My family moved around the southern United States quite a bit during my youth.  On two different occasions we lived in San Antonio.  On Day 47 of Education Ride 365 I left Nassau Bay TX headed for this great city.  It was an unexpected destination made possible by a change in scheduling.  I welcomed it because I would have an opportunity to visit my old neighborhood for the first time since graduating from high school in 1986.  One thing that struck me during this visit were some examples of the varying relationship of perception versus reality.

My family was the first owner of the home above.  My fifth grade year was spent here, on Mule Tree Road.  I was excited to locate this home and I also thought it would be neat to drop in on the elementary school I spent my fifth grade year attending.  Granted, I didn't have an appointment at the school, but I am an alum after all! 

Sometimes perception matches reality...at other times there is quite a divergence.  My visits chronicled on this blog to various neighborhoods I lived in as a child have been, more often than not, examples of my perceptions not matching reality.  Hills I thought were so steep that we were taking our lives in our hands as we rode our radio flyer wagons down recklessly without helmets, turn out now---through grown-up eyes---to have been not so steep after all.  A lake in Florida we jumped into to retrieve our model rockets (filled with "lizardnauts" braving their lives in the name of science)...with waters we were sure were inhabited by alligators...turned out to be not nearly as big to adult eyes as the oceanic body of water we perceived it to have been as children.  The "great" distances it seemed we had to travel on our motocross bicycles to get to the neighborhood convenience store, a friend's house, or other haunts of childhood exploration now seem, to adult eyes, to not be that far at all.  I have discovered that my childhood perception on so many of these things didn't match reality!

I was reminded during the visit to my fifth grade elementary school, however, of one perception that tends to mesh with reality.  This is the perception one gets of a school's climate from the souls who work there.  The front office is where it starts.  I have found this perception to match reality so many times during my career working in the schools, and visiting other schools, that I believe it to be an accurate barometer.  Are the adults on campus friendly to visitors?  Do they smile?  Do they appear to enjoy their job...to enjoy being where they are at?  Or, do they ooze indifference and obsession with their own state of being over that of their customers?  I use the word customers here for a reason.  Healthy schools have a customer service orientation.  Each person who walks through those doors is treated as a customer, no matter the purpose of their visit.  No matter any extraneous factor that would cause them to project negativity or indifference towards visitors to their campus.  When a negative school climate exists in this form---I have found time and time again---it tends to be characteristic of most all relationships on campus, all the way down to those between the teachers and children...in more cases than not.

Upon leaving my elementary school pondering this issue of perception versus reality, good customer service versus bad vibes, I located another home my family was the first owner of, on Pebble Dew Drive.  It was the home above, the one I lived in when I graduated from high school.  The single home I spent the most years in as a child.  I knocked on the door and met the current owner.  He was a very nice fellow and was holding a yorkie that looked much like my first family yorkie, Sarge, who we welcomed into the family when we lived in that home!  Just like the other homes I've lived in and visited during this journey, I noticed elements of the yard's landscape that I slaved away helping to create as a boy.  I went around the corner and got reacquainted with the parents of my first true love...probably one of the truest loves I've ever had.  They live directly behind this high school home, a convenience I enjoyed throughout my tenth grade year!

Yet again, however, I was reminded of the disconnect between perception and reality of the world as experienced by a child.  My fifth grade home was so much closer to this home than I perceived it to be back then.  So too was the building that housed "That'za Pizza" where I worked briefly for a friend of my step-father who was fired in the PATCO air traffic controller strike in 1981.  Blossum T. Athletic Center, the huge complex all NWISD schools used for many sporting events in the eighties---and the place where my association with the San Antonio Spurs was hatched (I took pictures for them in the eighties)---now seems right down the street from my home...whereas during high school I perceived it to be miles away.  Perception does not always match reality.

My second school visit of Day 47 was to Douglas MacArthur High School, the huge high school I attended as a youth.  My graduating class was over 900.  We had about 3200 students at Mac in 1986.  The school was then laid out like a college campus, with separate buildings for the various subjects.  The Math Wing (building) no longer exists...it is a parking lot...nor the English and other wings.  The school is now all one huge, almost completely rebuilt, complex.  One of the only remaining vestiges of the Mac I knew is the huge arch, with the frieze pictured below, that was once the entrance to the auditorium but now greets visitors as they enter the building proper. 


