Inspire and Equip

Rosebro #1 is in high school this year. While as a parent that comes with so many emotions, as a student it comes with higher stakes for course work, harder classes, and a nagging mother that reminds him every moment that grades equate to money and that every grade matters.  It also means that he is taking math that far surpasses my math capability.  Math has always been a struggle to me. I don’t understand numbers. I fear them. When I was named the National Assistant Principal of the Year, it came with a full scholarship for my doctorate degree.  It was an amazing feeling to know that a dream that I’d had would be coming true-until they told me I had to take the GRE.  One very hot June day, I went to Greenville Tech and took the online GRE. The Verbal part took almost 2 hours. While it was hard, I felt pretty confident. I took a 20-minute break and then the nonverbal section was to begin. Towards the end of the nonverbal section, I literally started guessing. I didn’t even know where to start to answer the questions. A few weeks later, my scores came in and my verbal score was ridiculously high while my nonverbal score was ridiculously low. I was humiliated that my “full ride” scholarship was at risk because my nonverbal scores didn’t match the University’s standards of admission.  During my dissertation process, I had to rely on some far smarter than me to help with the statistics on my study. So just imagine my surprise when this weekend, Rosebro#1 asked for help with his math homework.  As I was helping him, my mind wondered back to Mrs. Mcnair my high school math teacher. I started telling him stories about Mrs. McNair and how funny she was and how she always laughed at me and my “second chance” tests. I started describing how she would bring in “stuff” like baseball trading cards to help describe ratios, she would use catalogs to teach percentages, and various other real life material. She started each class with a corny joke or math limerick. She was so kind and helpful. She always had us back at lunch time or before school for extra help. It got me thinking. I don’t remember much of what she taught me academically. Clearly she taught me some things and made me grow. She gave me confidence in my math schools. She made me love coming into her class. She made me love school. And while her math lessons probably have had an effect on me, her relationship with me has had a far greater effect. Because students will remember how you treated them for far longer than what you taught them.  I had a great mentor remind this weekend about our district’s mission of inspiring and equipping students. While I want to equip them with a high quality education, it is much more important to me that we inspire them. And that begins with the way we treat them. I would much rather a child leave here knowing how to treat others than knowing how to do math correctly…..clearly math aptitude isn’t the one thing to determine success. By the way, Rose Bro#1 now has a math tutor. He clearly didn't enjoy my math story time. #ugg #teenagers