Cullison Speech
I would like to begin by thanking the Maryland Student Service Alliance for my selection as winner for the Principal Service-Learning Leadership Recognition Award. I am honored and humbled to be standing here before you today. Honored because of the recognition that my school has worked so hard to achieve. Humbled because as I look around this room, I see many who have done so much to further the cause of student service-learning in our state.
Many years ago I had a college professor, rest his soul, who offered the following advice. He said, "Never assume you are the smartest, or most capable person in the room." I have followed that advice, even to the point, when pondering tough issues, of questioning whether I'm the smartest, or most capable person in the room when I'm the only one in the room!
Leadership is a tough thing - an almost impossible thing without willing and committed followers. I've been blessed with a staff and faculty that come to work almost every day with our students' best interests at heart.
One of the things that I've learned about leadership is that sometimes it is best to just get out of the way and let good things happen. Working with dedicated and committed staff makes it easy to lend support, and I'd like to thank Elissa Streaker, Gateway School's service learning coordinator, for her tireless efforts in seeing that our staff has the appropriate training and vision to provide quality service-learning opportunities for our students. I'd also like to thank Carroll County's Service-Learning Coordinator, Estelle Sanzenbacher, for her financial support and enthusiasm, and for nominating me for this honor. And finally, I'd like to thank the staff and students at Gateway School for their efforts in student service-learning. Now, before this starts to sound like an academy awards presentation, where I begin thanking my producer, and director, and every other significant but unknown person I can think of, I'd like to say a few words about the importance of service-learning and its implications at Gateway School.
In this era of school reform, with great emphasis being placed on academic rigor, particularly in the areas of science and mathematics, programs like service-learning often take the back seat. We question whether we can afford to spend the time or money necessary to support service learning. Theodore Roosevelt once said, " To educate a person in mind and not morals is to educate a menace to society."
I work at Gateway School, which is Carroll County's alternative educational school. Students in our school have exhibited difficulties in their mainstream comprehensive middle and high schools. You may know these students as " at-risk," but they have graduated beyond that title. Our entire student population is comprised of students that many of you are all too familiar with - those that single- handedly could disrupt entire classrooms or wings of your building. We have adopted a somewhat different philosophy in programming for our students' success.
At Gateway School, we believe that for our students to be successful we have to do more than academic redemption and instruction. We recently went through a sort of epiphany in which we realized that most of our students were not enrolled in our school because of deficiencies in their academic areas. Their deficiencies were in the realm of social, emotional and behavioral areas. Although many were not appearing to do well academically, this seemed to be more of a symptom rather than a "disease." Many of you may wonder why we didn't realize this dilemma sooner since it seems so obvious. We knew there were problems, but we, as academicians tried to fix the problem by teaching the academic skills. We were missing the target. Sure there were some successes, but even a stopped clock is right twice a day! We were searching for more.
William Kilpatrick, states in Why Johnny Can't Tell Right From Wrong, "The core problem facing our schools is a moral one. All of the other problems derive from it. Even academic reform depends on putting character first." Service-learning teaches the development of character.
At Gateway School we have placed a strong emphasis upon the five "R's" - "Reading, 'Riting, Rithematic, RESPECT, and RESPONSIBILITY. Those last two "R's" are critical to the making of our product - good people. This should be the outcome of all our educational endeavors. Those last two "R's" prepare our students take their places in society, and are as important as the first three, Reading, "Riting, and Rithematic, maybe even more so. Service-learning develops respect and responsibility.
Respect is defined as showing regard for the worth of someone or something. It takes three forms: respect for oneself, respect for other people, and respect for all other forms of life and the environments that support them. Responsibility is an extension of respect. If we respect someone or something we feel responsible for its care and welfare. It is literally our ability to respond. As students participate in service-learning they begin to develop respect and responsibility as they respond to the needs of others, their community, and their environment. And most importantly, they begin to respect themselves as they become more responsible. It's the completion of a cycle - you begin to respect yourself by becoming responsible to others through service learning. And here's the big payoff - as students begin to feel better about themselves, as they grow socially and emotionally, they are better able to deal with academic pursuits and become better citizens. Instead of wondering how we can afford to provide service-learning for our students, I begin to wonder how we can afford NOT to provide service-learning.
We began in our school a social skills instructional class by trimming a few minutes from each of our other classes. We call it the Gateway Seminar. You see, I truly believe that if we want our students to be, or to act a certain way, we need to instruct them in that way. A large part of that social skills class depends on service-learning, along with the mentoring and counseling that take place. Some of the service projects that students have chosen to do include: stenciling storm drains, "Pasta for Pennies fund-raising," clearing trails and other environmental projects at our outdoor school, gathering blankets, towels and newspapers for our local humane society, supporting efforts to aid the homeless, visiting a nearby Day Care center to read to children, and the list goes on. The student groups select their projects and are guided by their teacher-mentors. I simply get out of the way. The students and their teacher-mentors do all the work.
Service-learning is not an add-on at Gateway School. Receiving this honor and recognition has been for my support of service-learning - but how could I NOT support service-learning since IT supports our school's mission - to help students to grow socially, personally, and intellectually while inspiring them to reach behavioral and academic success.
Estelle Sanzenbacher, in nominating me for this honor, wrote, "It is one thing to encourage and promote service learning with a traditional population of students, but it takes organization and creativity to promote service learning for at-risk students." That make it sound like it's a lot of work, but I'm here to tell you it's easier that it sounds. Sometimes it's only a matter of not being so quick to say "no." Estelle has already informed you of what saying "yes" got me. (Elissa Streaker asked if she could write a grant to go to the National Service Learning convention last year in Rhode Island, and my response was "yes." She then went on to ask is she got the grant, could she take two of our students to present, and my response was, "yes, I think that's a good idea." She then asked if the students were boys, which they were, would I be able and willing to chaperone. My final response of, "yes," wound up with me chaperoning two of our young men to Rhode Island.)
Most activities have been planned by students and supported by staff. My role has been to find time and minimal funding, and to encourage. This seems like a small investment for the tremendous payoff that student service-learning provides as measured by our student's achievement. It certainly is a most worthwhile endeavor. Thank you.