Accountability?

 I am so appalled at our ‘Government Shutdown’.  Really?  We can just shut things down when we can’t agree with each other?  We can shut things down because we don’t like how things are going?  Now I do not know everything there is to know about politics or running a government, but I do know a little bit about working hard even when things seem impossible.   

As a school administrator I do not always agree with all the other administrators in our district and I certainly do not always agree with the state and federal mandates that we have to comply with, however, I am accountable to 520 souls, that we call students, and whether I agree or not with others in education I cannot just shut down my school, nor would I want to.  As a public school we face requirements that are almost impossible to attain, yet we never give up, we never shut down, we keep going, we keep trying, we keep pushing and striving for something more.   

Government officials are also accountable, they are accountable to us, the citizens of this great country that put them in office, but unlike me and many, many others, they do not have to face the people they are accountable to every day.  They do not see the people that are unable to purchase much needed medication, or put off a procedure because of the cost, or struggle just to balance everything, they do not look into the eyes of those that do not receive one dime in government assistance, but work every day in order to make ends meet.  That is the difference between them and me---I see the faces of my students daily, I know their struggles, their successes, their hurts, and their joys.  I feel the pain of students when I have to tell them they will not receive their high school diploma because they missed passing the state test by one point, a test mandated by the government.  I look into the eyes of those I am accountable for and I want to make it better for them, I want them to be successful, I want to do everything in my power to provide them the best education possible because I know that education is the key to success and that knowledge is something that no one can ever take from them.  And now, I am finding myself having to explain to my students why our government has decided to ‘shutdown’---how do you explain that?  How do I tell students that you never quit, you always keep going even when things get difficult, when our government is demonstrating the opposite of what I am saying?  I show them by not giving up on them; I show them by working hard every day, not for me, but for them.  I want every student at my school to believe that if you work hard you can do anything you want, regardless of what the world, including our own government, shows them!

 

At times I have questioned if I am doing what I was called to do, today I realized I am.  Simply talking to 3 of my students today about their future reminded me of why I do what I do.  These moments make all the long days and nights worth it.  I will never get rich as a public school administrator, but that is not the reason I chose this profession, I chose it because I wanted to make a difference and I pray that I am doing that.  I pray that I can look into the eyes of my students’ everyday and they know that the eyes looking back at them comes from someone that cares for them and about them!