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The Myth of an Epic Snow Day

By
Tom Deighan
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Remember when we only knew if school was cancelled by tuning into the local television or radio stations? The list would stream across the bottom of the screen in alphabetical order in an excruciatingly slow loop. If yours wasn’t listed on the evening news, it might appear on the ten o’clock news, or we tuned in before school. Oh, the suspense! In retrospect, this was all incredibly inconvenient but terribly exciting, and to this generation, it all sounds like a mythical Norman Rockwell scene on a magazine cover.

Sometimes, we did not know school was cancelled until the bus simply failed to show up.  On one such occasion, I remember a group of us dutifully waiting on the corner in a snowstorm for a such a bus that never arrived. While we waited, someone playfully tossed a loosely packed snowball, then another. Within seconds, a friendly melee erupted as we pelted each other with handfuls of soft powdery snow.  Kids nowadays cannot imagine standing on a corner in a snowstorm, wondering if their bus will arrive or if school would even open, but that bus never did arrive, and we did not make it home until dark.

Our joy quickly spread through the neighborhood, and we never wondered once about school. We disappeared into clouds of powdery snow, and as the temperatures quickly rose and the snow grew stickier, we headed for the park to make snowmen.  What naïve and inexperienced elementary kids we were!  Just as the sun peeked through the clouds, I remember a distinct Thwap! Then another and another. 

The middle-schoolers ambushed us. Older and wiser, they reserved their energy early in the morning, patiently waiting for the consistency of the snow to change from corn starch to sticky cotton candy.  And while we dreamed of silly snowmen, they forged an armory of snowballs.  Barely inside the park gates, panic ensued as my friends fell to the left and right. Our attackers moved like a trained militia, aiming snowballs at our stinging faces. When we fell, they pelted us mercilessly while a soldier gleefully pulled out our collars or waistbands, filling them with icy snow.  

For a short time, all joy of a snow day vanished as the middle-schoolers unleashed wintery carnage on us, but high-schoolers soon emerged, seizing their stockpiles of snowballs and raining fire and ice on that poor group of tweens.  As we sniffled and snotted, we watched snowball justice on a Medieval scale, and our former foes soon lay buried under mounds of snowballs in the city park. The high-schoolers disappeared as quickly as they arrived, and it was all over. 

The joyful spirit of a snow day returned, however, and those same middle schoolers helped us with our snowmen, and we promised not to tell our parents.  Before long, we lost ourselves in snow angels and forts and sliding down hills with cardboard we pulled from dumpsters.  Not an adult in sight, and we never went home.  Our parents never wondered where we were or worried. They knew we would come home when we got hungry or when the streetlights came on, whichever came first.

Modern children still know the joy of a snow day, but in our overconnected, overprotected, and overscheduled world, few of them will ever experience an epic snow day.  The stinging of fingers and toes near the fire. The pure happiness of a carefree, adult-free day with no certainty and no worry. Children wandering and battling faux wars that led to truces marked with snow angels and cardboard sleds. 

Like old Saturday Evening Post magazine covers, it’s all a myth to modern families.  Nevertheless, maybe some things we have lost are worth rediscovering, like the suspense and joy of a surprise snow day. Unfortunately, our childhoods are now the Norman Rockwell images for this generation, but maybe some parts should once again be real, for I can think of nothing this generation needs more than a truly epic snow day.

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Wacky Waving Toby Dawn

By
Tom Deighan
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Nothing . . . absolutely nothing raises the ire of my lifelong friend and childhood hero more than a school bus drive around. He claims to have once been a school bus driver, but in reality, he merely borrowed one on our 5th grade field trip. Nevertheless, that experience created a sense of fellowship with all pupil pilots, so if he ever sees a stop arm violation, he goes “Toby Dawn” on the driver. He puffs up. He stretches out. He gyrates, waves his arms in the air, and screams like an injured cat. Picture our tall, red-headed Toby Dawn hollering like a fool in the middle of the road at the lowly offenders. “You gotta get their attention, Tommy Boy!”

