E39-End of Year, Abe Lincoln, Obama and More
NewTech High Blogpost
Tuesday, June 1
“The legitimate object of government,” he wrote, “is to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they can not, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, by themselves.” Abraham Lincoln
Wednesday's Podcast
Tomorrow's Podcast: Steven Rippe, Executive Director, EdVisions, 1pm on the Zoom Link
The End of Another School Year
I am looking out over a beautiful playful morning and early afternoon here in rural Pope County. I am catching up with some things as most of you end the school year. It has been a fantastic year for so many things, as well as a frustrating, discouraging year on other fronts. It is the yin and yang of life that we always have to navigate as a human being. As I get longer in the tooth, I think we can start to appreciate things even more as you embrace the idea that life on earth is not eternal and watching that sand in the hour glass continues to accumulate towards the bottom. This idea is also an inspiration that the time to "get on it" is now or soon. One of those things that really stepped up to me this year is all the people over 60, 70...even 100 years or more that are still producing great ideas and work, even as much of that work is unpaid. Thank you for all of your contributions this year to education and NewTech High.
What a ride every year is! As I look back on the stack of years that have built up, you can seem to remember the significance and uniqueness of each of those years. Sometimes those memories are more personal with respect to your family, and others have increased value because of professional things that occur.
For instance, I think back to beginning my Masters program in the winter of 1997. My Superintendent, Art Conklin, asked me earlier that year if I'd considered becoming a Principal. I was a bit shocked as I had never thought of it...which is surprising to me now. Like the quote above, Art's leadership brought me to a place that I never would have considered by myself. My life changed because of my intersection with him. Lincoln's quote about government can be done with equivalence--just replace the word government with leadership--leading someone to a place they wouldn't otherwise go. Art is no longer with us, but I will never forget his influence and leadership on me. He was the first administrator that treated me like I had arrived as an educator. He got me reading Education Leadership. He asked me to serve on committees. He gave me legitimate responsibilities educationally. He looked at me favorably as a coach that could lead adults as well as students, even before I could see that in myself.
I think it is important for all of us to reflect back about the value of each of our years, including this one. As you do that, also consider the broader framework of the body of your work in this profession. Finally, look forward towards what your goals are for the future. What is in your action plan for today, the next month, the next year and then beyond that? It is a bit difficult for us to advocate for our own success as leaders, because it can appear selfish to some. I feel it is important to have some level of positive selfishness towards success. Your drive to be "successful" has merits to your organization, your leaders, teachers and students. If done very well, you can trace this work to having merits to your communities and even larger entities. Congratulation to all of you for making a difference this year!
Obama Essay on Abraham Lincoln
I just opened this article today with President Obama's narrative about the impact of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was such an innovator and builder of our country. I wonder what he would think about it today? I am a big fan of both of these two leaders. I would count both of them in my top 5!
Obama discusses many things that I really didn't know before, but extremely relevant to our current focus on education. Lincoln was the architect of the land grant universities, the Homestead Act, the transcontinental railroad system, and setting up a National Academy of Sciences. You can feel Obama's affection for Lincoln in this article. It's not extraordinarily long, so would recommend it. Did you know the Gettysburg Address was only 272 words?
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863
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