A week before the first day of school, Pea Ridge school teachers were challenged with: "What's your Why?"
"Why are you here?"
"Why do you get out of bed in the morning?"
"Why am I here?" Dr. C.J. Huff, educator and superintendent of Joplin schools, asked Pea Ridge teachers and administrators. "It's a legitimate question to ask. It's a tiring job to be an educator.
"I guarantee you that next Monday there will be students coming to the first day of school who didn't have a bed to sleep in, who didn't have breakfast, who didn't eat all weekend," Huff said.
"Why did God put you on this earth? Why are you here?
"Why do you get out of bed every morning? If it's for the paycheck, you know it's not the right reason," Huff said.
"Every child does have a dream. If you ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, they'll tell you. The conversations we have with children about their dreams are important," he said, adding that no adult should dismiss or trivialize a child's dreams.
Pea Ridge school superintendent Rick Neal introduced Brent Ferguson, FFA president, who introduced Huff.
Neal said: "We're one week closer to kids. A year ago, I traveled to Joplin to talk about crisis planning...
"Dr. C.J. Huff has been an inspirational piece of my life. He's a great partner for me," Neal said.
The partnership has spawned Bright Futures Pea Ridge, an integral part of Neal's passion to minister to children.
Huff said there are two things that will lift children out of poverty -- the quality of their education and the quality of relationships.
He said there are three fatal mistakes adults and educators make concerning children.
• Belief that children have a right to fail.
• Belief that poor kids aren't as capable.
• Belief that when adults take care of children (other than their own) we are perpetuating a system of entitlements.
Huff said that the Joplin schools had only a 54 percent graduation rate in 1996 and that he was inspired to help students stay in school and graduate.
"One of the first dropouts I saves is a biochemical engineer," Huff said, adding a story about another child who did not have good relationships in his life, was disconnected and was never identified as gifted, but was encouraged to stay in school and ultimately scored extremely high on a GED test.
There are three things to do helping children in poverty, Huff said.
1. Never let poverty be an excuse!
"Child well-being and academic achievement --one doesn't happen without the other. What are we doing as a community to wrap our arms around them to make sure they're living up to they're potential," Huff challenged the teachers. "Taking care of our children and academic achievement run parallel."
2. Make sure we have at least one caring adult in the life of every child!
"We all have to have somebody in our lives being a champion for us. That's our responsibility to make sure every child does have a champion," Huff said, telling of a school in which there is great poverty where the administrator made sure that every employee in the building, including custodial and cafeteria staff, was assigned three students who they would speak to, encourage, every day.
3. Tell the story of your kids!
"I don't know about you, but I own those kids," Huff said of his possessiveness towards his students when he was a classroom teacher. "People need to know those kids exist. There's a way to share those stories.
"If people know these things are happening in your community, they'll help. There is a child being beaten at home and coming to school with a lot of baggage. We need to engage our community in a way we need to engage them."
Huff told of a child in one of his first years of teaching whose mother was "MIA," absent from his life, a father in prison and who was being raised by two grandparents, the grandfather was a drunk and the grandmother was a meth addict. "He was a sharp kid but he was on a one-way track to prison. He was going to follow in his dad's footsteps. We loose too many kids to situations like that."
"Memories of him still haunt me," Huff said. "We shouldn't finish our careers wondering what happened to those kids."
"God put me on this earth because I love kids. Period. The end. I fight for the underdog," Huff said. "I'd encourage you to do that, too. Quitting isn't in my vernacular. We shouldn't quit on our kids."
"Why do I get out of bed every morning?" Huff said. "If I don't get out of bed for them, who will? You can't quit on any kid. We have a responsibility as caring adults to make sure every kid is successful."
"Find Your Why!"
"Keep our children's dreams alive!"
"We need to make sure those big dreams don't get little as kids get older," Huff said.
Community on 08/13/2014