People occasionally allege that Toby Dawn is fictional, but I assure you that nothing is more real than a wacky waving Toby Dawn defending a school bus. And if it reminds you of something you’ve seen at local used car dealers and tax preparation offices, that’s because Toby Dawn McIntyre modelled the original inflatable flailing tube man. He reportedly even earns a commission from every single one, which might explain why he has been so excited about the recent NOPE movie that features so many Toby Dawns flailing about in the field.

Every August, however, he makes cameo appearances in school districts across the nation whenever some absent-minded driver commits a stop-arm violation. He leaps into traffic and violently waves his arms and shouts. Air horns. Confetti poppers. Silly string on the windshield, and occasionally, roman candles. Kids on the bus love it, but it terrifies the drivers, and not necessarily the bad ones. “Sometimes, things get out of hand when I’m strobing,” he confesses. (Strobing is Toby’s term for his wacky, waving arm display. Oddly fitting.)

Toby is the first to admit, however, that a giant Irishman strobing in the middle of the road is not the best solution for drive-arounders. “I ain’t Santa Claus; I can’t be everywhere, Mr. Superintendent.”  (He refuses to accept that I have returned to the classroom.) Nevertheless, he has a brilliant solution: install a giant, wacky waving arm Toby Dawn on each school bus. Whenever someone breaks the sacred cheese wagon code, a menacing tube man inflates to frighten and intimidate offending motorists. 

He has formally proposed his giant inflatable tube man several times to the National Transportation Safety Board as the ultimate deterrent for drive-arounds, but the NTSB keeps rejecting it. Thankfully, his other idea – replacing the stop arms with a giant chainsaw – has been rejected, too. Toby understands that many school buses now have cameras, but “Either a giant Toby or chainsaw would stop this overnight,” he claims. Toby’s not wrong; we need something dramatic to protect kids from stop-arm violators. Maybe something in between Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Gumby. I wonder if school districts just couldn’t post the videos online?

I cannot imagine anyone purposely driving around a loading or unloading school bus, but I shudder at the possibility of a kiddo popping out. It’s the sort of thing that keeps bus drivers (and Toby) up at night. Thankfully, school buses are the safest form of transportation on the planet . . . inside the bus. Drivers speeding around the bus are another matter, so as school starts this year, let’s imagine a giant Toby Dawn McIntyre in the road. If the flashing lights don’t get your attention, a wacky waving McIntyre might. Nevertheless, he cannot be everywhere, so until the NTSB installs menacing inflatable tube men on all school buses, we must be uber careful. Drivers keep kids safe on the inside; we must keep them safe on the outside. 

Hopefully, next time you see an inflatable flailing Toby Dawn, it’s at a car dealership. Meanwhile, please pray that the NTSB keeps rejecting at least one of Toby Dawn’s school bus drive around solutions, and please pray for the safety of our students this Second Sunday of the month.

Tom Deighan is a public educator and author of Shared Ideals in Public Schools. You may email him at deighantom@gmail.com 

The Pre-Eminence of Wal-Mart Parents

By
Tom Deighan
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Somewhere around the age of 2 or 3, children try to leverage pressure on their parents in public. I call those the Wal-Mart years, when children test us with fits, tantrums, and other tactics whenever they have an audience.  The goal is to get what they want, be it a toy or candy, but the larger goal is determining who’s boss, and it doesn’t just happen among toddlers.  I have a friend who admits to losing it in the cereal aisle when her child threw a tantrum during one hectic trip to the store.  She raised her voice, grabbed her child by the arm, and corrected him sternly right there in the store.  She never hurt her child, but it was enough of a scene that a concerned bystander scolded the mom and told her just to give the kid the cereal he wanted. Before the mom could respond to the stranger, her kid popped off, “Mind your own business, lady, or my mom will kick your butt!”  

The lady in this story is a great Mom, but everyone loses it in Wal-Mart eventually.  It does not make someone a bad parent, and kids rarely lose love for parents who correct them.  This is even true when the relationship is not perfect.    Even more remarkable, when the parent is derelict or abusive, however, children will still often defend them with a loyalty that defies logic.  That’s the power of the parent-child bond, and educators know that anyone who dares get between a child and a parent does so at extreme peril.  And when I say parents, I am referring to the caring adults in children’s lives who nurture their education. That role is often filled by someone who is not the biological father or mother.  Every child who has such an adult parenting their education is generally ready for school.    

