School Days!

Hello, I'm Dick Foth, and welcome to Known Stories to Make Sense of It All. You say that's a bit of an audacious claim, stories to make sense of it all. How are you going to do that? I think by listening to the story of an individual, it puts skin on truth, and it informs our own lives. Although these podcasts are about those kinds of conversations and reflections, and the hope is that as we explore other people's worlds and journeys, we get help for our own. At the heart of it all, we want to engage the story of Jesus of Nazareth, to get perspective, actually, for how life really works. Thanks for tuning in. Let's do this. The sound of children playing on a playground takes us back to those of us who were older, to a time in our lives that was probably more simple, certainly more fun, and a time of great creativity. A playground was where things came together, different kids from different backgrounds, cultures came together, it was a meeting place. There's a geographic place like that in the United States. It's the only place in the country where four states come together at the same point. That point is 37 degrees, North latitude, 109 degrees, West Longitude, and it's where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico come together. The region is called the Four Corners. And much of it is both populated and owned by semi-autonomous nation called the Native American Nations of the Navajo, Hopi, Utah, and Zuni. It's a rural, rugged, erud area, but some fascinating things have happened there and continue to happen there because of the people who come from there. And I want you to meet two of them this morning. This is where four corners and playgrounds intersect. My guests this morning are Dan and Tommy Sue Cox. They are a delightful man and woman, a lovely couple who happened to be in education. She is from Shiprock, New Mexico. He is from a town 40 miles north called Cortez, Colorado. She comes from the Navajo Nation and it's there that will pick up our conversation. So you are half Navajo? I am. What's the other hand? My dad is so white and chopped on Cherokee, so my dad's side of the family is from Oklahoma. You've got it all. Yes, I do. You're the real American. Yes, yes, thank you. Can you speak Navajo? I can. Can you? Can you say good morning? Yes, yes. I have been. I do that. How people meet is always fascinating to me. And along the way, Tommy Sue moved 40 miles north from Shiprock to Cortez and Cortez, Colorado. And in high school, they connected. Even though they were very different people, so I asked her, so what kind of person were you? Ban Geek and you know, smart kid and Dan was a jock, you know, he was like, and I had this perception that athletes were not very smart. So he's not as smart as you? No. He wasn't at the time. But you helped him. Right, right. No. That's great. In our lives, especially in the teenage years as we're moving from home to the larger world, we oftentimes ask ultimate questions about the nature of the universe and is there a god? Well, Dan and Tommy Sue had some thoughts on that. When in your mind, if you can think of this, did God become more than a word to you? Youth camp in Cedar Edge, Colorado, in high school. And we had a guest speaker and his name is Dave. And now I wish like, is it Dave Cook? Tommy was a missionary. Dave Grant. Dave Grant. Thank you. Dave Grant. Yeah, sure. He's still going strong in 70 or 71. You know, and what I do remember him speaking and just talking about God was more than just this man with a hammer up in the sky and it really was a shift for me and how I perceived God through his message about two times. My earliest recollection of God was like at a Sunday school, my paternal grandparents took me to church in a Methodist church in Shiprock. And I remember going to like a Sunday school. I just had this memory of like a flannel board lesson kind of, but I didn't really have a relationship with God until I was 13 and a friend of mine invited me to go to the Youth Convention at our church. And I gave my heart to the Lord when I was 13 and just really desired a relationship with Jesus and that love. I don't think it's too much of a reach to say now that they had the God piece. I put that in quotes, sort of nailed down or at least the journey started. When we find it okay, what are we going to do with our lives? What about careers? Turns out they both got into education into teaching. Well, I started in college as a business administration. My dad, again, all my dad's side were all educators, my grandpa, my dad, my nanny, everybody is educators and they kind of begged me not to become an educator. So I went into business administration. We wanted you to make a dollar. Exactly. Well, you know how you make a small fortune in education. You start with a large fortune. So my second year of college, I took a child's psychology class as part of my, you know, psych requirements and then we did a case study and a head start and I fell in love with the kids. I certainly understand the teaching part, the interaction and the chance to see kids grow. But I'm not quite sure that I got when I was talking to Dan and Tommy Sue was the principal part. How do you move from teacher to principal or maybe for me, even a bit more significant? Why would you do that? As a teacher, it was really difficult to do my job if my principal didn't do his job. I get it. And I found myself in a lot of leadership roles and did that very well and felt like that might be the best next step to support teachers. And so I pursued that. And yeah. You know, it's interesting there's this phrase in the letters that are written in the testimony that says pray for those in authority so that we can have peaceful and God do wise. And usually we reference that because it does in