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Raising Bar

Reading this story about two teens from Louisiana made my day. What a wonderful achievement ! The coolness of the accomplishment was only a small part of it for me. These young ladies were fortunate to be in school environment where everyone believes they can and will succeed. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Too many people are invested in the success of these women for them to fail. It brought to mind a very contrary example that I have seen. The school principal in this instance from a very rich county with no dearth of resources, tells the incoming freshman class that coming to school every day is an expectation. There was no mention of anything else they were supposed to accomplish during the most important four years of their young life.

I happened to be in the audience that evening with another parent and was absolutely stunned by what I heard. There was no scenario in which a student could thrive or be successful if the bar is so horribly low. It was no surprise to see a lot of bad outcomes in years to follow for many kids I know that went to the school. Each one of them was turned into a lost opportunity by that school's leadership and the bad culture that permeates from there. The young ladies from Louisiana had exactly the opposite experience and so it seems does every woman who attends that school. They are exceptionally lucky - their school has the kind of leadership others would be very wise to emulate. Its too bad that this school is the exception and not the norm in this country. 

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