sanctuary and are gone by the time the rest of us arrive for church.  In fact we live in a day where non-denominational churches are the big deal.  Seems to me that folks want to be believers, but do not want to follow commonly accepted liturgy and ground rules.  So we have these islands of independent mega churches all over the place and it is virtually impossible to find in writing what they really believe.

(As an aside, what I observe occurring politically across the globe based on ethnicity, belief systems, and cultural variables is the opposite of what I see occurring economically across the globe.  We live in the age of globalization and merger.  Large economic concerns are more interested in becoming larger than they are splitting up into smaller and smaller operations.  Wonder why?)

On and on it goes. Seceding is easier than staying and working things out.  It comes as no surprise to me that folks want to secede.  Earlier in human history if a group disagreed with or did not relate to the ruling group they could and would pack up and go elsewhere and start over.  Believe Jesus visited the western hemisphere and that polygamy is OK?  Pack up and head west.  Now we have nowhere else to go. 

This nation was founded by folks who disagreed with what was going on in Europe.  They were the minority.  They were the economic, political and philosophical losers so they seceded to the “New World” to form a new nation under a federalized government.  Funny to me that there remain folks who oppose the concept of a federal government and I wonder if they understand our history and the Civil War. 

But Scotland voted to stay in the United Kingdom!  Wow.  I wish Russia would get out of the business of encouraging secession in the Ukraine.  I wish radical Muslims would stop insisting that the world operate the way they want it to operate.  I wish those that oppose current US policy would stop threatening to shut down our government to have their way.  I wish the divorce rate were lower.  I wish folks would learn to work within a diverse system to ensure that their wants, wishes, needs and beliefs were met, rather than symbolically packing up and running away from home.

(The only thing worse than secession, from my point of view, is banishment wherein someone working within a system to create change is kicked-out of the system for thinking differently than the ruling majority.  That kind of thinking to me is worse than secession and simply contributes to more secession later on and represents the anti-thesis of a democratic belief system.)

On the other hand, we did say that, “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”  We would not exist as a nation without secession. 

But we seceded from a dictatorship, not a democracy.  Those who so insist on having their own way that they would support secession from a democracy are working on intellectual premises I cannot support. 

Way to go Scotland!