Bird Droppings May 7, 2012

If you fall down then stand up!

 

It is was nearing spring break just a few weeks ago and many students simply quit trying, saying such things as they walked around school such as I am passing I do not need to try any more. It really got me thinking about what incentives for passing are built into an educational setting or what incentives for attendance are there. Sadly it has become about incentives more than desire and somewhere that little desire to finish crossing the line and try and succeed has diminished. What is in it for me seems to be the rallying call. Over the past months several times I have been in discussions on capitalism pros and cons and even brought up the issue of ethical capitalism only to be snickered at as why would we have that from some of the more focused on the end result young folks. As for I am passing I have explained to students till blue in the face we have End of Course Tests that count twenty percent of your grade and if you have a seventy percent now and fail that test well nothing we can do you fail period. I wish there were an antidote for senioritis and spring fever.

 

“When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

“Consider the postage stamp:  its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.”  Josh Billings

 

Some mornings when I get the chance I will get a red link biscuit, a unique breakfast treat in the south. About once a year I will get one if that I tell my wife. Imagine a fat hotdog that is bright red and spicy hot. Probably the ingredient label has unsure as an ingredient and red dye every number that is bad for you alongside that. Sadly they are pretty good. I got into a discussion on red links last Friday with several students who were arguing their value as crucial aspect of a southern cuisine. Like so many discussions it was open ended and circular going pretty much nowhere but in fun. Sort of like my own rationale on Redneck should be on forms when identifying ethnic groups.  

On another note another teacher and myself have been trying to get a young fellow through this year he has decided three weeks ago what the heck and literally stopped coming to school showing up enough to avoid truancy issues. He has six days of in school suspension to serve with only a few weeks till summer break and now is failing every class instead of just passing. What concerns me is he is not alone, others choose to quit just before the end and many times are not losing but just stop. When you call home flu, helping with sick family members, no transportation, working to help support the family and many times after getting off the phone a tear will be caught in your eye as you try and understand a family that has such issues.  

 

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”  Japanese Proverb

 

“The greatest oak was once a little nut that held its ground.” Author Unknown

 

With the Kentucky Derby just a few days ago it is so easy to say keep on going you can do it. I remember back a few years ago the then three year old thoroughbred Afleet Alex during the third leg of the Triple Crown, Preakness race was tripped up by another horse and stumbled to his knees and then got up and won the race. Some folks look at that and say a fluke others see the great competitive heart of that horse. No matter how we see the history it did happen and we can argue for many years why. What should have been a disastrous loss was a great victory. My son reminds me continually of the great horse Secretariat whose oversize heart was considered to be why he was such a great race horse with records at many tracks still unbroken often coming from last place out of the gate and during the Preakness the longest of the three big races still accelerating at the end which was unheard of.

 

”If one dream should fall and break into a thousand pieces, never be afraid to pick one of those pieces up and begin again.” Flavia Weedn, Flavia and the Dream Maker

 

“He conquers who endures. “ Persist

 

”Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.” Newt Gingrich

 

“The race is not always to the swift… but to those who keep on running.” Author Unknown

 

Trying to find that spark that pushes us a bit further can be tough, what motivates a teenager? For several weeks I have been doing challenges regarding motivation and goals during advisement time. Amazing what teenagers say motivates them and why. How can we find a way to offer a chance to those who may not make it? Often when working on a difficult project I will set it aside and regroup coming back to it with a more fervent attitude and complete it. So many students just quit.

 

“You can’t go through life quitting everything.  If you’re going to achieve anything, you’ve got to stick with something.” From the television show Family Matters

 

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” Albert Einstein

 

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.” Walter Elliott, The Spiritual Life

 

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are.  I don’t believe in circumstances.  The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” G.B. Shaw, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, 1893

 

Perhaps we are born with a desire to achieve and perhaps environmental influences can affect our desire to succeed perhaps that is why incentives are needed. But what if all are removed what if there is no desire to achieve and no desire to even be successful, a difficult road is ahead and many children face this and many adults each day. For many of us it is so easy to say you can make it and then disaster strikes. It is far too easy to say anyone can do it and then sit back and watch. Occasionally we need to offer a gesture of support a word or two sometimes even a rescuing hand.

Yesterday I was involved in a conversation that reminded me of my own high school days so many years ago. I recall back a few years to a conversation with a former summer school student. She is twenty plus now and married and her husband had just shipped off to war. I spoke with a good friend who has now done two tours in the past four years and he named off nearly a dozen former graduates and current upcoming graduates who were in Iraq and or Afghanistan or going soon.

A newspaper article a few months back spoke of disproportionate number of men from Vermont who had been in war zones. Perseverance, it is so easy to stop being concerned. I thought back to that summer school student her husband was killed inIraqonly a few weeks after arriving and now a local highway is named after him. Sometimes it can be rough as we head into a political nightmare of elections this fall and the upheaval of politicians trying to win votes. I was thinking earlier about the bombings in Oklahoma so many years ago. I was mentally contrasting to the Twin Towers and how much and why we have gone to Middle East with such fervor. We spent hardly a few hundred thousand dollars on rationalizing the Oklahoma bombings and now hundreds of billions on wars in the Middle East. Perhaps there was not money to be made tracking down white revolutionaries within our own country and suppressing availability of weapons and explosives (gun control). But going overseas to an oil rich area and waging a war that makes more “sense” and will not offend the home folks. I was asked by a student how many civilians have died in Iraq and another jumps in stating not enough. I responded very quickly too many have died if one has died.

Today please keep all in harm’s way on our minds and in our hearts we need to persevere in our support for our men and women in harm’s way all over the globe, locally several serious crimes have made headlines with teenagers killing and or executing their families or friends. So much going on and it is so overwhelming.  Sitting here after a very long exciting and tiring weekend all I can say is please remember to give thanks for all you have.

namaste

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