Learning with Leaming

Story by Adam Leaming, Ponca City Public Schools/Contributing Writer

Lesson 1) Debate ideas, not people.

It sounds simple, but I found myself caught up to my neck with others on various social media platforms doing my best to help provide information about the school’s bond election. Unfortunately, many different times what followed was a breakdown in communication and then the name calling, nasty messages, or I was labeled and called a liar. At first, this had me feeling down on myself and my community. It feels social media has made it appropriate and easier as a culture to take issue with others as opposed to taking issue with ideas. No matter what we’re discussing, we’re all citizens of some sort of community or global community and kindness and respect for our neighbor should prevail. We can agree to disagree, but you and I are not bad people. Push on me and help me grow and give me the room to push on you and challenge you to grow.

Lesson 2) Don’t lose your voice.

When I first started in on this bond proposal, I had no idea how to capture the voice of our students, teachers, coaches and community. I began to type up pages of notes and ideas. My first few weeks were spent with drafts upon drafts that I felt captured the voice I wanted. In my first presentation, it fell flat. Why? It wasn’t my voice. I was so focused on the external that I lost my casual and fun spirit in the proposal. In fact, it was not a proposal I wanted to present on; I wanted to have a conversation. A conversation on how I believed if the bond passed how it could positively impact the lives of our students and our community. Once I found that voice, it felt much more comfortable when visiting with others about the bond. Lesson 3) Be thankful and appreciative.

Throughout the entire process of this last bond cycle, I found myself increasingly thankful for living in a community that embraces education. Apologies to the crude oil that flows to our refinery, but our most precious natural resource are the children and students who are in the rooms and hallways of each of our schools. The dedicated professionals who show up each day aiming to build a relationship with our students in the classroom and in our extracurriculars remind me daily of how blessed we are in this community. Nearly 82% of the voters said yes in October. This is incredible. I live with five people in my house, and I have yet to get 80% approval on what’s for dinner. I shared this fact with our principals and district administrators in our last monthly meeting – 82% of the voters believe in us and believe in our community. While we can get bogged down with negativity or vocal critics of the school system, the overwhelming majority believe in our public education system and believe in us to make good things happen for kids. That’s something that I find a great deal of gratitude and appreciation in my soul.

For the sake of space and time, I’ll leave the lessons to these three. In the meantime, my dance card was filled so to speak on October 12. Your school system is actively working in the background on the maintenance of our facilities while planning the development and construction that you will begin seeing this summer. Lincoln, Union and POHI will be the first ones we’re finalizing plans on, and you will hear when we’re announcing bids. Then you will see more announcements and more documents keeping you apprised of what’s happening! It’s going to be an exciting time to be a Ponca City resident in the coming months.

Thank you!