President's Column: When it comes to goal setting, reach high

By Mossi W. White

1/28/03 -- When I was 13 years old, I set a goal. You might not think that was a particularly significant thing. Most of us set goals all the time.

But actually it was a big deal, because setting goals was fairly unusual in my age group in my culture. So now you know I was a rather visionary and proactive young person! Well, I have to confess, unless I had died, there was no way I was not going to reach my goal. My goal, you see, was to become 17.

I am not sure why I chose 17. I do not believe the number itself was particularly significant, but what I thought would happen on my 17th birthday was. I had always adored my maternal grandmother. She was intelligent, wise, kind, loving, patient, compassionate, and beautiful. Somewhere underlying my goal was the dream that I could become like her, and it would happen on my 17th birthday.

I can tell you that my 17th birthday was an enormous disappointment! I was still exactly the same person I had been before. Where had I gone wrong? I now realize that I had set a goal that would automatically be reached, but which had very little to do with the dream behind my goal. And the dream could not remotely be reached automatically.

I think that my problem was that I loved fairy tales. Who doesn't love the story of Cinderella? The fairy godmother comes and waves her magic wand and presto -- all problems disappear. Magically, there is the prince, the ball, and the happy-ever-after. What is there not to love about that?

Fairy tales for the most part teach very sound principles, as does the story of Cinderella. I had just been reading it wrong.

Cinderella was, in fact, the hardest working person in the story. She served her wicked stepmother and stepsisters from early morning until late at night, and she did it with a most wonderful attitude. She sang as she worked, and she made friends with all who crossed her path.

She was in dismal circumstances, she faced big obstacles, but she never complained. She just went about doing all the work that needed to be done, while she made sure to enjoy everything that was positive and beautiful. Late at night, after having served others all day, she made preparations for herself to attend the ball.

It was only after she had done absolutely everything she possibly could do that the fairy godmother appeared.

As school board members, we need to take great care as we set our goals for our boards and our districts. Sometimes we do not set the goals that contain the ultimate dreams. Instead we compromise and set lower goals because we know they are more easily (or automatically) attainable. If our goals do not reflect what is absolutely best for children then they are the wrong goals even though they may appear to be good.

I heard of a school board member recently who thought we should find a way to compromise over a tuition tax credit bill. Wrong! Reaching compromises can in many instances be good goals, but never when they run contrary to the best interests of our children.

I once taught a workshop on the Key Work of School Boards where one participant exclaimed at the end, "this is too high a goal and way too much work. We can do less and still be better than in the past." Wrong! Anything less than the best is not a good enough goal when it comes to our children and their education.

Our federal government has now mandated a goal for us with the No Child Left Behind Act. It is actually a wonderful goal because it embodies our ultimate dream that no child ever again will be left behind in this great country. Unfortunately, it is an unfunded mandate which comes to us at a time when most of us are already facing severe state budget shortfalls and funding cuts.

Does that make it an impossible goal? Well, remember Cinderella! This is the time when we must work harder and more efficiently than ever before. We must unite our voices, all 95,000 of us, on the local, state, and national level to get the needed resources and to get the public support for our goal. And then, when we have done absolutely everything we can -- that is when the miracle will happen.

Happy New Year, my fellow board members.