This Douglas MacArthur frieze espouses "Duty, Honor, Country" to all who enter.  It represents to those who walk under it the values this campus wishes to project---> a perception of the school that hopefully is the reality of those who inhabit it.  In like fashion, school employees---especially those who greet the customers walking through their doors...no matter the purpose of the visit---should project a friendliness and overall customer service orientation that seems to be a hallmark of school's with a healthy school climate.  If you as an employee suggest your school is not a warm, welcoming place, reality tends to be that most people who enter (including students...the most important customers of all) will feel the exact same way! 

Riding Stats: Day 46---244.3 miles traveled, 3 hours and 42 minutes of moving time, 3 hours and 52 minutes of stopped time, 66 miles per hour average moving time, and 32.3 miles per hour overall average.  Day 47---59.54 miles traveled, 1 hours and 38 minutes of moving time, 3 hours and 31 minutes of stopped time, 36.4 miles per hour average moving time, 11.5 miles per hour overall average, and a max speed of 78.6 miles per hour. 

After my Day 45 visit to the Harris County Juvenile Justice system, I hurried along I-10 just over an hour away to the Taylor Career and Technology Center in Beaumont ISD.  This is a place "where minds and hands work together."

It strikes me that if there were more places like Taylor Career and Technology Center, our juvenile justice system might be smaller.  Taylor is an inspiring place.  It gives students a very real world opportunity to apply the knowledge they are learning in their core subjects.  It provides them with a vision that these studies are meaningful and applicable beyond some distant goal of going to college to eventually apply that knowledge to a career.  It gets them started on a career path now, in the restless teenage years of trying to discover one's identity.

That is by no means suggesting these students will not get education beyond secondary school.  In fact, most all of them already are---> while they are completing secondary school.  Taylor partners with Lamar University to place students in work-based learning programs at the Lamar Institute of Technology for which they earn post-secondary credits.  They are getting a jump on their future instead of floundering around like so many secondary students who are just waiting to step on the starting line of a traditional university program. 

Offerings at Taylor include:

• Culinary Arts/Hospitality Services
• Cosmetology
• Business
• Graphic Arts
• Computer Systems Technology & Computer Networking
• Welding
• Metal Trades
• Building Trades
• Auto Collision & Auto Technology
• Child Guidance
• Petrochemical Plant Processing

From the Georgia Aquarium, on Day 27, I headed back west.  Through Gadsden AL to Memphis TN.  Then on to Jackson MS, before making my way for a stay in Marshall TX, then a brief stop in DFW for motorcycle maintenance and family visits, before heading to Austin TX for the Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) annual conference at the Austin Convention Center!  It was a whirlwind 14 days!

In an effort to get up-to-date, below I will note a few highlights and share some pictures from those two weeks.  In future posts I will detail more education stories and insights I picked up along the way.  Hopefully...then I can get totally caught up to today---Day 51, February 20---of my year-long odyssey!  My goal is to get current, then stay current!


On Day 30, in Memphis TN, I met with the administration of a top-notch private Catholic School---> Christian Brothers High School.  What a gracious and progressive bunch of folks.  This high school has a healthy revenue stream and they are using it, in part, to develop and implement 21st century technology solutions to school operations and instruction.  They are blessed with resources beyond what most any public school has and they are using these investments to create efficiencies through technological innovations that are bound to benefit the education of their students.  I intend to discuss these further in future posts.


Mr. Patterson is a very impressive individual.  He is a graduate of Harvard and clearly a passionate advocate for closing the achievement gap for all students.  We discussed the great need for improvement in so many failing schools across our country that, by virtue of their abysmal performance and federal regulations/legislation, the Department of Education should have stepped in some time ago to straighten out.  Yet, the DOE is seemingly unresponsive or otherwise ineffective in enough cases of extreme need that private entities---such as the Hyde Foundation---are pledging to fill the vacuum.  Mr. Patterson and I discussed implications for the public system of private entities gaining a greater foothold in the landscape of American education.  Will this trend create further weaknesses in public education, or will it eliminate some of the chaff so the more worthy public institutions of education can regain their reputation as effective entities?  There is a huge debate to be had here.  Future posts on this blog will explore it in much more depth.

I pulled out from Ray's place in Jacksonville on Day 25 headed to Milledgeville, the antebellum capital of Georgia.  Milledgeville was the state's capital city from 1804-1868 and vestiges of this past are readily evident.  My goal was to stay in this historic city at the home of my friend Sherri Kent for a couple of nights, with a side trip just north to Athens GA, the hometown of my all-time favorite band---> R.E.M.

I never ended up riding to Athens, however, due to forecasted heavy rain that never ended up materializing.  No matter, as I could tell by twenty miles or so upon approaching Milledgeville that this was a special place for motorcycle riding!  The city is located along the geographical fall line, where water from one side of town flows toward the Atlantic Ocean, while water from the other side of town flows to the Gulf of Mexico.  The city has elevations, curves, and a rural setting prime for fun motorcycle touring.  Accordingly, after a night of rest, I spent an entire day exploring the rural roads surrounding this city of around 20,000 people.

