the intersection of life and grace

Parents of thousands of Albany High School students have been asking that question for quite some time now, in reference to some notorious failures in security, and, most recently, with regard to the utter failure of the school to provide class schedules for it’s 2400+ students.

When I attended the AHS Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) on Monday, September 8, most students spent their first day of school trying to navigate schedules with missing and incorrect classes, and waiting in line to obtain necessary corrections.  I heard both Principal Maxine Fantroy-Ford and Albany City Schools Superintendent Eve Joseph speak of how unfortunate, inconvenient and embarrassing it was to have failed to provide class schedules and cancel the first 2 days of school at Albany High. The parents in attendance at that meeting were quite reasonably asking why this was the case, in addition to addressing longer-term concerns such as security procedures, and the treatment of students.  Many also noted the successes at Albany High which are frequently over-shadowed by the pattern of failures in leadership which lead to security problems, and situations like this scheduling debacle.  No answers were offered then, nor were they given to an emergency session of the School Board on Wednesday, September 10, nor have they been to date.

Yesterday, Friday, September 12, was the day by which the administration said all the schedules would be corrected, all the problems related to scheduling ironed out.  This is not the case.  There remain numerous problems, including classes without classrooms, teachers without class lists, and incredibly large classes.  One Regents-level Physics class of more than 45 students begins each day with a mad race for a seat, and is far too large to conduct the required labs.  No Physical Education teacher has a class roster, so all students assigned to PE in a particular period sit in the locker room for that time while a movie plays on a TV.  Simlutaneoulsy, students assigned to study halls sit in the gyms because no classroom has been assigned.

Today’s Times Union editorial asks the question, “Why, Albany High?” I believe Albany’s students, their parents, and the taxpayers whose extraordinarily high school tax bills were, ironically, paid this week, deserve an answer and a solution to the crisis of leadership in the Albany City Schools that allows such failure to continue.

I’m not looking to excoriate individuals along the path, there are only a few with ultimate responsibility.  I want to see the problem solved for Albany’s students and teachers, who deserve better treatment than this environment of chaos and insecurity on a train of broken promises and mis-stated expectations.  We deserve to know:

• What caused the failure in the scheduling system?  What is required to correct that failure?
• Why were the families of Albany High students strung along instead of given the truth? The timelines and explainations just don’t match up.
• What was the cost of this failure?  Overtime for personnel, the cancelled days, the lost training days for teachers at the high school, and the necessary corrections to the broken places in the system of people and computers accountable for scheduling.
• How will this be avoided in the future?  While the failure to produce schedules is a “new” failure, there have been other related issues (incorrect absence/tardy days on report cards, late report cards, interim reports and more).

Then we can get on with working together to celebrate our students’ achievements and successes, making sure they are safe, and ensuring an excellent learning environment.

It was a gorgeous morning in the north east. The children were back at school and summer was fading into the realm of memories. The business day was beginning and everything seemed so normal. It was a new day.

High overhead, however, there were three places where normal was already gone, where the world as we knew it had already been upended. The rest of us would not apprehend the change for some time yet, but soon all would seem surreal, then excruciating, then numb as the unimaginable reality settled with the dust, debris and ashes.

Is this a joke, a fiction of dark imagination? Will there soon be a disclaimer scrolling across the screen? Was this really possible? Who? Why? Unspeakable grief crept over the watchers as the repeating scenes seared into the national consciousness. It seemed like everyone longed for a connection as phone lines jammed and the internet buzzed and dusty souls wandered dazed through open church doors looking for something to answer the emptiness.

What is ’safe’ really? Does it even exist? Fear fed anger, the ranks closed, the flags flew, the questions raged. Fingers pointed. Freedom changed.

Hate was proclaimed as righteousness by the authors of destruction, their infamy achieved.

We will not forget. It is a new day.

Original work, first posted on this blog 9/11/2007.

