FLRSD Sunday Message, April 28, 2024

Good evening FLRSD,

We hope you enjoyed the weekend and were able to spend more and more time outside as the days are longer and the weather is warming up. Thanks to the work of Town Manager Deb Petty and DPW Director Chuck Macomber and our own Greg Goodwin we are pleased to state the FES playground drainage project is complete. We are also excited that the playground project at AES is complete. We thank Senator Rodrigues, Building Inspector Nate Darling, Interim Director of Finance Deirdre Farrell-Welch and of course, our maintenance team led by Greg Goodwin for all of their efforts in making this happen.

This week at our School Committee meeting we listened with such joy to our first grade students from Mrs. St Onge’s first grade class at Freetown Elementary School, as they spoke about their plant project. This reflected their focus on their hands-on applied learning about plant cycles and it was evident that their academic “why” at this point in their life is draped in their natural curiosity. This discovery is a habit of mind that will be of tremendous value regardless of the path each one eventually takes

On Thursday, at the 35th annual South Coast Conference Academic All Star banquet where ARHS Seniors Hannah Kamara, Morgan Hayward, Taylee Vasquez, Kristina Jorge and Mason Macuch were honored (congratulations to each of them) I began thinking as I listened to the accomplishments of the students from all 10 schools and to the keynote speaker that it is imperative for all of us to find peace and purpose in what we do.

And with that I realized that as we head into the last part of the year as May arrives this week, a question - that has nothing to do with post secondary acceptances, vocational school acceptances, military enlistments, course selection for next year, taking a gap year, military enlistment, transition into grades K, 4, 6, or 9 or anything else - will become the most important question for all of our students and maybe all of us as adults.

The question, what is one’s purpose and what is our why? This is something that we all must help our students begin to think about to find their passion, their dream or their understanding of how to remain on point to reach our goal will wither. Whatever the goal is, and certainly each goal is personal and therefore we must as a district continue to offer a wide variety of k-12 and adult transition academic, extra-curricular and life skills opportunities and experiences which help lay a foundation for future, we must continue to teach and model that nothing just happens because we hope it does. It is our hope that we all, regardless of the goal we have, live our purpose after we find our why. As I have always believed, “when we lose our why, we lose our way” and that is true in every aspect of life.

This story, should you choose to read it, was shared once by a student of mine at her graduation and how two people can want the very same thing and find it in very different ways. She also spoke of how if we wanted peace and to fulfill our why we must not worry about the opinions of others, “the haters” or the noise of those who want something else and feel those who do not agree are “not as smart or understanding” as they are. She went on to say that we should “write your story or others will write your story” from their lens. In psychology this is called fundamental attribution error and in simplest terms it is when we let our own story about someone’s behavior overshadow the actual story unfolding around the person that we often do not know. May this very simple yet powerful “story” resonate in some way.

What would I do then?

Both men in the story are focused on the exact thing, living in peace, yet they approach it very differently. What is most important for everyone to glean from is that both are absolutely right in their approach FOR THEM and in how they are in control of writing their story. We must continue to allow our students to forge their pathway as they slowly learn their purpose and their why.

Speaking of writing one;s story, Social Media has become a haven for keyboard warriors to determine one’s value based upon whatever story one chooses to write and although it might seem innocent, we must teach each student that what they post matters far longer than the in that moment

As the Middle School PTO put on a Digital Safety program I am reminded of the story of Alexi McCammond who received her dream job at the age of 27, as editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue after a successful journalist. This was a job that she dreamed of and worked towards her entire albeit short career, yet before officially starting, she and the magazine parted ways due to hateful tweets she posted ten years prior as a teenager. I encourage each of us to share with our children this story as I shared it with my daughter as the end result is becoming more common than anyone realizes. What our students post is potentially impacting their ability to live their purpose and their why.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/business/media/teen-vogue-editor-alexi-mccammond.html

So many of our Principals, Assistant Principals, Faculty, Staff, Paraprofessionals, Counselors, School Psychologists, Schedulers, Nurses, OT, PT, Speech Therapists,

IT and Library Media Staff, SRO, Coaches, Advisors, School Psychologists, Maintenance, Custodial and Food Service workers everyday work to inspire students to write their own story rather than choosing to write it for them. Combined with a Central Office Staff and Administration, School Committee, Town Officials, First Responders, community partners and of course parents, guardians and loved ones who allow our students to navigate their own pathway to finding their purpose in healthy and positive ways. Sometimes it happens early and sometimes it happens much later in life and as the fisherman and businessman in the story realized, both of those are just fine.

Have a fantastic week

Alan

Alan Strauss, Superintendent

Follow FLRSD @FLRSDsuper on Instagram

With gratitude

Alan

Alan Strauss, Superintendent follow us on instagram @FLRSDsuper

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