Subject: FROM THE GUIDANCE DEPT
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Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:14:45 -0400

From the Guidance Dept. . . .

By Stan Blicharz

The train is pulling
into the station of my last year at Rutland Town School.  After a combined 70 years of teaching,
Mrs. B. and I are enjoying our last hurrah!  We are truly grateful for having had the
opportunity to spend our lives working here. We have countless happy memories of
the thousands of children whose lives we have touched. We met here in 1969 and
have spent our entire teaching careers at RTS.  Thank you for your kindnesses and
support through the years.

I would like to leave
you with one last thought before I go.
I have had many parents ask me over the years: “How do I get my child to
be responsible? How do I get my child to obey the rules?  How do I get my child to be kind and
compassionate? How do I get my child to appreciate the things that are most
important? How do I get my son to make good choices?  How do I teach her not to
complain?”

There is only one way
that I know of to ensure that your child will learn these things.You  must live by the values that you want to
instill in your youngsters.
They will follow your lead. Children are continuously watching and
listening. They observe your body language and facial expressions. They listen
to your sarcasm.  They watch how you
interact with your spouse. Over the years, I have been privy to hundreds of
their personal stories of life in their homes.

No one is capable of
perfection or anything close to it. We all lose our tempers, say things for
which we are sorry, cheat   a
little, are not as kind as we’d like to be. Actually, your children need to know
that you are human.  But what saves
the day is our capacity to admit our mistakes, say we are sorry and make amends
for our failures.  Do not make
excuses for bad behavior or try to justify your mistakes.  Your children will learn that too. If
you keep working at being better person, your children will pick up on that,
too!

If you doubt the
importance of teaching by example, think back to who influenced you to become
the person you now are.  Was it your
school friends?  Was it by watching
television?  Was it a teacher?
Chances are that the person you have become has most of all to do with the
example set by your parents.

It is vital that you do
not speak negatively about teachers or other people in the community, gossip or
have arguments in the presence of your children. These conversations are better
left between adults, as your children will learn to gossip, complain about their
teachers or argue with you and their siblings. Parenting is a very difficult
proposition, but if you continually strive to do better for your children, they
will recognize that.  So, in the
future, when you want your children to improve, change a behavior or be a better
person, it  is not communicated by
speeches, or by punishment or by stern discipline, it is done by your own
example.

It is has been a pleasure to serve you all these years as a

teacher, administrator,
coach, and guidance counselor. Goodness knows, I have made mistakes along the
way, but please know that my only desire was to help your children be the best
they could be.  Their success was my
number one priority. Thank you and farewell.