Pirate Rising

Our opening day with employees begins with a convocation of sorts, where we introduce our new faculty and staff to the collective and kick off the new school year. It is also one of the few times during the year where I have the privilege of addressing the entire faculty and staff as a group. This annual address is an attempt to offer some words of inspiration and encouragement, lay out an agenda for the school year, and provide a theme that I hope becomes the foundation of our year. This year I have chosen the theme 'Pirate Rising'. It takes on a special meaning for us as we restart learning and open our schools back up to students for the first time in five months. Here is an abridged version of those remarks. 

All of us have a different life experience. We are multi-generational. We are married. We are single. We have pre-existing conditions or loved ones at home that do. Our political ideologies differ. But we do share one very important characteristic that binds us together: we are educators. If you work in this school district, no matter your title you are an educator. We all love kids and want to help them grow, look out for them, and care about their safety. We are Pirates!

Indeed the challenges we face are enormous and each new day often feels the same as the one before. But that soon will change as we get this Pirate Ship underway in a few short days. Think of the journey we have been on to get to this day!

When we left in March, the high that day was 49 degrees, the trees had yet to bloom and we were all looking forward to the freshness of spring and nicely mowed green lawns. Now, when school resumes in a few days we will be in the twilight of summer. Think about the time that has gone by: just over five months! It feels like a lifetime ago. Who among us thought our vocation as educators would include practicing our craft in the midst of a global pandemic, the likes of which haven’t been seen in over 100 years. The world that exists today is vastly different than it was on March 12. Some among us have moved on—to retirement, new opportunities; all without an opportunity for us to say goodbye and bring closure. The 2019-2020 school year ended in a haphazard way that included plastic bags full of locker possessions and commencement exercises that included a socially distanced parade and virtual graduation ceremony. 

In the intervening months we have worked hard to prepare for this moment: Creating contingencies; sweating the small stuff; and being thoughtful about details that under more normal circumstances wouldn’t even be considered. And of course: answering one question that inevitably led to ten others.

Part of our charge as a school district is to help society return to normal. The reopening of schools is seen as a critical step to achieving that goal. Over the course of this pandemic, the multi-faceted role schools serve has been on full display. Our communities have seen firsthand how important you are and the impact schools have not only in the fulfillment of our primary mission as educators, but those secondary and tertiary missions as well: Think of the countless social services so many have come to rely on us to provide: food, shelter, healthcare, counseling, and even protection. We’ll shoulder that responsibility proudly and politely remind policymakers of that role when the time is appropriate.

Yet in spite of all the challenges in front of us, I believe we are truly blessed. Think about how lucky we are to be alive right now! We are living through an epochal moment in human history that decades from now you will be able to tell your heirs exactly where you were and what you were doing when all of this transpired. These types of events cause me to think retrospectively at some of those moments and times I have witnessed in my lifetime and consider how it has changed me or even changed society. I believe this is one of those times.

Today the world is turned upside down. We share a common experience and a unified call to action. So then, when you are telling your grandchildren the story of your life, you will be able to tell them that your contributions during this moment were not just noteworthy—but significant.

In many ways this has been a slow moving crisis; yet at the same time I find myself surprised each Sunday evening that another week has slipped by. In the intervening months we have had to find other ways to amuse ourselves since many summer vacations and plans were cancelled. We have had to look forward to the small things that normally fill the space between one moment in time and another. One such event for me was the release of ‘Hamilton’ the movie over the summer. I often tell people that if I hadn’t been a music teacher then I certainly would have become a history teacher! My favorite vacation destinations are historical sites and trouping around revolutionary or civil war battlefields.  

Perhaps that is part of the reason why I consider myself lucky to have borne witness to such incredible (and horrifying) events in our history. Hopefully we can learn lessons from them and teach our youth so they don’t repeat the mistakes of their ancestors. I believe one of the best lines in Hamilton is ‘History has its eyes on you’. It’s not just the event, but how we respond to that event and what we learn from it. 

We need to learn from the past and use those historical lessons, not only to give us hope, that yes things will eventually return to ‘normal’, but to learn from past mistakes. Isn’t there a saying that says, ‘those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it?’ I certainly think we can draw some parallels from Hamilton for those lessons, hope, and even strength. 

Early in Act One of Hamilton, George Washington is introduced to the audience in the song 'Right Hand Man'. One of the most striking lines to me is when Washington is making a case to Hamilton [for help] with the recurring line: outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered and outplanned. The line ‘I’ll write to Congress and tell ‘em we need supplies You rally the guys, master the element of surprise…’ is particularly poignant considering the immense challenges we have had to overcome to get to this point today.

The fact of the matter is that the beginning of our Revolutionary War did not go well. Our soldiers were not well trained, lacked equipment, and faced a far superior army. As it alludes to in this song, we were beaten badly in Manhattan and if it weren’t for a midnight retreat under the cover of darkness the war may have been quickly over. It really wasn’t until the spring of 1778 at Valley Forge when things started to change for the Revolutionaries when Frederick von Steuben assisted General Washington to train and transform the Continental Army into a unified and cohesive army.

Can you see the parallel? When we closed this past spring and shifted to remote learning we too were outgunned outmanned outnumbered and outplanned. All of a sudden, the way we ‘did school’ changed. No training, no supplies, no ‘man on the inside’. We just shifted—without warning.

Don’t get me wrong though, the work you did this spring was remarkable. You rose to the occasion (as Hamilton did) and shifted an entire educational system. I watched in awe the way with which you met the needs of your students. But we can’t kid ourselves: it wasn’t easy or without extreme difficulty and hardship. You didn’t have the training, resources, supplies, or bandwidth. 

The good news is that we are much better prepared now. Perhaps this is our spring of 1778? Nevertheless, as I shared with you all a few weeks ago, we are a long way from normal. The Revolutionary War didn’t effectively end until October 17, 1781 at the Battle of Yorktown.

An In Hamilton, the surrender at Yorktown is merely the Act One finale. 

My dear colleagues, I do believe we are about halfway through Act One. The good news though, is we are much better prepared than we were in March. Yes, I anticipate this school year will be like no other we have ever witnessed. All throughout the musical, and particularly in Act One there is a recurring theme that is more than a literary device. It is a call to action. It is a call to ‘Rise Up’. That is what I ask of you this year. To fly above your station and RISE UP!