Educators whom I respect hold the parent-child relationship as sacrosanct, for we know that it is an unbreakable bond. Parents are the preeminent influence in children’s lives.  Teachers know that their jobs are infinitely easier when the parent supports their child’s education, even in the smallest measures.  An educator can never replace the parent as the most important influencer or educator. We can often only enhance and support.  If a parent resists or devalues education or holds hostile feelings toward the teacher, educators struggle, often in vain, to overcome that child’s resistance to learning. On the other hand, when a parent participates or even tacitly supports in the simplest of ways like checking on their children’s grades online, that child enters the classroom with a tremendous advantage.  

Educators assist the parents, but we can never usurp, override, undermine, or replace the roles or responsibilities of a parent.  Contrary to the extreme examples we may see in the news, virtually all educators know that the power of a parent is unparalleled.  It is first biological, which is almost impossible to overcome, and then it is based on simple time and relationship. Think about it, children spend about 15% of their time each year in school, and they get new teachers every year.  The remainder is under parent or guardian supervision, year after year. (There are 8760 hours in a year, and children only spend 1260 hours in school, which is about 15% of their lives: 7 hours each day X 180 days = 1260 hours.) 

Educators assist parents, and I know educators who can help children overcome overwhelming obstacles, even those children who are unsupported in their education, but no educator can completely replace a caring, attentive, and invested adult in the home.  That’s why parents will always be the most important educators, and nearly all educators honor this parental role in a child’s life, especially during the challenging years!  Wal-Mart parents unafraid to correct their children in public are our heroes, for they are making our jobs much easier. Thank you for being the most important educators.

Tom Deighan is currently the superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Bystanders and Upstanders at the Seat of Scorn

By
Tom Deighan
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Once upon a time, a powerful ruler publicly humiliated a simple woman.  He invited her as a guest of honor to an annual celebration, but instead of honoring her, the ruler heaped ire and abuse upon her, attacking her character, honor, and integrity. She helplessly endured it in silence while her friends and colleagues silently watched. No one spoke up or even stood beside her. Her seat of honor at a celebration was instead a seat of scorn.

Those same friends and colleagues privately came to her afterwards and affirmed their love and support for her.  The ruler also visited the woman and apologized very sincerely for his hurtful and unfair behavior and invited her to another celebration. She was not attacked this time, but the previous injustice was ignored, and she left more wounded than ever, because private praise rarely heals public wounds, and neither do secret apologies. Such a broken heart simply festers.

I share this little parable because I am often asked how people can affirm support for their local educators, and I believe it is how we choose to respond when someone sits defenseless in the seat of scorn. Like the simple woman in our parable, local educators often sit alone and humiliated in the public eye, but this is not just happening to school staff. Police officers and healthcare workers have been targeted mercilessly, and likewise, volunteer elected officials like school board members and city council members. Still yet, the seat of scorn is not limited to these leaders or professions. 

Ask the men and women at the drive-thru windows and convenience store counters how often they are cussed or insulted lately.  Ask your bus drivers, your cooks, your custodians, or your school secretaries how people often treat them.  Ask the tellers at the bank, your servers, your pastors.  Ask your friends and family, and ask the person in the mirror, for you probably have felt it, too. Yes, local educators currently feel isolated and humiliated at the seat of scorn, but they are not alone in regard to feeling so alone.

Such treatment is often face-to-face, but nowadays, anyone can be abused publicly by petty tyrants on social media.  Simple folks retreat to social media for a celebration with friends and family, but they quickly find themselves sitting ducks in the virtual seat of scorn. Despite dozens and dozens of “friends” looking on, people rarely stand beside them publicly. An avalanche of support may pour in privately, but private praise and secret apologies never heal public wounds; they just make it worse.