terms of political leadership. But that's true. And then in any capacity, if the leader doesn't do his or her job, then the effects are felt downstream. It's just how it is. So you became a principal that way. How about you? Very similar. Had the opportunity through a course of events to assume different kinds of leadership roles as a teacher within a school building and just made the decision that I could have a greater impact on kids and on teaching and learning in a building if I would aspire to a leadership role like a principal? And part of that has to be, you know, I was president of a small college, which is not dissimilar in some ways, but the person in leadership creates the culture of frames at least fuels the culture. Right. And so if it's a vibrant learning environment that we want, there's certain things you have to do to have that happen. And I have a friend who's in strategic thinking about corporations and other entities. And his phrase is culture, Trump's strategy every time. I wouldn't agree with that that sort of seeps into your pores. I have another friend who says, when good things happen in a house, friendly gets into the walls. And I think that there is a sense of that whenever you walk into an entity, a school, I had the privilege of flying 100 miles off the coast of Virginia once with some friends and landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier and spending the night on an aircraft carrier and absorbing the feel of that culture because it is everybody knows the mission, whatever it is. So the principal sets the mission. So here we are, spring of 2018, an education across the country. And I'll just speak here in the United States. It has always had its challenges just by the nature of it. But it has some big challenges today, whether it's the technological challenges or the family challenges or almost anything. Everything always, that sort of thing. Amidst all the other challenges of a changing culture and changing world and high technology and all of that, I asked Dan if there was one sort of core issue or core foundational piece that they had to deal with on a continuing basis from which other things were precipitated. This is what he said. I have kids in classrooms that live in $3 million homes that sit in a seat next to a kid of where three families might be living together in a mobile home and the kids don't care they're really doing. But that is a good perspective of the diversity challenge in my building. How many students in your little over 300, 300 and how many students do you have here? We have 460 and we're in a different demographic area. And by the way, we just heard a violin in the background and we're in an elementary school in 2018. This is not 1944 where music in schools was sort of expected and especially violin move. We're in the world that that come from. Talk to me about that real quick. About 15 years ago I had a teacher who she was a private violin teacher and was our music teacher and at that time we were around probably 100 fewer students and so we had to make some budget cuts and one of them was to reduce her from 80% to 60%. So she'd be here just three days a week. So she wrote a grant to the local foundation, the Ceromas Foundation for this violin program and we targeted students that at that time we could only take eight students and it was to give kids and poverty an opportunity and instill in them a love of music. And over the past 15 years it's grown from eight students to 160 students kindergarten through fifth grade that have violin and this currently and I mean out of a school of 460. 160. Mm-hmm. Play the violin. They do. Yes. What do you think this is, Europe? I know. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. That is. Yeah. That is for those kids. They do. Okay. Tell me the real thing. Um, so about, um, probably 60% of our students qualify for free for reduced lunch so living poverty and, um, then we have this, this beautiful spectrum of, um, families that live in the local neighborhood and we're in Old Town for Collins. And so there are, you know, million dollar homes. And, um, our district is also very strong in supporting school choice. So the families who stay at Laurel choose to stay here and choose their neighborhood school and And they want the diversity that we have so we have Economic diversity we serve the homeless shelter we take the overflow of families from the women's shelter the crisis center shelter and And then we have families that are independently wealthy and CSU professors and doctors and so we have that diversity and and our ethnic diversity includes the families that are white and Hispanic and two or more races and Native American and African American And any novel can we get to know? No, not anymore. I have one Two of our three children went to school here. So at the time we did and and then Our our learning diversity our kids who have learning disabilities. We have one of Four programs in our district for students with severe learning disabilities severe learning and physical disabilities and students who we have on the other end of the spectrum I guess would be students who are gifted and talented so we have everything in between and again our families who Who love our population and our diversity choose to be here, and it's really beautiful and within that learning atmosphere that that Friendly in the walls culture There is this range of needs from each individual student and Teachers have an enormous task and privilege to To speak to that. I think you can say this of just about every school At least in Northern Colorado if not nationally The number of students who come to us every day in from Some kind of crisis in their life When they're walking in their home in their home life They they walk in with very