I’m a huge fan of permission-based marketing.  Specifically, if I am interested in your product or service – or in this particular case, your candidacy – I will visit your website, or talk to your campaign worker at my door, view your inescapable television commercials, or read any of the dozens of mailers you send to my home.  In other words, I will opt in to hear more if I want to hear more.

Let me be clear.  When I registered to vote, I opted into voting.  My registration indicated my desire to vote.  It did not, in any way, shape or form, indicate that I wanted to have my phone ring off the hook with automated, recorded calls from people I either don’t know or don’t care about their opinion.

In the past few weeks, my work, my family life has been repeatedly interrupted, without my permission, by countless, daily, impersonal, recorded phone calls.  The voter registration form does not say anywhere on it that I’m signing up for anything other than the electoral process and voting in party primaries and elections.  That’s it.

This election “season” has been excruciatingly long; the number of visits, calls and mailings, exceedingly numerous.  But it’s the phone calls that put it over the top.  I didn’t vote for anyone who called my home, which is also my workplace.  Not a single one of you. And, before this happens in another cycle of elections, I’m contacting the Board of Elections and removing my phone number from my registration.  If that doesn’t work, I’ll be removing my party affiliation, as well.  I’m done having my time wasted waiting for the recorded voice to say “hello” so I can hang up and get back to what I was doing.

You’ve wasted enough of my time – stop the political phone calls!

What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you?

The above, typed into a search engine, got someone to this blog today.  I don’t know what he or she read – maybe the couple of posts about Randy Pausch, maybe some of the myriad other posts here about life and faith and grace (and baseball?).  But if I was going to sit down and chat with the asker of that question, I would want to include these three really important things:

• Faith – I have tried my human best to live a life of response to the amazing gift of Jesus Christ; it’s something I learn more about every day that I live it. My decision to trust him as my Savior and follow Jesus as Lord was the single most life-changing and life-focusing of my existence.
• Family – I wouldn’t trade being Tom’s wife or Tim and Cathie’s mom for anything.  Truly.  Not because it’s all wine and roses for us, it’s not.  But because it’s not ever all wine and roses, and we have each other, we never have to endure life’s tough places alone.  People are not wired to live in isolation, we need each other.  Our family is blessed indeed to have one another.
• Work – I do things I love!  I’ve had jobs I’ve felt trapped and tortured in that sucked the life out of me. And I’ve had jobs that were super challenging but gave me joy and energy.  I much prefer the latter and hope that everyone will find that sort of work with which to make a life, but even more so to fulfill their God-imbued potential.

I don’t know how long a conversation the asker and I could have, but I’d want to listen to his or her heart about what is most important, as well.  My hope in posting this is that you, the reader, yes, you, will post your answer as well.  Post here if you like, or post on your own blog and leave a comment here.

Let’s listen to each other’s stories.

We learned this morning that Tom’s sister, Noreen, and her husband, Dave, got an out-of-the-clear-blue-sky  call from their adoption agency last night, telling them there was a baby girl waiting for them and they could receive her today.  As I write (11:10 am), they are on their way for their 12:30 pm appointment to meet their daughter, who they will call Hannah Grace.

Hannah Grace was born Thursday, September 4; a healthy baby weighing 8 lbs, 1 oz and measuring 21 in.  Please join us in praying for this new family as they are joined together, for smooth navigation of the legalities of the adoption, and in giving thanks for the woman who gave this precious gift to our family.

Wanted to let you know that tomorrow, Saturday, September 6, 2008, has been proclaimed Youth Worker Appreciation Day by one of the leading global cheerleaders for youth ministry, Youth Specialties.  They’ve worked out some fun with a long list of Christian retailers, so check their special Youth Worker Aprreciation Day website to see if there is something going on near where you are.

I hope this catches on, and that churches will pick up on honoring youth ministers (and all the adults involved in ministry to youth!) on Sunday, September 7.  Mike offered some great suggestions for thanking youth leaders which would make a great personal thank you in addition to a public word/gift of thanks in a Sunday service (or instead of, where the church didn’t get something together).