I am often asked what our local educators need, and it is the same thing everyone else needs right now: someone . . . anyone . . . brave enough to stand beside them at the seat of scorn.  Whether online in social media or in line at the store, people should not suffer alone when someone browbeats them for the higher cost of a fountain drink or for simply being a healthcare provider, police officer, or educator. We should never return bad behavior with worse behavior, but we can always walk across the room and stand beside them, so they know they are not alone. I wonder how many times I have personally been guilty of being a bystander.

When schoolkids receive anti-bully training, they learn that being a bystander simply fuels the bad behavior.  As a result, children learn to be upstanders.  Simply standing up with the person often neutralizes the bully, and the person is no longer alone.  Instead of silently watching when someone is humiliated in the seat of scorn, we should be like our children. We should stand beside them, whether online or in person, because private praise and secret apologies afterwards never help.  We all know the hot seat of scorn, so let’s be upstanders rather than bystanders when it happens in our communities. Please pray for restored civility in our communities, the courage to stand with each other, and above all, the safety of our schools this Second Sunday of the Month. 

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Toby Dawn’s Fall Fireworks Prediction

By
Tom Deighan
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The doorbell rang shortly after sunrise. Barely awake, I scurried to the door, but no one there . . . just a faint burning smell that I recognized a split second too late. Pop! Pop! Pop!  And so it started, my annual fireworks battle with my lifelong friend and childhood hero, Toby Dawn McIntyre. He loves Independence Day, and each year, he starts his surprise attacks with a bang.  

Toby has booby-trapped doors, trash cans, and even my sock drawer.  Roman candles in the grill . . . whistling chasers tossed from moving cars . . . and, somehow, underwater fireworks.  No place is safe. Once he tethered a fishing line to my back porch and hid in my neighbors’ tree as he ziplined explosive after explosive to our peaceful cookout. When our neighbors let their dogs out, however, Toby was stuck, and we had great fun with our garden hoses. Don’t worry, no one ever gets hurt except Toby Dawn.  “Eyebrows grow back, Tommy Boy!”

As I celebrate Independence Day, however, I worry about the political fireworks ahead this fall. Predictably, new and terrifying strains of COVID are surfacing, but this year it is exacerbated by an incredibly divisive political season.  The familiar mask-or-no-mask battleline is already forming, and if history repeats itself, we can expect renewed calls for schools to close sometime later this month. (Just a hundred weeks or so to flatten the curve.) I am not sure if this slow fuse leads to a lady finger or an M-80, but if history repeats itself, the start of school will be the opening salvo. For the kids! 

The topic of education has never been more relevant or more divisive. Parents are being told to put on their Gotham City Shades, assured that everything bad they hear about in faraway big cities is also happening in their evil neighborhood schools.  Educators are being told to irrationally resist any changes in public schools, because of course, all public schools are perfect (or would be if we had more funding.) 

Meanwhile, rational parents and educators know better, despite the dire warnings of the Evil Public Schools or the Pollyanna Public Schools crowds. The radical one-percent of extremists, from both sides, continue to set just about everything on fire.  “I warned you about those Flaming Pennies;” Toby reminds me often, “they will burn the world down this election season to make a point!”  Common sense parents and educators, however, are starting to recognize much of these arguments as duds, because neither message describes many of our schools.  

I recently received fifteen fliers about candidates in one day, but none of them were sent by the candidates. In a year of unprecedented dark money impacting state and local elections, I have been fearful about the fireworks to come, but Oklahoman’s have impressed me.  We are stubborn, and we do not like faraway activists telling us how to vote.  A few high-profile dark money campaigns were effective, but overall, Oklahomans have made up their own darned mind.  Nothing makes an Okie bow-up faster than someone from Gotham City telling us how to vote, even if we agree.  

Yes, the fireworks will begin full force with the start of school, leading to a grand finale in November, but maybe, this season will reveal a brighter and more hopeful brand of fireworks: Oklahomans lighting up all this dark money with common sense and thoughtful determination. Oklahomans are too smart to vote locally while wearing their Cable News Goggles or Gotham City Shades. 

According to Toby Dawn McIntyre, “Anyone can blow stuff up, but only a skillful person can use fireworks to bring people together.”  Of course, this wisdom comes from a large red-haired man with only one eyebrow.  Nevertheless, as Fourth of July fireworks fade away, get ready for the real light show as school starts. All this dark money will surely make the fireworks brighter and more dazzling. Lets’ just hope all these flaming pennies don’t light some really destructive fires in our state, for they won’t be around to clean up the mess.     

