Weekly Message
January 22, 2019
History's Most Famous "Adjustment to Practice"
“Mass DESE Teacher (I.B.2) and Administrator (I.C.2) Evaluation Rubric: Adjustments to practice”
George Raveling was a part-time assistant basketball coach at Villanova and blissfully unaware of the Civil Rights Movement as Martin Luther King, Jr. and his colleagues began the planning for what would become the March on Washington in 1963. The African-American Raveling had been briefly raised by various relatives in Washington D.C. before being educated at what was, in essence, a school for orphans in Pennsylvania. The stinging challenges of his life, however, were equaled by his many gifts. He was tall, athletic, smart, handsome, well-spoken and eternally optimistic. Amazingly, he never felt as though he had any disadvantages, and his talent and positive attitude led him to Villanova. There, he starred as a player, became their first African-American coach and, more importantly, met the first love of his life, the daughter of extremely kind, socially conscious educators.
While dating her, he found himself frequently mesmerized by her family’s conversations about social and political issues. One such conversation led Raveling and his girlfriend’s brother to attend the March on Washington where, fatefully, Raveling ended up in the same hotel as Dr. King. When King’s entourage saw the young, 6'6" basketball coach, they asked if he wanted to help with security the next day. And so it was that on August 28, 1963, a once orphaned boy who had grown up in poverty stood five feet away from Martin Luther King as he delivered one of the most electrifying speeches in human history – “I Have a Dream.”
At the conclusion of the speech, King and Raveling ended up shoulder to shoulder, and young George boldly asked Dr. King if he could have the manuscript of the speech he held in his hand. King gladly gave it away. When Raveling later took those pages out of his pocket and read them, to his shock, the words “I have a dream” were nowhere to be found. In fact, most of the speech had been different than what King had prepared on paper. Raveling would find out later that Martin Luther King had abandoned his original plan in mid-stream when he looked out and realized it wasn’t having the desired effect on the crowd. “I Have a Dream” then, it could be said, was born of necessity, perhaps the most famous “adjustment to practice” in history.
George Raveling still owns that March on Washington speech – many pages of well-written words that were, mostly, never spoken. It’s worth over three million dollars, but he just won’t sell it. He says he wouldn’t if it were worth a billion – and why? Because what Martin Luther King DID say that day awakened something in him that he never knew existed. It became the primary source of inspiration that set him on a course of tremendous success in coaching and beyond.
To be sure, none of us can speak like Martin Luther King. He was the best. But something we do or say can make a big difference for our students; if, that is, we care enough and have enough courage to make the adjustments to practice that our kids need us to make. We should all know our students quite well by now. If, for the benefit of the students, a change is needed – as it was on August 28, 1963 – we have to make the adjustments now. If Martin Luther King, Jr. wasn’t above changing mid-stream, certainly we’re not either.
This Week:
1. Think about what has worked and what hasn't so far this year.
2. Go heavy on what's worked (maybe that's your core strategy?), but stay open to new ideas.
3. It's January...it's cold...spring is still in the vast distance...so what! We're alive; we have an important job; we're in a good place with great kids and colleagues; Let's have an attitude that's not just positive, but boldly defies negativity.
George Raveling Standing Guard for MLK, Jr. (tall guy, bottom right, white shirt)
The Week Ahead
Tuesday
1:30 - LLT Meeting (Office Conference Room)
2:30 - Department Heads Meeting (Media Center) - Others meet in teams
6:30 - "Angst" screening and conversation for families (AHS Auditorium)
Wednesday
7:50 - 9:20 - 8th graders view "Angst." More info to come.
8:30-12:30 - Mass School Building Authority Visit to AMS (checking in on recently constructed buildings)
3:30 - Basketball vs. Webster Middle
6:30 - School Committee Meeting
Thursday
2:05 - Ski Club
Friday
3:30 - Basketball vs. Northbridge
Summary of "Angst" Group Discussions
*Consider reducing homework
*Ensure that students do not have multiple tests in the same day
*Utilizing enrichment more as an opportunity for students to decompress and work on homework / studying
*Moving enrichment to the end of the day
*Creating an advisory period where small groups of students connect with a trusted adult
*Offering more supports and positives for high achieving students
Next week, we meet in school improvement teams once again where many of these themes are likely to be revisited.