By Anne L. Bryant
10/26/04 — One of the privileges of my job is that I have the chance to meet with our General Session speakers before their presentations at the NSBA Annual Conference. Last spring, I had the wonderful experience of speaking for more than an hour with Christopher Reeve before he joined us in Orlando.
Through that conversation — and later in person — I came away struck by the extraordinary courage of this man.
As most of you know, Reeve, who died Oct. 10, was an actor (most known for his role as “Superman”), a director, a father, and an activist for spinal cord research. Reeve has demonstrated immense courage in the nine years since he severed his spinal cord in an accident during an equestrian competition.
He demonstrated in his life and in his speech at our conference some attributes that I believe are very common to school board members.
He spoke about his brother, Jeffrey, a teacher in Vermont, who has given him an extraordinary appreciation of the day-in and day-out challenges of being a schoolteacher in a rural community.
Reeve also spoke to us about the role of school board members and how much he admires the work you do.
He told us a story about how a teacher in Arizona was dismissed after teaching his students the play, “The Shadowbox,” which includes scenes about a man dying of AIDS. The play’s treatment of homosexuality had upset some parents, and the school board agreed that this topic was not appropriate for the classroom.
When Reeve and his colleagues in the Creative Coalition heard about the incident, they decided to get involved. Reeve and a group of other actors came to Tucson to put on a reading of “The Shadowbox.” They invited teachers, students, school board members, and community members, and held a discussion afterward.
The audience was mesmerized, Reeve recalled. There was a standing ovation. People came away with a greater acceptance of their fellow human beings. The school board apologized to the teacher and invited him back.
The community learned first hand about courage and values — courage to be leaders in the community, courage to speak the truth.
That’s often what school board members do every day. And it’s why I admire your work and your passion.
Whether your schools are labeled “in need of improvement” or “proficient” under No Child Left Behind, you know you need to tell the community what the data really means. You know it’s still only one measure of a child’s education and a school’s effectiveness.
School boards make courageous decisions every day. It takes courage to keep arts and music in the face of pressure to hire a second athletic coach. It takes courage to initiate conversations with teacher leaders before contract negotiations about adopting a new form of assessment, extending teachers’ time, or rewarding teachers for what they achieve rather than merely for longevity.
It takes courage to support a superintendent when you know a tough personnel decision he made is right for the students but will make some parents angry.
Christopher Reeve fought for stem cell research. School boards often have to fight to make sure that research and data are taken into account when making decisions. Reeve kept pushing the medical establishment to work harder and faster on spinal cord injury research. School board members must drive school reform with equal passion and a sense of urgency.
Reeve was a leader of ideas. He stood up for what he believed. He angered some. But in the end he had a whole lot of admirers, and I am certainly one of them. Our hearts go out to his wife, Dana, and their 11-year-old son, Will. Their loss must be as large as the man’s presence.
But they know what we all know — that Reeve’s legacy will live on through the work of others, through what he set in motion.
School board members, your work is equally important. Your passion about our children and their future drives you to extraordinary lengths. Maintaining the courage to do what is right can be hard.
As Winston Churchill wrote, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because it is the quality that guarantees all others.”