Tom Deighan is author of Shared Ideals in Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Shaving with the Troll Razor

By
Tom Deighan
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If you have watched The Big Bang Theory, you may remember references to Occam’s Razor. “Razors” are just general rules or assumptions, and in a nutshell, Occam’s razor proposes that the simplest explanation or solution is often the most likely reality. Big Bang Theory cites Occam’s Razor often, which is a bit ironic since the entire show is based on making everything simple as complicated as possible. 

Hanlon’s Razor is similar: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. (I love Wikipedia!)  This glib razor is actually traced back to a joke book submission (again, Wikipedia!), but an aunt might express this more compassionately: “Bless their heart, they just didn’t know any better.” Unfortunately, Hanlon’s Razor cuts both ways, for ignorance of the law of gravity won’t protect anyone from a hard landing, whether they were pushed or blindly walked off a cliff. However true Hanlon’s joke may be, it is still a very harsh and cynical way to look at people. 

I prefer an earlier version of Hanlon’s Razor attributed to Johann Wolfgang Goethe that is much more forgiving: “Misunderstandings and lethargy perhaps produce more wrong in the world than deceit and malice do.”  (Yup, Wikipedia.)  Goethe’s view is much more accurate in my experience, especially when it comes to human disagreements. Zealots and trolls surely exist, but miscommunication and misunderstandings are at the root of most problems between rational individuals who are open to consider both context and intent. Malice takes over when those disagreements escalate and communication deescalates, however. Unfortunately, in our social media age we can no longer extend the benefit of the doubt, only vitriol. Only the worst (and most complicated) options are considered such as malice, deceit, or stupidity. Occam’s and Hanlon’s razors have now been replaced by the Troll Razor: Attribute absolutely everything to malice and stupidity, even if it could be otherwise attributed to mere miscommunication or an innocent mistake. (Not Wikipedia.)  

How many people’s lives, careers, and reputations have been ruined due to misunderstandings, bad thumb dexterity, or being too busy to think through a click?  We no longer allow for context or intent, so misinterpreted or mistaken tweets have literally destroyed dreams. People in a hurry have “liked” a comment or photo from a friend without thinking through the sociopolitical implications of a newly defined word, misplaced comma, disordered sentence, or typo. Every email, text, or post can now drag anyone to virtual execution. Life on the edge of the Troll Razor provides no grace to anyone, whatsoever, unless they agree with us.      

Good men and women on both sides of the political aisle and from all backgrounds have suffered the slice of the Troll Razor. I personally know people who have experienced this at all levels, from private citizens to politicians, over the past year. But if you think this culture is tough on adults, we cannot even fathom the Troll Razors slashing at our children and teens. Online and virtual reality is real world for the smartphone generation, and we know kids can sometimes be vicious. We may have all faced bullies on the playground as kids, but the bullies can now follow kids home and live in their heads. 

Nevertheless, our kids handle this better than many adults. After facing it so much, they are learning to dull the Troll Razor by ignoring, deleting, and disengaging, which is quite remarkable considering how many adults around them wield the Troll Razor with impunity. After getting cut both ways, our children are learning that not every offensive post, email, or text is spawned by pure evil. They are often just misunderstandings, hurriedness, or poor thumbing. They are learning that rational people can disagree and even make mistakes.  They can even “like” the good in something without “liking” the bad, embracing people, despite their flaws . . . and their own. If our kids can extend grace in a social media age, maybe adults can, too. In fact, I am sure we all will, for eventually everyone gets cut by the Troll Razor, and we will begrudgingly follow our children’s examples. And by the grace of God, someday, rational people will put away their blades, leaving the trolls alone in their caves to slice and dice each other.  

