Face Down Your Shark

This post is the text from my opening day speech with my fabulous faculty....

My wife has a healthy fear of sharks.  Well maybe that is a bit of an understatement.  She actually has a difficult time swimming in a pool at night because she is afraid that a shark will pop out of nowhere and swallow her whole.  The root of this fear stems from her childhood, where some older cousins exposed her to the JAWS movie at way too young of an age.  Now she grew up in the center of the state, so avoiding the ocean and sharks was fairly easy right up until she met a 20 year old bartender from the Cape who was adamant about living here as an adult. 

As a bit of a beach bum and an avid boater, I love spending time on, in and next to the ocean.  For the first ten years of our time together, I was able to convince my wife that there were not sharks on Cape Cod.  “The water is too cold” I would tell her.  She would avoid swimming in open water whenever she could, brave it periodically and was able to enjoy many of the great activities that ocean living provides.  However, in the last 7 years or so the rising population of shark bait (seals) has brought more and more sharks to the waters off Cape Cod.  And not any old sharks; we have seen a significant increase in Great White Sharks… JAWS sharks. 

Another important thing happened about the time sharks were starting to get more and more media attention here on the Cape and being spotted more regularly… our daughter was born.  Another thing you need to know about my wife is that she is a devoted mother to our two children and among her many amazing qualities is her desire to raise our children free from the stresses and anxieties of their parents.  This creates a bit of a paradox. 

How does one raise two children on the Cape to love and appreciate the beautiful place we live, to enjoy the ocean without fear while being deathly afraid of sharks?  How do you let your kids swim and play in the ocean when you think any minute JAWS is going to spring from the deep blue and take away your children?  How is she able to plunge into the waves with them, not knowing what is swimming on the other side?  The answer is simply that my wife is the bravest person I know. 

As each decade of my life passes and I reflect on the previous decade, I am amazed by my own ignorance and naiveté.  Anyone remember your life before kids and how you thought, “Oh wouldn’t it be nice to have kids.  Things will be so great all the time.  It will be so great to have someone to love unconditionally and that will love me unconditionally”?  Now that you are a parent you find yourself just hoping that you can get both kids out the door at the same time and into the car with clothes on their backs and shoes on their feet in less than 15 minutes.  Another thing I thought I knew about when I was younger was bravery. 

In my teens and twenties I would have told you that bravery was the same as being fearless.  I would have said to you, “Brave people don’t worry, don’t get afraid and don’t let anything make them take pause.”    At this point in my life, I now realize that this is nonsense.  Bravery is not about being fearless; bravery is about acting in spite of fear.  Fear and anxiety are normal, healthy emotions that support our survival as a species.  It was important for cavemen to experience a rush of fear, or a fight or flight response, when they saw a Saber tooth tiger.  This response is controlled by our sympathetic nervous system and this part of our nervous systems can get activated when we find ourselves in new places, when we are confronted with change or are faced with the unknown. 

 Bravery shows itself when we take a deep breath and start talking even though we are petrified to speak in front of large groups.  Bravery shows itself when we hold tightly onto the railing and lean over the Empire State Building to take in the amazing view even though we are petrified of heights.  Bravery shows itself when we sit in our beach chair scanning the water and biting our tongues as our children play in the water even though we are petrified a shark is out there looking for a kid-sized snack.  Bravery also shows itself when we put ourselves out there in front of others, open ourselves to critique, put our trust in others, leap forward without knowing all the answers, and when we try something new for the first time. 

This last list of items is necessary if we are going to become a true professional learning community.  One that is focused on doing whatever it takes to meet the needs of students.  A school that approaches teaching and learning in a manner similar to a teaching hospital; where we believe that we have something to learn from each other and that our collective power is more than what we can do individually. 

I am going to ask this of you this year.  I am going to ask this of myself this year.  We will not open perfect on Tuesday.  We will stumble in places, we will make mistakes and each of us will have to do something initially without something that we feel we can’t do without.  On top of that we don’t really know each other and very little that you had become comfortable with in the year’s before this one still exist as you knew them.  There are going to be times that are scary… right now as I am listing all this, may be one of those times.  That’s ok.  We can do it.  We can be brave.  If my wife can stare down the mighty JAWS for the sake of Kendall and Brady, we can all stare down our sharks here at Forestdale for our students. 

So when your sharks start circling and you are feeling scared, when you are anxious that it is not going to work out, when you are worrying that you won’t get what you need or you are about to take a risk, remember that failure is an option.  Take the plunge even if you are worried about what is on the other side.  It is an opportunity for learning and growth… and remember… in the end , Sheriff Brody won the day.

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