What We Value

Show me where you spend your time, money, and energy, and I’ll tell you what you worship. —John Wimber

I heard this quote years ago, and it always stuck with me; yesterday it resonated in a very different way.

Consider this scenario: the football team at your high school makes it to the state finals. You and your teacher friends show up to cheer the team on. Along with kids and parents and other fans, who else is there? Likely the superintendent and district athletic director. Maybe other members of the superintendency. Maybe even school board members. For SURE the school principal and assistant principals.

State finals are a BIG DEAL! If the team wins, they end the season the best of the best. Banners go up (usually in the gym) recognizing this achievement for decades to come. It’s on the news. There will probably be a pep assembly recognizing the team, the coaches, and all who helped achieve this goal.

And I LOVE this. Winning a state championship (heck, just getting there) is the evidence of masssive time and energy put toward a goal by kids, coaches, and even parents.

NOTE: Although I am fairly certain what I am about to share is generalizable to many school districts, what I am sharing is specifically about Tempe Union High School District: the district I just retired from, and the district where my daughter is a senior in high school. Am I calling them out? Absolutely. I expected better from a district whose mission is “Excellence in Teaching and Learning.”

If you’ve never heard of We the People, check it out. Run by the Center for Civic Education, it sponsors a national competition for high school students (usually seniors) based on the Constitution. Kids compete in teams based on six units:

In many cases it is a team students try out for that is also a credit-bearing government/social studies class. Many of these students also go on to take the AP US Government exam.

I mentored a unit when I was a teacher in my previous district, so when my daughter decided to try out at the end of her junior year, I was thrilled (and a little skeptical that she would make it–bad mom). The school she goes to has become a known state contender over the last 10 years (also known state contenders are their boy’s basketball, baseball, and soccer, along with girl’s volleyball).

Long story short, yesterday my daughter’s team competed in the state competition, came in 2nd (by 3 points), and received a wild card bid to nationals in Washington DC (check out this video of kids competing at nationals).

I saw her unit compete yesterday afternoon. As always, watching these kiddos do their thing was inspiring. I posted on FB yesterday afternoon a sentiment I have posted before: if these kids are our future leaders, we have nothing to worry about. In the room were the judges, her 5 member team, the other 25 kids who are on different units, parents, and the teachers who have either taught the class or closely mentored the teams.

Do you know who wasn’t there? A superintendent (not the main guy, the associate, or even the assistant of teaching and learning). The principal wasn’t there either (although my daughter told me he was there earlier in the day–he was there for the first quarter). 

So if where we spend our time, money, and energy tells us what we value, that message was crystal clear.

This team is going to be competing nationally. Over winter break they literally were doing two-a-days, 4 or 5 hours prepping. One day I walked by her bathroom and my daughter was listening to a podcast about Alexander Hamilton while she was in the shower (it had nothing to do with the musical). They are also going to miss their senior prom because it is the weekend they will be in DC.

It is a class, so technically the teacher gets paid to coach, but there is no stipend for the 3 other teachers (assistant coaches) who have spent hours of their own time prepping the academic athletes.

We are going to have to pitch in a chunk of change before the DC trip as well–when athletic teams travel this is not the case. Granted, they typically travel by bus and don’t stay overnight, but the district doesn’t charge the athletes to get bused to to a neighboring school, district, or even Yuma. Hey dudes, the state championships are in Tucson, so we need $25 apiece to pay for transportation.

My husband and I are thrilled to pay for our daughter to have this once in a lifetime experience. But if where the district spends its time, money, and energy shows what it worships, then I suggest it should change its mission statement to “Excellence in Football and Soccer.”

BTW, if you want to see the feedback my daughter’s team got after their first question, check this out. Definitely a proud mom who has much hope for our future. As a mom and teacher, this makes me cry.