Ten Year Olds and Dreams

There was an article in the Seattle Times on Wednesday, February 24th, that talked about the United States Nordic Combined Olympic team. The United States had never won an Olympic medal in a Nordic Combined event. Until this year.

This year, the United States won one individual medal and one team medal. The article talked about the effort of the US team and their excitement at winning this medal. It spoke of how long these athletes had been working to get to this point and their satisfaction and joy on reaching their goal.

What struck me most about the article however, was the last sentence. It read, "And only a fool would bet against a 10-year-old with a dream."

This captures our goal in Grand Ledge. I want our school district to do two things. One, I want us to help 10-year-olds learn to dream. I want us to help every student in our district learn to dream, to hope, to have a vision for what they passionately care about. Then I want us - the teachers, administrators, and staff who work here - to be able to give them the skills, the passion, and the heart they need to succeed.

The vision for our district is to be among the best schools in the nation. One way to do that is to make sure we help students dream about the future and then prepare them to achieve those dreams.