Each day, I am reminded of how many things the district does—due to a host of factors including laws and regulations—that have little to do with directly educating students. These include dealing with unfunded mandates, meeting regulations enacted to deal with issues that our small district has never had, adapting to changes in funding, dealing with security issues, facilities use, standardized testing and a whole host of other issues that are certainly important but aren’t necessarily seen or felt in the classroom. They all require time, resources, and expertise that some people believe are not needed to operate a district or are too far removed from the classroom to be essential, yet without which we couldn’t support the education of children.
I sometimes wonder if the abundance of these non-teaching items is why we burn out educators at such a rapid rate, as so many idealistic young people start off as teachers but leave within the first 3 to 5 years. Are these ‘requirements’ for public education the result of the so called “one percent” thinking they know more than most educators about education and lavishly spending money to impose their thoughts and beliefs on everyone else? Thankfully, for many educators, there are still those moments when one recognizes that the quest to educate our children is vital and our students demonstrate just why we chose this field in the first place. The further away from the classroom one gets, the less frequently you get to experience these moments and the less you deal with students minute-by-minute throughout the day: perhaps why the smart teachers remain as teachers rather than becoming administrators.
I was recently reminded of our success at Gateway when asked to complete a college recommendation for one of our seniors. As I reviewed this student’s recent history, academic performance, and plans for college, I was reminded of just how successful our graduates have been at getting into trade schools, 2-year colleges, and 4-year colleges and universities. Anyone who reviews the list of schools that our graduates get accepted to, attend, and graduate from would have to admit that we do very well for such a small public school.
This is only part of the story. The rest of the story is what our graduates do and the success they enjoy in the military, in post-graduate education, and in the day-to-day lives they live. I’m reminded of these successes whenever I get the chance to talk to our graduates or their parents, see our graduates operating local businesses, filling elected or appointed positions in government, or reading about them and their successes throughout the world. From graduates who are parents and working diligently to raise their children in an ever more complex world, to graduates serving our country in multiple roles, to graduates in the workforce, to recent graduates attending college, and to slightly older graduates earning their Masters or Doctoral degrees, our students all have the common thread of success running through their lives.
Such impact on the world is, never was, and most likely never will be, measured by any standardized test. The successes of our students cannot, and should not, be simply measured by student grades, participation in activities, the families they come from, or their religion, national origin, sex or any other of the simple checkboxes that the world uses to categorize people. Rather, they are measured by the daily impact each has on others, the way they use all of their skills, abilities, and knowledge to live each day, face each challenge, and succeed because they persevere despite any obstacles they encounter. Seeing our students learn to grow into confident and capable adults is hard to measure but is perhaps the most important thing we can strive for as a school—and one which keeps many people trying their best as educators every day.