specific or explicit social emotional learning needs and The challenge is how can we effectively meet those needs for kids while at the same time providing a really rigorous Academic environment because those are those are our kids who may not Do well at taking risks in their learning and and so we need to Regardless of the age We ask kids to come into the classroom every day and think about the world differently We try to approach learning from a perspective of growth mindset in my building I'll ask kids what word do we believe in and the word is yet Because it may be I can't read that book Yet I can't do those math problems yet and when you started to say that word I thought you were gonna say yes. Oh yet, but it is it's trying to approach the world from a growth mindset Here's where I'm at. I learn best from mistakes and that's why I say taking risk in your learning requires you to accept the challenge of making mistakes and And our students who come to us from crisis they They need that safe place with Loving caring adults around them and purers that accept them for who they are and And only building that kind of environment where our students feel safe Can they then take the risks in their learning? It's interesting that you use the word feel say because Advancement or whatever it is doesn't just come from motivational speeches doesn't it has to do with the friendly that gets in the walls That there's a space that one knows but because they feel it when they walk in Atmospheric or atmosphere of a place or a room or a family I don't know about us humans, but we tend to be able to have the we have these sensors that pick that back in the fifties when I was in elementary school or late forties There were three entities that sort of meshed to create in some ways create who somebody was of this educational One was the school one was usually some kind of religious institution Not everybody would have that but a lot of people did and then the family right so to the degree that those three strands are eroded by whatever Things that's a challenge for our kids and we have 12 grandkids and I'm I'm sitting here thinking man. I wish Couple of those lived in North Fort Collins or in love look so they could go to your school Our teachers face the challenge of meeting the needs of 20 to 25 students who come from various backgrounds and various Emotions and needs that they bring every day and the students that Are in their classroom. We want we want to celebrate the diversity that brings challenges to the teacher to be able to meet that those Diversity's students that have learning disabilities and students who are three grade levels above You know, so you're teaching in fourth grade students who are reading first at first grade level all the way to seventh grade level and that Teacher has to have a really strong pedagogical Basket of Tricks, I guess Really have a lot of tools to be able to meet those needs and to be able to Effectively ensure that every student is growing academically and also alongside that meeting their emotional needs and Being the the anchor for their classroom for students to be able to know that this teacher loves me enough to push me hard This I can trust this teacher and we have a strong relationship He or she is going to show up every day for me. They're here for me and that is a foundation that Takes some time to build with some of our kids that come and this has been their 10th school in a year for some of them it seems like but We our teachers are really gifted at that and it takes a special person to be able to teach in a school of high needs So that's the teachers part what about the principal principal has so many roles You Have to be the strategic leader you have to be the academic leader You have to be the facilitative leader in building leadership qualities and those around you and You must be the culture you have the culture leader You have to hold the standard of what of what the culture of your building is high so that So that you never lose sight of that not just from a mission and vision but But also in what do we stand for as a school? What do we believe in what do we believe teaching and learning should look like in our classrooms in our hallways on the playground in the lunchroom? You you really have to you have to You have to be so deeply committed to each of those areas but but primarily deeply committed to To the identity of the school and what it means for your school community So the principal sets the tone So other good things could happen. I'd say in a school like mine It's an opportunity for their children to experience the real life the real life world, you know, just that With our diversity. It's it's pretty unique and for a college honestly They're gonna have students with a lot of challenges and The parents gonna have a lot of opportunities to share with their children how to navigate and learn how to Minister to each other, you know, when you have children serve each other Yeah, that's student that their own children will learn how to love No matter what, you know, they already do that's the beauty of our grade like Dan was describing earlier They don't see the differences They are old enough to be cynics right right? They just love each other and their friendships are genuine the classic phrase in Latin for a teacher Is in local parenthesis in place of the parent Which was a very interesting framework historically So kids go off for however many hours in school each day they come home and What is it that we as parents can do? To build on that experience or to nurture it or to blend with it? I believe it's important to engage in a conversation I don't think it's enough to say How was school today? Yeah No because There's just so many distractions, you know the kiddos walk in