“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong spoke these words when Apollo touched down on the moon. Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an Eagle Scout, American astronaut, test pilot, aerospace engineer, university professor and United States Naval Aviator. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in July of 1969 during the Apollo 11 mission.
“We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected. “ Neil was humble about his job. He gave credit where credit was due. He believed in his team and he led by example.
“Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.” A man at the right place, at the right time changed the world.
Just think of the overlapping themes between Neil Armstrong’s style and the style we seek and expect from ourselves as educators. Neil Armstrong and his team opened doors, gave hope, and rallied a country with their achievements.
“The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.”
Neil was one of the great Americans partly because of circumstance. We never know what our students are going to be when “they grow up”. We may have the next Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin in our schools. We simply do not know. Neil Armstrong was from Ohio, went to Purdue (was accepted to MIT, but chose not to attend) and made it all the way to the moon! Do you think his first grade teacher looked at him one day and thought that Little Neil would walk on the moon one day?
We have the greatest jobs in the world! We get to shape the minds of every student we are blessed to have. Think about the magnitude of the “teacher” in the life of every person. From learning to read to learning job skills, a teacher helped us with all of it. We are the guiders after being guided, we are the believers after being believed in, and we are the role models after learning from our role models.
Thank you for being who you are and believing in our children in Cleveland City Schools.
“This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
DIRECTOR’S RECOGNITION
We have a called CCS School Board Meeting Wednesday morning, August 29, 2012 at 9:00 AM at the AOB Board Room. Following the called meeting, we have a Site Committee Meeting at the same location. The agendas will be released Tuesday morning at the latest.
We will be recognizing our new teachers at the Cleveland City Schools regularly scheduled school board meeting that we be held on Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 5:00 PM at Mayfield Elementary School. The reception for the new teachers will be followed by the normal school board meeting at MES. New teachers to CCS, please make plans to attend.
After completing 6 ½ weeks of cadet basic training, Tyler Croft, was accepted into the corps of cadets at West Point Military Academy during the Acceptance Day parade held on Saturday, August 18, 2012. He will begin his academic year as a plebe in Company A-1. Proud parents are Jeff and Prisavia Croft , assistant principal of Blythe-Bower Elementary School.
There will be no school on Monday, September 3, 2012. All operations of Cleveland City Schools will be shut down because of Labor Day.
