Perspective for Ed Leaders

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This is a make-up post because I couldn't help missing one while I was just on a 7-day Disney cruise with my family (not bragging...it's part of my post, really) to the Eastern Caribbean.  Anyway, I have a good friend that lives in St. Thomas (Virgin Islands), and the company he works for assists EDCs (Economically Developing Countries). On his way to drop us off at a pristine white sand beach with crystal clear blue water, he explained the state of the schools there.  Now, I've never really noticed or thought about how much we American educators complain and point out the injustices, inequities, flaws, problems, etc. with our school, system, state of educational affairs, or whatever, but after that 20 minute ride and conversation, it really struck me how fortunate and privileged we ALL are, even those of us in the most economically disadvantaged schools.  According to my friend, their average 10th grader reads at about the 3rd grade level. The island's school system is expected to run out of money for school lunches within the next few weeks, so students will have to supply their own lunches, which only an extremely small percentage are able to, and then they are accosted and robbed of their food by hungrier (and presumably stronger) classmates. Apparently none of the public schools can achieve any sort of accreditation. That's why his company is exploring certain programs and resources to fund that will help them make gains toward increase student achievement and school (system) improvement...the same things that we are intently focused on. There's always room for improvement, but when we consider how far they have to go compared to the majority of us, it should make us appreciate where we are now and the inordinate amount of resources at our disposal to help get us where we want to be. Invaluable and unexpected perspective gained on a do-it-yourself excursion to Lindquist Beach on St. Thomas!

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