Educators! How bad do you want it?

As we work toward our goal of preparing our students for success in school, and most importantly in life, it has become imperative that we continue to grow intellectually. It is my belief that this goal is best accomplished when we combine our intelligences and share our professional experiences with educators that have similar missions to ours. This will become even more important as we continue to be faced with the fact that more pressure has been put on us to produce results than ever before in the history of public education.

As educators we are now being asked to do more with less and yet many of us work hard to maintain the same level of energy and enthusiasm for the profession that we had when we first
began this journey. Most recently, after reflecting with a non-educator about the high level of unfunded mandates educators are asked to adhere to on a daily basis, I was asked, “how do you
remain excited about the work that you do?” My response was and still is, I remain motivated by focusing on the lasting impact my work (and essentially your work) has on the lives of precious
children.

They are counting on us to fight the good fight on their behalf so we can’t get tired, we can’t give up. We can’t quit. To further elaborate on my point, I can’t help but to reflect on the recent accident that Kevin Ware experienced during the final minutes, of the first half of the NCAA basketball tournament. Without recalling the painful details, I have found myself amazed by what he shared with his teammates while in a great deal of pain.

It is my understanding that it is during the moment that his injury was so intense that people could not even bear to see it, that he called his team over and said….”win the game…win the game.” All in all, I guess what I am suggesting is that this work that we are committed to doing on behalf of children is not and will not ever be easy.

At times our tasks may even seem too difficult to accomplish. However, as school leaders and teachers, we have to dig deep and stay focused.