Attitude Reflects Leadership

Dear Deep Creek School Family,

“Remember the Titans” is my favorite movie for several reasons.  Partly because I love every movie that has Denzel Washington as its star, I love sports, but mainly as a coach/teacher I love the way the team becomes unified as the players and coaches learn to depend on and trust each other. 

If you haven’t seen the movie it takes place in Virginia in the early 1970s at two separate high schools.    To start the new school year, these two high schools integrate together to create TC Williams High School and a new African American coach, Denzel Washington, is appointed as the new football coach.  The movie goes back and forth as the players, coaches, adults, and the community come to grips with integration and all the changes that await for them in the school year. 

Change is hard.  In the movies, changes happen in 1.5 or 2 hours and everything comes out great.  In real life, it takes work, struggles, setbacks, and sometimes feeling like everything is stacked up against us.  Right now, watching the teams go through their data days is painful for me;  I want to support you, cry with you (I don’t cry though), give tough love and tell you not to give up.  When I first got here year last year, Mrs. DeGroot, was going through the LESRA model and changing the way Math was taught, the reactions were the same.  Later in the year, I remember hearing many of the staff say that they have seen improvements.  I believe the same will happen with the hard work you put in on these data days.

I have never heard one person at this school say, “I don’t want Deep Creek to be a great place,” or “I do not want to help my students learn.”  I know that your days are often difficult and challenging.  I know that some of you feel “fun” has been taking out of teaching.  I know that some do not agree with common core. I see your struggles and I never want to forget what it is like in the classroom.  But, at the beginning of this school year we all sat in our cafeteria and talked about success, doing our best for our students, and having positive attitudes.  We can’t forget these things 4.5 weeks in to the year.  WE have to be unified, depend on each other, and trust each other.

Back to my movie, “Remember the Titans.”  There is a scene where the captain of the team is complaining to another player on the team about everyone giving up and having a poor attitude.  That player looks up and says, “attitude reflects leadership, captain.”  That line has stuck with my whole teaching and coaching career.  My team, my classroom, and my family reflect my leadership.  Your classroom reflects your leadership.  My role has changed, but this school reflects mine and Adrienne’s leadership.  We want to be proud of that reflection.

I know I was supposed to use my MMM week to talk about attendance and behavior, but I just wanted to let the staff know I feel your struggles, I see your obstacles, but we cannot use them as excuses.  We have to keep moving forward and accept Nothing Less Than Our Success.

James