Tom Deighan is a public educator and currently serves as Superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. He may be reached at deighantom@gmail.com

COVID Groundhog Day for Schools

By
Tom Deighan
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Groundhog Day is this Wednesday, February 2, 2022, and just like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, our world will drag out of bed expecting the COVID loop to continue. But this isn’t just any Groundhog Day. Next Wednesday is 2-2-22, so something exciting is bound to happen, possibly at 2:22 PM. (Yes, 2.2.22.2.22 – just as Nostradamus likely predicted!) I am skeptical, but if Punxsutawney Phil doesn’t crawl out of his burrow before noon on Wednesday, I’m buying extra toilet paper.

In recent weeks, schools have experienced their own Groundhog Day of sorts as preemptive and indefinite closures again rolled across our nation due to COVID. In Duncan, we closed for the first time due to COVID (two days), and students reportedly broke down in tears at the news. Thankfully, we have avoided preemptive and indefinite closures, but this is their third school year saturated in such fear and anxiety. If it terrified our students who have attended open schools, just imagine the nationwide mental condition of students living through the Groundhog Day loop of constant closures.     

After three years of subjecting children to such trauma, my concern is that we will forever be stuck in the same Groundhog Day pattern. Schools face intense pressure to close preemptively and indefinitely at the slightest sniffle. When they do close, they are endlessly shamed. Meanwhile, our nation seems unaware of the thousands and thousands of schools in our nation that have managed to safely avoid preemptive and indefinite closures. Where are the models and data from those schools to help guide other struggling districts?

The 2022-23 school year will be our fourth COVID school year, and parents and educators need examples and strategies to stay open, not endless pressure to close and bitter shame when they do. Unfortunately, I suspect that most parents and educators still assume that preemptive, indefinite closures are the norm rather than the exception. Our national obsession about closures has ignored thousands of lonely schools that defied the odds to stay open. What about the states and communities that never closed?  Where are the models and strategies gleaned from their journeys?

This is our third COVID school year, and we know the patterns by now, and we know what works. If we are ever going to escape this COVID Groundhog Day, we must offer schools real strategies to avoid indefinite and preemptive closures. If we do not equip schools now, we can expect this pattern to repeat itself again in the future, whether or not Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on 2-2-22 at 2:22.

As hard as it has been for districts like Duncan to stay open and avoid preemptive closures, it has been infinitely more difficult for those schools pressured to preemptively and indefinitely closed. Whichever path communities have chosen, doubt and anxiety dominate every aspect of our lives. And if it has been hard on us adults, we can barely comprehend the despair of children living through this endless COVID Groundhog Day.

When I spent Christmas Break compiling a book about Duncan’s journey to keep schools open, I did it in hopes that some attention could be drawn to schools across our nation that have managed to stay open. Surely, our nation can learn something from the thousands of other schools like ours that have defied the odds. Parents, educators and students all deserve the confidence and assurance that they can return to normalcy. They need hope for ending preemptive and indefinite closures due to COVID.

Before we ever approach Groundhog Day 2023, schools need strategies and models to safely stay open – instead of shame and impossible choices. If Bill Murray could escape his endless loop, we can, too. And who knows, maybe something cool will happen on 2-2-22 at 2:22? I will be watching that little critter closely, this Wednesday. I don’t have any predictions, but if Punxsutawney Phil is wearing an N-95 mask, I am stocking up on Charmin.

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Open Schools Versus Preemptive Closures

By
Tom Deighan
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January 7, 2022 by Tom Deighan

Once again , schools across our nation are preemptively closing due to COVID-19.  Yes, closing is always an option for Duncan Public Schools, but we will stay open as long as we can safely do so. We will continue to face this pandemic as we have from the beginning. If we close a single site or the entire district, we will close for a defined period due to actual conditions. Our children need the structure, safety, and normalcy of open schools. We have faced this threat before, and we will face it again, together.  

Hundreds of schools in our nation preemptively extended their Christmas Breaks, and who can blame them? We are in our third school year with COVID, and national educational leaders still exert intense pressure on schools to close, terrifying parents and staff.  Due to endless media reports of school closings, I suspect much of our nation is unaware that schools have been open safely since the beginning of this pandemic.  No wonder parents and educators across this nation are still terrified to fully commit to in-person, full-time instruction in the age of COVID.

