January 30, 2009
Two Stories about What Matters
Story Number One
Last week I spent quite a bit of time visiting the classrooms of some of our new teachers. I had the great privilege of spending an hour in Ms. Alison Bolos’ second grade classroom at Walter Hays Elementary School. On the particular day that I visited, the students were hard at work learning some of the common elements of a fairytale and then writing their own. The class and its activities were so inspiring that I wrote my own fairytale and sent it to Ms. Bolos. There were many better tales from the eight-year-olds, but here’s mine . . .
Once upon a time there was a superintendent who spent way too much time in his office. It was so long since he had been in a classroom that he forgot what he was doing. He spent all his time worrying about budgets, construction, problems at the state level, and other things that were only somewhat related to children and their learning. He was sad and grumpy and had fanny fatigue from sitting at his computer all day long.
Then one day he decided that all of the folks in his Administrative Cabinet should go out and spend time in the classroom! “What a great idea!” everyone said. They would visit all the new teachers and see all of the learning taking place in the classrooms. The students’ energy would be contagious and raise everybody’s spirits. They would be totally inspired and happy and have real meaning in their work.
And you know what, it worked! The superintendent became happy; he was nicer to his own children and to the other people in his office; and, most importantly, he lived happily ever after!
The End
Story Number Two
The week after winter break I received an email from Ms. Harper-Metoyer, a long-time kindergarten teacher at Palo Verde Elementary School. She was doing what PAUSD employees often do – bragging about the work of a colleague. In this case the colleague was Alberto Duenas, a District Maintenance Tradesperson.
About twenty-five years ago, a Palo Verde parent built a “mail truck” for the kindergarten students at Palo Verde. A five-year-old fits perfectly into the vehicle. One can only imagine how many miles this truck has logged over the years, the imaginary deliveries it has made on its route and the joy and laughter it has evoked from hundreds of youngsters.
When Mr. Duenas picked up the truck, its age was showing. The paint was faded, the bumpers were in bad shape and it needed a general tune-up. Mr. Duenas lovingly took on this project. He studied the exact white of the U.S. Postal Service truck. He replicated the details; like the eagle featured on all postal trucks. He added a beautiful “Palo Verde” license plate and a new speedometer. The bumpers were repaired.
The picture below of the “new” truck, with Mr. Duenas and the students in Ms. Harper-Metoyer’s class.
 I imagine that Mr. Duenas has accomplished a lot of things in his seven years with the District, working as a bus driver in Transportation Services, in Food Services and now as a Maintenance Tradesperson. The scale of his work in those areas may seem much greater than this one vehicle, but I am not sure he has done anything that has brought more joy to a group of kids. His work on the mail truck said to the students in
Ms. Harper-Metoyer’s classroom that their experience in kindergarten is the center of our enterprise.
We are at our best as educators when we make what goes on in the classroom the focus of our attention. There will always be things like boundaries, building programs and budgets that will consume our time. These issues will seem urgent and, like an overzealous litter of puppies, compete for our attention against what can seem to be mundane activities, such as helping children perfectly pronounce the “s” sound or learning the quadratic formula. In the end, it is the accumulation of these small things that changes the trajectory of our students’ lives.
Sincerely,
Kevin
Kevin Skelly, Ph.D.
Superintendent
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