While out on the Cycle of Education, I passed the central offices of the Baldwin County Public Schools.  Prominently displayed in the parking lot, on a hill off the road, was a school bus that caught my attention.  Initially I wasn't aware of the program it represented, but I decided to stop for a photo nonetheless.


After researching the program, I discovered that it is an attempt to respond to the anxieties I heard fairly regularly from parents during my time as an administrator and that I have already heard numerous times during Education Ride 365.  Specifically, parents want to be more involved supporting schools in the education of their children, but many are not confident in their ability to do so.  They are looking for guidance and support from the schools that need their support!  Baldwin County Public Schools are wise enough to meet this need.

I am reminded of a comment in response to my January 29th blog entry:

Parental involvement is often advocated as an important component for improving student performance. But the comments in this post indicate that parental involvement can be a detriment if their goals don't align with the goals of the school. If we look across an entire school, does a policy of increasing parental involvement in education help or hinder educators doing their jobs?

Parental involvement can help and hinder educators.  There will inevitably be a measure of both.  The degree to which parental involvement can help rather than hinder can be enhanced, it seems to me, by programs like Baldwin's "Parent University."  This type of program can better prepare parents for participation in constructive engagement.  It can give them the confidence and knowledge necessary for such participation.  It enlists them as active participants and can thereby lend perspective on (and dare I say empathy for) challenges the schools face working with young people in our diverse, relatively permissive society.  It calls them off the bench, teaches them the game plan, then sends them out on the field.

No sizable group of people will participate in any endeavor in a wholly positive manner, but educational institutions can and should better direct and nurture constructive engagement to maximize positive parental involvement.  The effort to do so should be well worth the payoff.

There are other ways educators can maximize the extent of constructive parental involvement.  I intend to discuss these in future posts.  People want to serve constructively in worthwhile efforts. 


My host in Milledgeville---Sherri Kent---is a perfect example.  She served our country in the military for many years, has participated in countless charitable events, and she currently volunteers her time weekly at the world famous Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta...though she lives over two hours away and keeps a busy work schedule.  Her husband Hal was similarly driven to make a difference.  In fact, he was tragically killed just over a year ago by a drunk driver during a charity bicycle ride across the United States.  He gave his life serving others.

On Day 27 of Education Ride 365, Sherri took me to the Georgia Aquarium to share her passion for this amazing educational institution and teach me more about developing an understanding of it.  Below are just a few pictures I took that day of this marvelous place:



Most all people want to serve other beings---of all species---in an effort to make this world a better place.  Many don't know how.  Thank you Sherri for sharing your home, the wonder that is the Georgia Aquarium, and for helping me consider how I and others can better serve all living organisms in a more constructive manner! 

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Riding stats--- Day 25: 245.1 miles traveled, 4 hours and 46 minutes of moving time, 3 hours and 15 minutes of stopped time, 50.9 miles per hour moving average, 30.2 overall average, and a max speed of 75.5 miles per hour.  Day 26: 106 miles traveled, 2 hours and 18 minutes of moving time, 6 hours and 2 minutes of stopped time, 45.8 miles per hour average moving time, 12.7 overall average, and a max speed of 91.9 miles per hour.  Day 27: 231.1 miles traveled, 6 hours and 23 minutes of moving time, 7 hours and 21 minutes of stopped time, and a max speed of 81.4 miles per hour.

The next leg of my trip, once again, hugged the east coast on Highway 1A...this time from Flagler Beach up to and through St. Augustine to the home of Ray King (pictured below) in Jacksonville. 


I was on schedule...until the beauty of St. Augustine Beach summoned me and The Cycle Of Education to a side road in front of a long-established house.  I stopped to take a photo of the historic lighthouse that graces the backyard of this relatively small, unassuming home. From the website:

A Spanish watchtower, built in the late 1500's was the predecessor of the present St. Augustine Lighthouse. St. Augustine is the site of the oldest aid to navigation in North America. The original watchtower became Florida's first lighthouse in 1824. However, by 1870, the tower was threatened by shoreline erosion and construction began on the current lighthouse. The new tower was completed in 1874. The old tower succumbed to the sea during a storm in 1880.

The only good angle I could get to photograph it was from the front of a small home tucked into a small neighborhood behind a small elementary school.  After parking the cycle and grabbing my camera, I heard a voice invite me into the backyard for an even better angle.  The voice came from behind a screened door and, with cane in hand, the owner of the voice and home---Halver A. Stedman---then took a few steps outside to put a face with the voice.  I thanked him and proceeded to the backyard for a few shots. 