We know that schools have been open from the beginning – not just during the current 2021-22 school year but last year (2020-21) – and yes, even during the spring of 2020! Wyoming and Montana reportedly did not preemptively close schools, even as the majority of other states preemptively closed (including Oklahoma.)  Yet, by the summer of 2020, we had solid research from Europe suggesting that schools could be safely open, and it was correct. Why don’t we hear about more research and the thousands of schools that have been open safely during all of this?  Why don’t we reassure these parents, educators, and students with the evidence available at this time?

We now have literally thousands of models available to reassure fearful parents and educators that full-time, in-person instruction is not only safe but also prevents the negative social, psychological, and academic impacts of long term, preemptive closures. I suspect that parents and educators may be unaware of how many schools have offered full-time, in-person instruction. Even if they are in an open school, I suspect they believe open schools are the exception – not the rule 

Rather than focus on the current slate of closures, perhaps we should reframe our national discussion as we prepare for the 2022-23 school year.  If we can somehow raise awareness of open schools (or just acknowledge them) – we may not have to constantly struggle against the pressure to preemptively close schools. Where are the studies, the examples, the research, and the data about all these schools that have stayed open? Why aren’t national leaders helping parents and educators welcome their students back with confidence?  Where is the proof that preemptive closures have worked? 

The fear and reality of COVID-19 is real.  It terrifies me every day at some level as a superintendent, and closure of our sites or entire district for the safety of our students and staff is always an option.  As we prepare for the 2022-23 school year, however, this is the time to settle the issue of full-time, in-person learning versus preemptive closures. 

No school is a model for how to manage COVID, especially not Duncan Public schools, but national experts can surely knit together some best practices from the thousands of schools who have stayed open during this nightmare. Districts who have been open feel alone, and districts who are closing preemptively feel alone. That is not necessary as we face our fourth school year with COVID.  May God protect our schools, children, and staff once again as we enter another fearful time, but may we also face any challenges with confidence, experience and wisdom . . . for that is how we want our students to face the world.

Tom Deighan is superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

A Tale of Two Sprout Farmers

By
Tom Deighan
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Once upon a time, there were two farmers. One farmer was very old, and one farmer was very young. The old farmer lived alone on her farm after her husband had passed away, and they had no children together. The young farmer inherited the neighboring farm unexpectedly, and immediately made a home there with his young wife and several small children. The old farmer welcomed her new neighbors with fresh vegetables, jars of jelly, and eggs from her henhouse. They became instant friends. 

Very shortly after moving in, the young farmer shared his plans to get the farm producing as soon as possible. “I will grow bean sprouts!” he exclaimed proudly. “No other crop grows faster!”  Within days, the beans sprouted, and the old farmer was genuinely impressed. Before long, the ambitious young farmer could barely keep up, harvesting thousands of pounds of bean sprouts each week. The old lady helped every day with the children and small chores. They grew to love her very much, and she cherished every minute with the young family.

One day, the old farmer did not visit, so the young farmer checked on her at her small farm which connected to his land along a creek bank. Thankfully, he found her happily packing fresh dirt around the base of a sapling behind her house. Fallow fields that had not been cultivated for years surrounded her quaint home, and it was clear that she had no interest in crops since her husband passed. The only vestiges of a farm that remained were her well-tended garden and her beloved chickens which she introduced by name. The old farmer and the young farmer sipped lemonade and discussed grandiose plans for bean sprouts.            

In the coming days, the old farmer still visited regularly, but she no longer stayed as long, “I have important work to do!” she declared as she dropped off fresh eggs, pickles, or warm bread. Very soon thereafter, she died, leaving her small estate to the young farmer and his wife, much to their surprise. On their first visit to the old farmer’s place after her death, they could not believe what they saw. Rows upon rows of young trees had been planted in her final days. Neat labels identified fruit and nut trees of every variety. Within time, the young farmer learned that the old lady had been diagnosed with terminal illness before his arrival, and one day while sorting through her papers, they discovered correspondence with her attorney. She had given a child up for adoption over fifty years ago, before getting married to her husband, and when her husband died, she began searching. Her daughter was dead, but she had one grandson to whom the old lady anonymously gave most of her farm. She kept only the hired hands’ quarters and a few acres across the creek for herself. 

