Donna's Dispatch
June 2008
A message from Donna Bernard
Superintendent of Schools
Greetings to you from the Superintendent’s Office.
I do appreciate you taking a moment to read so many of the articles in these Coventry Monthly issues. There is so much information regarding our school and community happenings provided in these pages. It has been quite an eventful spring, for sure, especially as it relates to our students achieving awards and recognition from so many sources. We appreciate this magazine as a vehicle for sharing information.
There are many “good news” moments in our work as educators, but surely this spring we have had our fill of challenges as well.
Like young people, adults have varying degrees of resilience when handling life’s challenges, crises, and disappointments. This resilience is related in part to one’s world view as an optimist or pessimist.
J. L. Patterson summarizes these tendencies on an Optimism-Pessimism Scale, which include four categories: Unrealistic Pessimist, Realistic Pessimist, Realistic Optimist, and Unrealistic Optimist. With the many social, psychological, academic, and financial challenges facing schools, it is quite easy for some to demonstrate a more pessimistic view.
However, it is true that those who serve children well tend to function more within the Realistic Optimist range. When productive, successful educators consider their expectations for future success, they are not Unrealistic Pessimists who “can’t see any possibility for a positive future.” Nor are they Realistic Pessimists, who “hold low expectations that anything good will happen.” Certainly they are also not Unrealistic Optimists who “assume that the best case scenario will happen.” In tough times such as these in education, the productive educator is the Realistic Optimist who “believes good things happen, but it will require a lot of work.”
Our staff continues to be willing to put forth lots of work in the interest of Coventry’s young people.
We are Realistic Optimists. Thank you for YOUR support.
Donna
May08
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Dec07/Jan08
November 07
October 07
September 07