Nuggets from Buck

I often kid people that I am voting for Buck for President because if he can fix the Orioles he certainly can fix the nation.  I had the opportunity to hear Buck speak last night and he did not disappoint me.

He started the talk discussing how his father taught him to stand up for what is right.  That as a principal of a school in the south his father supported desegregation at a time that this was an unpopular stance.  People told Buck's dad that he would never run a school again if he took that stance but that did not deter him.  Instead one Sunday he brought his whole family to a black church.  Buck talked about having chills go down his spine as he walked to the pew because he was so proud of his dad.  That his father walked the talk really made an impression on his young son.

He asks himself at the end of each day did he treat people right.  He often wonders did he give people the right amount of time or did he seem rushed when he talked with them.  You really get the impression that being a good person is extremely important to him.

He talked about the disease of me.  People who are just so centered upon themselves that they do not think about others.  One of the things he thinks about when putting a team together is getting people that actually enjoy helping each other.  Players who wants the new players to have it easier than they did, who help teach them the tricks of the trade so to speak.  When I think of students who have really impressed me over the years it is not the smart students which we have plenty of, but those who go out of their way to help others.

He then hit home on something that I think teachers often forget.  He talked about how managers forget quickly how hard it is to play the game at a high level for 162 times a year.  That once you become a manager you often forget the grind that the season is.  I think that happens often to teachers, we often forget how hard it is to be prepared every day.  How hard it is to focus every class and balance your school work, extra activities and life.  This was a great reminder to me.

Then he asked another question that he asks himself each day.  What did you bring today?  I think a great question for both teachers and students alike to ask?  What did I bring today that helped make our class, school or someone better.  As he said, there is a lot of accountability to that statement.

He then talked about how you find out your true character when you face adversity.  Do you buckle to the pressure and cut corners.  When he scouts players he does not watch what they do when they are on the field but rather tries to watch what they do when the players do not think anyone is watching.  To me I always hope that students would not cheat even if I left the room.

Any thoughts or comments of course are always appreciated.