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Perspective Newsletters
Winter 2008 - 2009
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Page 1
Dear Friends of the Foundation:
Dear Friends of the Foundation: Happy 2009: students, parents, staff and all friends
of the Foundation!!
I am sure everyone is painfully aware of the serious challenges facing all of us.
Unemployment, displacement, loss of housing, budgets being cut drastically including
everything from household budgets to government budgets, credit card debt and tightening
of available credit, and the list goes on and on. Undoubtedly, each of us will feel
the effects of the economic crisis over the next two years.
At the same time, we will face these problems and life will go on. Maybe in two to
three years time when we think of the winter 2009, images of President Obama’s inauguration
will come to mind and the pain of the economic situation will not be as stark. I
do not mean to underscore the importance or intensity of what we will all face but
knowing what lies ahead can help us get there. It can also get us started working.
But first it is going to hurt some.
Three things may help guide us through this process.
One, knowing that we can face crises and come out the other end often helps us get
through them. We can recognize the process, the pain, adjustments, sacrifices and
work to come and simply get on with it.
Two, we learn from crises and solving problems. Most likely, every advance man has
made in history was in response to solving a problem. Medical care, cars, airplanes,
computers, governments, and schools all came about in response to a need or problem
affecting a community of people.
Three, we do better when we team up and help one another.
Let us look at what we expect our students to do.
One: we ask them to face life’s challenges directly. We advocate introspection, positive
confrontation, growth, personal development and education as broadly as possible.
Our students often have to take a hard look at themselves and the choices they have
made and might make. Besides willingness, what makes this work and what they might
carry forward is the ability to put everything else on hold and reflect some.
They learn that this special time and process is powerful. They learn that crises
have a beginning, middle and end and knowing so puts them in more command of the
crises while mitigating some of the anxiety. Einstein once stated: “Problems cannot
be solved at the same level of awareness that created them”.
Many of our students know this first hand. Consequently, they learn to enter into
crises, in part, because they have that experience and know they can come out in
a better way.
Two: our students learn, purposely so, that life’s challenges, not unlike the challenges
they might meet in science or history class, can be approached through problem solving.
They will learn from problems. For many young people, light bulbs really do go on
as sudden insights move from the unconscious to the preconscious to conscious awareness.
Short of this, most students learn that they have made choices and can make more
to come to both get into and out of problems. They have learned about the process
and begin to incorporate the process of problem solving into their lives. Problems
can be good things. We can solve them and move forward. We will learn from them and
grow. Within problems lie opportunities.
Three: our students work with other students and with staff. Through positive relationships
and through different counseling protocols, students share with others, offer and
accept feedback, offer and accept personal support and insights and learn to interact
with others in a helping manner.
Notice a parallel?
We can do what we have been telling our students to do.
We can approach the challenges that 2009 and 2010 may bring using the same tools
we encourage the students to use.
We will need to understand, process and react to the situation. It will take a little
time and it will hurt. It will hurt us. It will hurt our friends, families and other
members of our community. However, we also have to look forward and get to work at
some point. We will be dedicated, hopeful and committed. We will expect to come out
the other side, possibly stronger with new knowledge and insight.
We will face problems and apply what we have learned over the years. We can be optimistic
about the outcome(s) to come. In the end we will be stronger and better. This is
how we grow and learn.
We need each other. We need to be united. We need to pull together. We are families,
neighbors, fellow community members and share common interests. Communities pull
together to address community problems. Like our student groups, the power of numbers
is phenomenal. The Great Depression of the 1930s taught a generation of Americans
the value of saving, tightening spending and supporting one another. For many, they
have learned from friends and family members how tough it was and this serves as
a reminder not to stretch yourself too far; save some while also enjoying life.
We received donations this week from, among others, a business partner, a board officer,
a former staff person and an interested community member. It is incredible that such
a variety of people come together to support our mission.
We, the Foundation, all of us: the students, parents, families, staff, partners,
friends, and community members have accomplished much. Given the support and commitment,
we have helped many, many students. We have helped them learn. We have helped them
grow. We have helped them overcome serious problems. We should all be very proud
of this.
We should all be prepared to move forward and tackle more problems knowing that this
will be work, but good work with a payoff at the end and along the way.
Ed Schultze, Ed.D.
President/Executive Director
eschultze@learyschool.org
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