February 2009
C.A.R.(2)E.S. NEWSLETTER
(Creating A Respectful and Responsive Educational System)
Dr. Duane Hodgin, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Support Services
Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township
"National School District of Character"
February 2, 2009
(No. 6)
(Creating A Respectful and Responsive Educational System)
Dr. Duane Hodgin, Assistant Superintendent for Educational Support Services
Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township
"National School District of Character"
February 2, 2009
(No. 6)
“Expressing appreciation to others can make someone’s day—even change a life.
Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
--Margaret Cousins
Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.”
--Margaret Cousins
SMILE AWAY!
The thing that goes the farthest towards making life worthwhile,
That costs the least and does the most—is just a pleasant smile.
The smile that bubbles from the heart, that loves a fellow man,
Will drive away the clouds of gloom and coax the sun again.
It’s full of worth and goodness too, with mainly kindness blent;
It’s worth a million dollars and doesn’t cost a cent!
-- Anonymous
(Do you make an effort to smile at your students and colleagues you encounter each day?)
SUCCESS
The truth is, a lot of people are just plain confused about what success really is and how you achieve it. While we have tried to find success in things, we ultimately discover that success cannot be measured by things at all. Success, my friends, can only be measured in our relationships with others. What kind of relationship do you have with your parents? How about the relationship you have with your children? Can you tell me you are building healthy and positive relationships with others on a daily basis in your life?
When you are about to take your final breath on this earth, I cannot imagine you will want to be surrounded by all of your toys. We will want to be surrounded by all those that love us as we have loved them. This is true success. Striving to find success in anything else is as false and temporary as a mirage.
-- Bob Prentice
The thing that goes the farthest towards making life worthwhile,
That costs the least and does the most—is just a pleasant smile.
The smile that bubbles from the heart, that loves a fellow man,
Will drive away the clouds of gloom and coax the sun again.
It’s full of worth and goodness too, with mainly kindness blent;
It’s worth a million dollars and doesn’t cost a cent!
-- Anonymous
(Do you make an effort to smile at your students and colleagues you encounter each day?)
SUCCESS
The truth is, a lot of people are just plain confused about what success really is and how you achieve it. While we have tried to find success in things, we ultimately discover that success cannot be measured by things at all. Success, my friends, can only be measured in our relationships with others. What kind of relationship do you have with your parents? How about the relationship you have with your children? Can you tell me you are building healthy and positive relationships with others on a daily basis in your life?
When you are about to take your final breath on this earth, I cannot imagine you will want to be surrounded by all of your toys. We will want to be surrounded by all those that love us as we have loved them. This is true success. Striving to find success in anything else is as false and temporary as a mirage.
-- Bob Prentice
“The reward of a job well done is to have done it.” -- Emerson
BURDEN OF MY OWN
A Monarch of long ago had twin sons. As they grew to young manhood, the king sought a fair way to designate one of them as crown prince. All who knew the young men thought them equal in intelligence, wit, personal charm, health and physical strength. Being a keenly observant king, he thought he detected a trait in one which was not shared by the other.
Calling them to his council chamber one day, he said, “My sons, the day will come when one of you must succeed me as king. The weight of sovereignty is very heavy. To find out which of you is better able to bear them cheerfully, I am sending you together to a far corner of the kingdom. One of my advisors there will place equal burdens on your shoulders. My crown will one day go to the one who first returns bearing his yoke like a king should.”
In a spirit of friendly competition, the brothers set out together. Soon they overtook an aged woman struggling under a burden that seemed far too heavy for her frail body. One of the boys suggested that they stop to help her. The other protested: “We have a saddle of our own to worry about. Let us be on our way.”
The objector hurried on while the other stayed behind to give aid to the aged woman. Along the road, from day to day, he found others who also needed help. A blind man took him miles out of his way, and a lame man slowed him to a cripple’s walk.
Eventually he did reach his father’s advisor, where he secured his own yoke and started home with it safely on his shoulders. When he arrived at the palace, his brother met him at the gate, and greeted him with dismay. He said, “I don’t understand. I told our father the weight was too heavy to carry. However did you do it?
The future king replied thoughtfully, “I realized that when I helped others carry their yoke, I found the strength to carry my own.”
-- Anonymous
AS WE GROW UP, WE LEARN THAT…
Even the one person that wasn’t supposed to ever let you down probably will.
You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it’s harder every time.
You’ll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.
You will do and say things you regret.
You’ll fight with your best friend.
You will experience pain and suffering at some time in your life.
You’ll cry because time is passing too fast, and you’ll eventually lose someone you love.
-- Anonymous
So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you’ve never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back! Don’t be afraid that your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin.
THE SEARCH FOR MEANING IN LIFE
Imagine what it must be like to be shipped like cargo along with your whole family to a place, the only purpose of which is to keep people like cattle. This was the common experience of people referred to as “holocaust survivors.”
One survivor was Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who emerged from the experience with extraordinary insights valuable to all of us. In Man’s Search for Meaning he says, “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked throughout the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“Every prisoner had a moral choice to make,” he says, “to surrender one’s inner self to the Nazis, or to find the meaning in one’s life that would give one the strength to go on.” The lessons we can learn are that no matter how bad our troubles are, we can survive them if we choose to survive…to find meaning in every moment of existence, every memory and every possibility for our future.
-- Michael Josephson
(If you have not read this short book, I encourage you to read it. I imagine that high school students read it in literature class.)
DYING FROM THE COLD WITHIN
Six humans trapped by happenstance,
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes;
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and though
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fir passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group.
Did naught, except for gain
Giving only to those who gave,
Was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without.
They died from the cold within.
-- James Patrick
FTTLA (Funny Things to Laugh About)
The following are true excerpts from U.S. Military Manuals and comments from pilots:
“If the enemy is in range, so are you!” – Infantry Journal
“Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we’ve never left one up there!” (Pilot)
“What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; if ATC screws up…the pilot dies.” – Air Traffic Controller
“When one engine falls off a twin-engine commercial airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.” – Commercial Airline Pilot
“The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in aviation are… ‘Why is it doing that?’, ‘Where are we?’ and ‘Oh, S…’ ”
“Though I fly through the Valley of Death, I shall Fear No Evil, for I am at 80,000 feet and climbing!”
“Friendly fire – isn’t.”
“As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives, the rescuer sees a bloodied pilot and asks ‘What happened?’ The pilot’s reply...”I don’t know, I just got here myself!” – Attributed to Ray Crandell (Lockheed test pilot)
“If you see a bomb technician running, follow him.” - USAF Ammo Troop
“You’ve never been lost until you’ve been lost at Mach 3.” – Paul F. Crickmore (test pilot)
“It is generally inadvisable for fighter pilots to eject directly over the area you just bombed.” – U.S. Air Force Manual
“We have committed the Golden Rule to memory; let us now commit it to life.” -- Anonymous