educating for the journey

Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous patience.
- Hyman Rickover

Ever wonder why we do all that we do? Why do i feel like i am constantly pushing people to a place they resist? Do you ever wonder if anyone appreciates it? I do, more then i care to admit. How many hours or days of my life have i spent getting something just right only to have it attended or noticed by a handful of people. It is frustrating for sure and sometimes leaves me wondering why?

Of course the obvious answer is that is that we believe in what we are doing - which i do - completely. However, a little payday like today helps too.

I am not going to go into what we have been through with Ustream, SmartBoards, Projector, Codecs, Mac v. PC, PolyCom, bandwidth - blah blah blah. Trust me it is more than i want to remember or you want to hear.
I spent all day running and chasing and tweaking and turning trying to get our live streaming of our seniors’ oral defenses just “so.” Just when you start wondering why? your headmaster pulls you aside to share a story with you:

“I just got an email from ___’s mother. She’s ecstatic! She wrote me the message from her office while watching her daughter’s oral defense - she is incredibly thankful for the opportunity we’ve allowed her. Then not two minutes later i receive an email from __’s father who is in the Miami Airport - away on business - he too had just finished watching his pride and joy’s oral defense on a break between meetings”

The real audience Ustream is providing for our seniors, the tools these videos become for current and future students and classes, the academic buzz in the High School hallways, classrooms and staff is one thing - but helping a father be “there” for the culminating event in his daughter’s high school career from Miami - that simply just feels good.

Join us tomorrow and for the rest of the week - here.
A schedule of times and topics can be found here.
(All local times - one hour ahead of NYC)