Lesson #3: The Lost Shoe

Written by:  Jennifer Appel  
Based on the stories told by:  Paul Dowdy

"The Strength of the TEam is each individual Member.  The strength of Each Member is the team."
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​-Phil Jackson

This has been a crazy week on our summer vacation in southern California, we had a major earthquake and then experienced even more intense after shocks, over the past couple days.  It really got me thinking about the environment and how it can affect so many people, while causing a great deal of damage and harm. This week reminded me of a unlikely story that my dad shared from one of his elementary students.

One day a tiny 1st grader came running in from recess to talk with my dad’s lead secretary.  The little boy started yelling with a very anxious voice that he had lost his shoe in a hole on the playground.  The secretary told him it was alright and tried her best, to calm him down. When he was finally able to explain, he said it fell in this giant hole.  She asked him why he didn’t simply reach down and grab it (thinking it was just a little hole in the grass).  The little boy said that he wasn’t able to get his shoe. 
 
As a true servant leader, my dad had established an environment of honesty with his students, staff, and community.  In fact this culture of honesty permeated to relationships all over the school community   Thus, despite the tall tale, the secretary decided to believe the overwhelmed young man and go outside with him.  In a lot of cases students would be brushed off and told to try harder, or they would deal with it later. But in an award winning culture of trust,  educators  believe in their students and support them, despite long odds.

As the secretary and student approached the area where the child said they lost their shoe, they discovered a hole that appeared to be getting larger as they got closer.  Noticing this strange movement in the earth, the secretary decided that she needed to go back in the building and have someone look into this geological impossibility. In the meantime, she was able to find the little boy a new pair of shoes that they had on hand,  for students in need.  She assured him that they would get his shoe soon humanly possible.

My dad quickly called the grounds crew and they immediately came out to help him investigate the situation.  To the surprise of everyone the hole had become much larger, it was at least 6 feet across.  As they were able to look into the hole , they found the shoe down at the bottom of an approximately 20 foot sinkhole.  The crazy part is that you could see it was an old boiler room. Upon further inquiry, they found out that it was from the old elementary school that had been torn down to build the new school.  For some reason as construction was being done in the demolition of the old building they neglected to find the floorboards above the basement that contained the boiler room and had covered the area with dirt to have a nice playground.  With several years of the ground cover over the wood floorboards, they eventually rotted away and caused a huge sinkhole in the middle of the playground. Over time, they were able to remove all of the old floor boards and properly fill in the old structure so that it was once again safe for children. What if no one had bothered to listen to the student's outrageous story?  Would someone have fallen in the hole?  Perhaps, a student might have been hurt...  

When we establish an Award Winning Culture, children are given the respect of trust.  As educators we must be honest with ourselves but we must also have faith in the HONESTY of others.

Have you had a student that had a crazy story you didn’t believe that turned out to be true?

How will you create a culture where honesty is the norm?

How does TRUST play a role in relationships with our students?

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About the authors

Jennifer Appel is a teacher at Enterprise Middle School.  She has been teaching for 20 years.  Her passion for education comes from growing up in at education driven family (4th generation) and wanting to help and serve others.  She is now driven to create an environment where all students are able to learn and become passionate about serving others.  Jennifer can be contacted through email at awardwinningculture@gmail.com.  You can follow her on twitter at @jennifermappel.  Follow AWC @awculture on instagram @awardwinningculture.  Follow Wildcat Nation on instagram @emsleadership.  #WildcatNation #AwardWinningCulture
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Paul Dowdy is a retired elementary school teacher and principal.  Paul was in education for more than 40 years.  Paul created cultures of excellence at every school he taught at or lead.  Paul was also an adjunct professor at 3 different universities in the state of Washington and a regional director for Heritage University.  Paul has shared his stories all around the state of Washington in the form of presentations.  He's passionate about children and that reflected in all of his work as a reading specialist and his study of the brain and how that drives instruction.  Paul is not on social media...but can be reached near any body of water that's conducive to shadow casting! #FlyFishing