From a post at Gifted for Leadership:

I’m tired of hearing people speak “for women,” making claims about who we are and what we want. I hear constant references to “women voters” as if we were a voting bloc or a powerless group who needs special representation. We’re not powerless; we’re not exceptions to the norm; we’re not even a minority group. We’re slightly more than half the population, and the only thing we all have in common is a small piece of our genetic code. We don’t all think alike and care about the same things. Would anyone ever be so ridiculous as to think of men in the same way? If a handful of powerful woman can speak on behalf of all women, why do we need so many powerful men? Who are they speaking for?

Believe me: I’m not bashing men. In fact, the real offenders here are women who claim to speak for all of us, and women who let them. Why do so many of us want every other women to think, act, behave, live, speak, and believe as we do? Why do we feel the need to exercise this kind of control? Do we believe it legitimizes us? Is it a symptom of loneliness or insecurity? Do we still believe women are second-class citizens?

Regardless of the outcome of this election, clearly times have changed. The next administration will be like no other. This is the end of the era of the stiff, dull, crabby old guys in suits. Let’s hope the “I speak for all women” claim ends here too.

“How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”

Wisdom from Othello, William Shakespeare. Dedicated to all who are in a hurry to heal wounds that require more patience than pressure.

Yes, that song.  R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

The church has a respect problem when it comes to asking people for time and talent contributions.  In other words, the church has a problem respecting the above-and-beyond work and family efforts of her people, and there’s no 12-step program to help.  Every church and ministry I’ve ever been involved with, and a great number I’m quite familiar with, suffers from this problem.

What does it look like?

Being unprepared for meetings with volunteers, making it difficult for them to do what you asked them to do.  Expecting work for free for the church/ministry when the person you’re asking makes his/her living doing that work.  Dragging your feet on a project and/or making it impossible to do the project well, saying things like “no rush” (possibly deluding yourself that you’re working with the volunteer’s schedule, when you’re actually wasting his/her time and drive to be excellent at what you’ve asked).

Now, to be fair, there are volunteers who are unprepared; there are volunteers who initiate the offer to do valuable work for free (and even spend assets to make it happen); there are volunteers who drag their feet and bring lots of excuses to the table.  As a leader, would you be satisfied with that?  I’m guessing, unless you have a very view of volunteers (sounding something like “they’re the only help I’ve got/can afford, I’ll have to make do”), that this is not what you’re looking for in people resources and talent offerings.  Then why, oh why is it acceptable in leaders?

How to get your R-E-S-P-E-C-T back.

• Get rid of the spirit of poverty.  God has placed every person, gift and talent your ministry needs to grow the Kindgom within reach.  If you are lacking, it’s because you’re not looking; you’re not empowering; you’re not raising up the standards and seeking excellence.
• Take the time to plan and prepare, in advance.  Once a leader has identified a volunteer’s talent and asked him/her to contribute it to a particular ministry, show respect to that gift by giving clear direction, bringing the necessary information to the table to ensure the volunteer has all that’s needed to see the role to successful completion in an appropriate amount of time.

• Remember that volunteer time (all non-staff-person work at a church!) is above and beyond personal discipleship, family time, and professional responsibilities.  Those are built-in realities, not excuses, so it’s incredibly poor form to a leader to complain about being over-worked/over-taxed on time because of working with volunteers on a project or ministry team.

• Give projects clear expectations and direction which apply to all members of the project/ministry team.  Set the example of being on-time, prepared to give clear direction, run concise meetings when needed, watch for signs of strain on your people (are the same dozen people involved in everything?) and take steps to alleviate it (what are the abilities/gifts of the people not involved in anything?)

This idea goes hand-in-hand with a general cultural disregard for respect, which plays out in the ways we exploit and make fun of individual’s difficulties and struggles and call it humor.  So commonplace, this dynamic, that people actually line-up for the honor of being exploited and made a mockery (the first half of every season of American Idol, anyone?).

A little respect, sockittomesockittomesockittome…