We Care (08-18-08)

Once again it is time to think about themes. Mottos. Slogans. Those “buzz words” that stick in your head and remind us all on what is most important about a product, place, or person.

Last year, I chose two themes. For the grade school, our motto was “Oh! The Places We Will Go!” to emphasize the idea that YES we would go places, and that YES, those places would be pretty spectacular. For the middle school I came up the simple (if not slightly goofy) “School is Cool.” I even had neat t-shirts printed emphasizing the “I” in “is” to remind each person wearing a shirt to remember that “I am in the middle of school. I am central to making school work.”

This year I have decided to let a single mantra guide our actions and to inspire our school family: “We Care.” Only two words, yet a mountain of meaning.

In my perspective, caring and education go hand in hand. I would go as far as say that you can’t achieve any substantial education without caring. This idea was validated at the conscious discipline workshop I attended recently. The research presented suggested that children need to feel safe and loved in order to access the reasoning centers of the brain. If they don’t believe that “we care” then it is a much harder struggle to help them to learn.

More than the idea of caring, however, I want to stress the word “We.” This slogan is not “I care,” or “you care,” or even “he, she, it cares.” I purposely chose the idea of “we” to include everyone who is in anyway involved with the school.

Starting at the top, Mr. Hickel cares. He cares that our facilities are the best they can be, our staff is as ready as they can be, and our board is as informed as they can be. Our board cares that our district and our schools are the very best places to learn as they can make them to be.

I care. Mr. Stein cares. We care that the staff feel supported and the students feel safe and loved. We care that parents feel included and that our support staff feel appreciated and involved.

Our faculty cares. They care about each and every student reaching their maximum individual potential, and they care about their classes and their teams coming together and learning cooperation, communication, and the benefits of working together.

Finally, I challenge our students to care. By and large, I think most students do care very much about their schools. They want them to be clean, friendly, and safe places to learn. They want their teachers to feel happy and appreciated. They want their classmates to feel that they have friends who support them, teammates who care.

But it is my challenge to everyone to always remember that the number reason we are in education is because we care! When a student or staff member does or says something that is unkind or negative, I will ask that person if the actions were acts of caring. I will challenge them to care not just about others, but to care enough about themselves to be the best they can be. We all make mistakes, but if we truly care, we can learn from our mistakes and do better next time. If we really care, than we can take the time to show we care in our actions, attitudes, and opinions.

I could go on and on. Basically, the motto of “we care” is as simple as it is complex, as personal as it is all encompassing. It is a challenge and a statement of identity. I believe that we already do care, most of the time. The trick will be to learn to care when its hard to care. A school year is filled with tension and conflict, and everyone will have plenty of opportunity to put into practice this simple premise: We care.