A Glimpse into the Mind of a Poet - and our Future Generation

I watch my students working so hard everyday to master the materials they are presented with on their trek toward graduation.  Their accomplishments have come at a high price.  However, as we reach the half-way mark in the semester, the fruits of their investment is becoming manifest.  Such success could not have come to fruition without the support and sacrifices made by their families.  

I have seen discouragement turn to hope and dejection give way to pride.  Anyone who says that American youth go for the easy way out have not seen my students.  I have witnessed them meet their challenges, and their struggle to overcome the obstacles that awaited them when they elected to adopt a whole new approach to acquiring their education.  Thus far, their efforts have been rewarded.  I am awed by their dedication and persistence.

I have chosen to feature this video because it represents all that is good about our American youth.  I admire this young poet's message and her outlook.  Like my students, her message is filled with hope.  She reminds me of each and every one of my kids.  She is brilliant, forward looking, kind and thoughtful.    

Malcolm Gladwell distinguishes high achievers from their peers by ability to seize opportunities as they arise.  My students ambitious pursuit of a solid education is paying off.  This school, whose population numbers just about 300 dedicated, hard-working souls who prove by their actions every day, they have what it takes.  They understand that embedded in every failure is a learning opportunity.

I have every confidence they will be able to hold their own in this ever more competitive world.  To all those chicken-little types who fill our airwaves with doom and gloom, I say do not worry, because our kids are working harder than we ever did, and they are having fun doing it.  They are becoming life-long learners with twenty-first century learning skills. 

Sara Kay identifies her strategy for success with the following three outlooks;

1]  I can do this - Confidence

2]  I will do this - Persistence

3]  I have to be me - Faithfulness to self

Her generation's biggest obstacle will not be fiscal.  It will be overcoming the worst gift our generation has passed on to them; the inertia of pessimism and blind fealty to tribalism based on color, creed and class.

Always do your best, and keep your focus on your goals.  The race doesn't always go to the swiftest.