Ready for Tomorrow . . . It is on every building we enter; it is part of our official mission statement. We don’t espouse to have students “ready for yesterday.” We don’t strive to prepare these young people to be “ready for today.” We are preparing our students for jobs that may not even exist. We are teaching our students both academic and life skills; our students must be prepared with a solid foundation of academic skills, persistent in their approach, and relentless in their passion for growth.
Think about the changes in almost every aspect of your life over the past decade. From the doctor’s office to the post office, from the auto mechanic to bank, almost every aspect of our lives has been impacted by technology. We deposit check on our iPhones, we give our church offering online, and we monitor health information on a tablet. We order books online – and they instantaneously appear on our devices. We sync, link, and share data in nanoseconds. We can’t even imagine the world a decade from now . . . and that is the future for today’s students.
Change is challenging, but we are committed to embrace productive discomfort. Public schools are our country’s future; we are the dream makers for the next generation of American leaders. We need to step-up and step-out of our comfort zone. We need to examine how we organize and prepare students for the future. What prepared us to be adults in 2016 may not be the best to prepare students for 2026, 2036, and 2046. For us, it’s about our passion for growth. It’s about our commitment to learn new methods, explore new opportunities, and seek new paths.
Let’s celebrate our past, but realize it isn’t the path to the future. We must model a relentless pursuit of excellence.