By David Webster
KSBA President
There is a TV commercial about Stouffer’s lasagna, where a football coach says he “hungers to coach athletes into men.” That commercial got me thinking about our students in our school districts.
“It takes a village to raise a child,” is a saying that is so appropriate for our public schools of the past, present and future. I don’t know how much you have thought about the time that a child spends in your schools. They enter your schools basically still a baby and leave an adult. They spend an average of 1,242 hours a year in your buildings. That is 16,146 hours if they continue their education in your district. To carry that out further, if an average child sleeps eight hours a night and is awake for the rest of the time during a seven-day week for 13 years, that amounts to 75,712 hours of awake time. So, you can see that you have these children in your care for 21.33 percent of those 13 years. That is a lot of time!
Their parents have entrusted these precious gifts to us to provide an education. But you provide much more than that. From day one, tears are shed by both parents and child as they start their journey with you. You provide a comfortable building for them to learn in. Loving and caring teachers to nurture them along. Food to nourish their bodies, which they may or may not be getting at home. Smiles and hugs to encourage them along. Guidance, not only in their education, but in life issues and troubles that they may be facing. Preparation in their journey to be ready for life after graduation.
If this is not a village, then nothing is.
Our district staff, a group of people who are special for their unity and self-sacrifice, devote themselves to the well-being and education of all students in their care. This means that a child does not just grow up within a home where there may be a single parent or a combination of parents, but will grow up in a community of open arms and smiles, in a social world with input and understanding from loving and caring principals, teachers, guidance counselors, cafeteria workers, bus drivers and other staff. Regardless of the child’s upbringing, background, ethnicity, or physical and emotional challenges, the child belongs to and is shaped by the school community, the “village.”
Children are influenced by their environment, the neighborhood they live in, and the people they associate with: Parents and siblings aren’t the only people in their life, so they’re not the only ones who have influence on them. As the percentage above shows, our public schools are a major part of the lives of children. It is our responsibility as school board members to make a positive influence by providing adequate funding and for all the services needed for each of these little ones. As they mature and grow into young adults, you’ll soon have the opportunity – and privilege – of handing each of them a diploma. That is when you will see the fruits of the marvelous work of everyone in the school village. Just as the coach said that he hungers to coach athletes to men, we should hunger to help our teachers and staff take our students from children to young adults.
“ASPIRE TO INSPIRE BEFORE YOU EXPIRE”