You’ll never believe this, but I was a bit of a rabble-rouser in school. That issue came up several times this week.
I started in Plano, where the school district was having a parade to celebrate the Mayors Summer Interns. The district’s public relations person had invited media to attend. We were allowed to attend… as long as we didn’t talk to anyone.
At an event celebrating summer interns, she “couldn’t make that leap” to see why kids outside the exact same event were asking how their next school year could be affected by COVID, so she refused to let me ask a school board trustee who was standing approximately two feet behind her.
A couple days later, I was at an unrelated event in Frisco where they were welcoming new teachers to the district. Their Chief Academic Officer offered information about how they were working to keep kids’ education moving forward.
It’s almost as though, when officials are allowed to speak with the media, they provide better information than a public relations person intervening and warning a reporter, “We wanted you to come to our event, but we had no idea you’d ask questions.” Plano ISD may not be reading my blog.
In fact, Frisco’s chief academic officer and I had a good talk about the importance of teachers getting involved in their community.
Teachers could talk with local business owners and make contacts. Then when they have a lesson where an outside speaker might give some perspective, the teachers already have a guy they can call to come talk to their class. Or they can help a student showing interest in a particular subject pursue that interest outside the classroom.
“Strong point,” I explained, making the story about me. “You mean like the time a teacher who noticed I wouldn’t shut up and was constantly asking questions gently encouraged me to work for the school paper?”
That is what he meant. And in fact, I do remember things about Oedipus:
1.) Oedipus was a dirtball.
2.) His brother, Oedipus Tex, was the subject of a musical featuring the phrase, “Ain’t no one tells this cowboy what to do.”
I may adopt that as my slogan, just with the less Oedipus-ish themes.
I had a teacher who embraced my rabble rousing and recognized it could be a force for good. That same teacher made us diagram Shakespeare’s sonnets. That may not have been much fun at the time, but Loyal Scaiaholics know it’s given me a million dollar business idea.
That encouragement from teachers helped me become successful, and it’ll help the next generation do the same. As long as they don’t need information from the public relations staff at Plano ISD.
