You see we tend to have things backwards in our culture. We teach kids to learn more, to run faster, to make more money, to get smarter but we don't really teach them why. And absent a solid Why they just kind of wander this world aimlessly searching for things to strive for like money, or fame, or drugs. We need to be teaching our kids that real influence isn't gained by making yourself better but by making others better.
Since my kids are going back to school soon I've been thinking about the lessons I really want them to learn. It isn't math, or science, or history, or even music. What I want them to learn is how to lift up others. I used to have a sign in my band room that said "Today I will give everything I have, for anything I keep will be lost forever". It was a good reminder to me that I'm not a teacher for my own sake but to give everything I have for the students in front of me. And it was a reminder to my students that true greatness is always measured by what is given by people to help others. We aren't measured by the amount of knowledge we gain or how fast we can swim or how talented we are but by how much we are willing to help others.
I work with kids every day who are kind of adrift in the sea of middle school and high school without much purpose and who desperately want to have a Why in their life. These kids need to get involved in a group that helps them to learn that life is not about individuals but about a group. Sports, drama, and music do a great job of this because you have to be putting the good of the group before your own needs and desires.
What I want for my own kids, and for the students I work with is for them to see in me someone who is willing to put the needs of the group before my own needs. I will come early and stay late. I will make phone calls, pick up trash, organize fund raisers, fix instruments, pick kids up, drop kids off, help them with their school work, make them clean up their own areas, hold them to a high standard, and ask them to help others. I will do this because I believe in them and want them to be better. Not because I'm special, but because they are.