there's YouTube or whatever How was school today fine? or Not so good and you have to ask these probing questions But it but really engaging your child in a conversation and some of the most powerful ones are You know Did you play with someone new on the playground today? Who did you talk to in the lunchroom? Who did you sit by tell me about that kiddo but you know or or even tell me to really neat things about that Because it a couple things happen It helps to engage kids in what their day was like in a positive way To remind them that our goal is to to find positive things in the people around us It's much more engaging you don't get the nothing answer um But I also think it helps to build that that principle of empathy and um How can we look at the world through someone else's eyes? So you're saying empathy is created when you have the conversation Around the dinner for our young learners. Yeah, it's for right I at least I believe it is no, and I think it's an important I think you know in many ways Tommy's talking about the richness of the experience of diversity and academic rigor and And doing your best and approaching life you know and and from a perspective of how am I going to be better today than I was yesterday um, but I think it's really important to have that foundational principle of empathy Because it is not just about me, but let's let's see if we can look at the world through the lens of those around us Well, just from these few minutes of conversation It's pretty clear that being a teacher or a principal and administrator in a school of any kind is not for the faint of heart To what degree is is that a calling? Not just a job, but a calling We first got married we went to Southwestern and it was actually with full intention of becoming missionaries We had This idea you know that we were Called to a foreign country to do something really spectacular To be honest with you That year was Personally one of the most miserable times in my life didn't feel like I fit in like You know, it's just It just didn't align with where I felt like God was taking me Went went back to school at evangel Degrees in biology and chemistry and kind of had this idea that I was Gonna go to medical school and I remember being counseled by Dr. Collins and and Dr. Davidson to very stalwart men of God who were in the science department at evangel and And and I remember telling them I I want to become a teacher and Dr. Collins said well, I wondered when you were going to figure it out And so over the course of 28 years of being an educator I've discovered that walking into a public school every day is My mission. It's It's the ministry that God called me to and And I think when you ask about how you hire people You have to really try to dig down to You you asked to do you want to know if they have an understanding of all of that but the other side is You know, whether it's a God calling or or a personal connection Can you live a life daily that's committed to kids And and and so that's kind of where we're at Yeah, this is my mission field To the degree that we feel loving children and helping them grow and learn and be productive people in society is our mission To that degree we always ask for help from others from teachers and And from God we call that prayer And I just pose the question so This is a public environment. What about prayer not not like kneeling in the halls or anything but just this idea of Finding encouragement through prayer. I'm always praying always Yeah, and I actually have a group of Christian teachers who meet once a week and pray For our school You know, the joke is often if as long as there are tests in school they will be prayer in school And I just believe that as long as there are kids in school There will be prayer in school and four schools. I have to admit that sitting and talking with Dan and Tommy Sue was such a refreshing thing and and so encouraging That I couldn't help but reflect on my own experience as a little guy in an elementary school When I was seven years old. I was in a British boarding school in South India It was it had a faith base. So they had little chapels once in a while and And one day a miss Smith from New Zealand gave the talk and at the end she said if you want to know more about Jesus At the end of this chapel go to the principal's office And I often say You know the principal's office is a huge hurdle to the kingdom of God Because I talk to you My thought would be if they came to your offices That wouldn't be true Thank you Tommy Sue Dan. Thanks for being with me. Thank you. Thank you See There was a song when I was growing up a little ditty that went school days school days good old golden rule days What's the golden rule? Do unto others as you want them to do to you As we come to the end of this school year 2018 I think that's a great place to Stop the program and start doing that God bless you You You're listening to this podcast so I know you've got a curious mind Here's a helpful fact you might not know yet Drivers who switch and save with progressive save over $900 on average They make it super simple pop over to progressive.com Answer some questions and you'll get a quick quote with coverage options tailored to your choices Plus you'll see which discounts you may qualify for Like the online quote discount or savings for paying in full In fact 99% of progressive auto customers earn at least one discount See if you could save when you switch to progressive You'll feel good about making a savvy choice Visit progressive.com and see if you can enjoy a little extra cashback Progressive casual T insurance company and affiliates National average 12 month savings of $946 by new customers surveyed Who's saved with progressive between June 2024 and May 2025 potential savings will vary