Weekly Message
May 13, 2019
"Do Good Anyway"
When my son was a baby, I remember being afraid to really pick him up too much, lest I drop him or move him the wrong way or whatever. But my wife, his mother, would whip around the house with him in her arms while doing ten other tasks at the same time. Amazing. A few months in, I had him all to myself for an entire Saturday, and I recall being kind of excited that I was going to watch football and have a few “refreshments” with my son. The day was going great until he nearly fell off the couch, scaring me into not wanting to move him anymore. I didn’t tell my wife until the kid was like 5 years old.
This weekend, we celebrated Mother’s Day, the day we formally celebrate the people we should be celebrating all year long. Rudyard Kipling said, “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” He wasn’t wrong. As a school administrator for nearly 20 years, I have had a pretty good seat from which to see how much mothers love their children. There’s not much a mom won’t do to protect her kids. Not to be too philosophical, and we dads love our kids too, but I’m willing to admit that a mother’s love may very well be the highest evolution of the emotion. Moms often bear the brunt of their children’s faults, failures and frustrations. Most moms are the very definition of unconditional love.
Though perhaps not a biological mother, one of the all-time great mother figures has to be Mother Teresa. She summed up the attitude of most mothers everywhere when she said, “The good you do today will likely be forgotten. Do good anyway.” That statement applies perfectly to us as we go about our daily business at AMS. No matter how challenging the end of a school year can be, like moms (and plenty of dads, too) everywhere, we have to stand in the void and continue to do things the right way. Will anyone thank us for it? Probably not. But we need to “do good anyway.”
As good a school as we are, we still have our share of people within and outside our walls who want to criticize all our efforts. It is frustrating at times, because anyone can be a complainer. It takes absolutely no talent, no heart, to identify problems and spread negativity. But it takes something special to think positive and remain student-centered. That’s what the very best educators have always done and always will do. And that's what nearly every one of you does every single day - whether you get thanked for it or not.
So as we begin this new week, with so many challenges before us, I urge you to recognize the good in your world, in school and out. Treat others, especially students and each other, the way you would want to be treated. Not because we get a whole lot of thanks or acclaim, but because it's the right thing to do, let's treat everyone the way most mothers treat their children.
The Week Ahead
7:50 - Science, Technology and Engineering MCAS (Please see below for details)
Tuesday
7:50 - Science, Technology and Engineering MCAS
2:30 - Faculty Meeting (Library Media Center)
Friday and Saturday
7:00 - The Lion King, Jr.
End of Day Procedures
Please take a few minutes Monday morning to talk with your homeroom students about the end of the day, letting them know that they will not be allowed to leave until their bus is called and that you will are going to insist on them listening (or at least allowing others to) to the announcements.
Thank you for your help on this. I do realize we in the office own some of this problem, too, for being too lenient on some kids. Bottom line, though, we all need to work together to fix it.