After doing so, I almost headed straight for the motorcycle to get going to Ray's in Jacksonville (as I was already going to arrive later than planned), but I felt an obligation to thank the gentleman for allowing me into his backyard.  So I approached the screened door and could see him sitting there in a recliner holding a cigar and sipping what I later discovered was a glass of brandy.  Halver rocked himself up out of his recliner and came to the door for what turned out to be a most pleasant 20-or-so minute chat before he invited inside to continue our discussion. 

We had a great deal to discuss--come to discover--because he was an educator for 49 years before retiring in 2007.  In fact, he played a significant role in the public education system serving St. Augustine FL over the past half century.  He is a most interesting part of its history.

His career in education started after serving four years in the active military (and another fours years in a part time military role) during the 1950s.  Following his four years of active duty, he began preparing himself to be an educator.  In 1958, after also playing semi-pro baseball while preparing to teach, he was hired in his home state of Maine to teach five subjects AND serve as the high school principal!  Yes, his first year as an educator--1958--he was the principal as well as a teacher of multiple subjects!  I asked him how this came to be and he told me that the coach of his semi-pro baseball team just so happened to also be superintendent of the schools!  Often times who you know is at least as important as what you know.


Four years later, after his mom called the superintendent in the St. Augustine schools asking if they had any openings so she could coax Halver down to Florida, he was hired to teach Math in the district he would serve for the next 24 years of his career.  That was 1962 and it would be eight more years before he was principal again.  Leading up to his first principal position in Florida, Halver studied elementary education expecting to be named to an elementary school principal position.  Instead, in 1970 St. Augustine was integrating the races in their schools and he was asked to take charge of the high school under those tumultuous circumstances. 


He recounted how even parents who basically agreed with integration (or at least where not opposed to it) felt a tremendous amount of pressure and concern that they or their children would face repercussions as a consequence.  He also noted that it was difficult to prevent bullying of the black children due to the practice of large groups of white students surrounding them to, in essence, shield the bullies from intervention by teachers and administrators.  We have come a long way in America.

After serving the first decade of integration at that high school, Halver Stedman was named the first principal of the district's new "Nease High School."  I went by there and can say...that is one beautiful high school.  He served as principal there for the first five years of its existence and had just reached the point of it humming along when he learned that both of his assistant principals would be leaving that same year.  Just when he could have relaxed a bit from the huge responsibility of launching a large high school (as well as the prior ten shepherding in integration at the other), he now faced the prospect of yet another beginning---> building a new administrative team. 


Just at that time, the little elementary school his house sits behind had an opening for campus principal.  He could walk there in less than a minute.  They had, by his telling, an excellent faculty.  It was simply too enticing for a man who had just seen the district through integration of a high school and, then, the opening of a new flagship high school....with 17 years of service as a principal in the district and 28 years of total experience as an educator.  Then, after a year as principal of the elementary campus, Flagler College offered him an opportunity to teach on their campus.  He accepted and went on to serve there until 2007.


Halver Stedman was a dedicated, accomplished educator for a total of 49 years!  How respectable is that!


I was lucky to make his acquaintance.  It was hard to leave his delightful company!  He and his wife, a former school nurse for many years, even invited me to stay at their home in Maine this summer when I take Education Ride 365 up there!  I plan to do so!


Ray King was understanding when I arrived at his home in Jacksonville several hours later than I said I would.  He knows my mission on Education Ride 365 is, first and foremost, to discover ever more about education in America!  After my arrival, he and I went out for a late dinner, spoke about his fond memories of the quality schools he attended as a child (and now lives next to) in the heart of Jacksonville, before turning in for rest to prepare for a scenic ride the next day back to St. Augustine for lunch and to give me time to visit the sights.  Ray was a kind and interesting host!


St. Augustine is a most beautiful city!  My favorite city on this journey thus far!  If you've never been...think about visiting St. Augustine---> the oldest city in America!

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Riding Stats: Day 23---84.64 miles traveled, 2 hours and 7 minutes of moving time, 4 hours and 59 minutes of stopped time, 39.8 miles per hour moving average, 11.9 miles per hour overall average, and a max speed of 84.64 miles per hour.  Day 24---146.4 miles traveled, 4 hours and 10 minutes of moving time, 4 hours and 3 minutes of stopped time, 35.1 miles per hour moving average, 20.2 miles per hour overall average, and a max speed of 84.1 miles per hour.