In the coming years, all those trees the old farmer planted blossomed into beautiful groves that sustained the young farmer’s family and countless others. His children returned to establish families of their own on the land, and his grandchildren played in their shade, picked their fruit, and gathered their nuts. He retired very comfortably, deeply satisfied and thankful for the life he lived harvesting seeds as soon as they sprouted. But not a day passed without marveling at his grandmother who anonymously sowed herself as a seed into his life and planted trees she would never see mature. As his great-grandchildren began to be born, the bean sprout farmer became a tree farmer as well, knowing he would never smell the blossoms, taste the fruit, or enjoy the cool shade of the trees he planted. Like his grandmother before him, the old farmer invested in children he would never know and who would never know him. And the last of his days were happier than the first.  

Tom Deighan is currently the superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

By
Tom Deighan
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0

A few things are consistent for me around Thanksgiving.  First, I can always count on my lifelong friend and childhood hero, Toby Dawn McIntyre to resurrect his greatest business idea:  Toby and Tom’s Hot Turkey Wings!  “Remember when we were kids?” He says dreamily.  “Getting stuck with the chicken wing was like losing a bet, but now an entire industry has been built on the part of the chicken everyone used to hate . . .” 

He is right, chicken wings were so low on the food chain in my family that we wouldn’t even give them to the dog for fear she might choke, but I always had my gullet full of them, mostly because I was the youngest and slowest of seven at the dinner table.  Whoever turned them into a business was a genius, but each Thanksgiving I must suffer through Toby and Tom’s Turkey Hot Wings. Everyone has a crazy uncle like this during the holidays, and Toby is my Thanksgiving tradition. I can never eat turkey without thinking of giant hot wings.  Mostly, however, I think of my mom this time of year. 

Barbara Jean claimed to be ninety-eight-pounds soaking wet.  When my dad died, she faced the world alone with seven children.  At the time, we lived in Florida, and our nearest relatives were fifteen hundred miles away, but nothing intimidated that woman.  Shortly after my father’s death, she threw a dart at a map (so I have been told), and we moved across the country – just her, seven kids, and two young vagabonds named Hank and Fudgy. That started a journey that crisscrossed four states and a dozen towns. My mom was tough as nails and fearless, and she did everything for her children, but our life was a little crazy at times.   

But that woman could cook!  I grew up eating things like borscht, arroz con pollo, home-made stroganoff, couscous, and her Italian food made with “authentic” Italian sausage bought from Krebs, Oklahoma.  She was like an international food fair all rolled up in a tiny package. Her best dish, however, was hands-down her Thanksgiving stuffing. This was back during the time when people still stuffed the bird (back before salmonella, I suppose) and it was heavenly.

During the Holidays, however, she became Martha Stewart.  She stuck to Thanksgiving traditions that brought a sense of normalcy.  She showed her love by selflessly providing for us and by feeding whoever wandered by for Thanksgiving dinner each year.  I also remember her this time of year because she was a lunch lady, once in a school and once in a prison.  So, when I see the excitement of staff and students for the annual Thanksgiving lunch each year, I am thankful for them, and I think of her. (Clearly, I am unapologetically partial to lunch ladies.)  

As crazy and unpredictable as life has become recently, we really need Thanksgiving, for it is when we settle into old traditions and count our blessings. Honestly, it is very hard to be grumpy or mean when we are thankful, for gratitude is like my mom’s warm stuffing during Thanksgiving.  It brought us all together and slowed down the chaos.

The world seems like it’s spinning apart, but it just might be falling into place. Perhaps, Thanksgiving 2021 will refocus us on what matters: God, family, friends, and our blessings to be Americans and Okies. Who knows? It could be our turning point. And if your crazy uncle tries to sell you on the idea of turkey hot wings this week, don’t burst his bubble with Toby and Tom’s Hot Turkey Wings.  Let him have his moment and offer them another helping of mom’s stuffing.  One day, you will cherish that moment, trust me.

Tom Deighan is currently the superintendent of Duncan Public Schools. You may email him at  deighantom@gmail.com and read past articles at www.mostlyeducational.com

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