Director's View

Gear Up for Summer Learning

Dr. Vic Wilson, Executive Director CLAS

I hope this issue finds you relaxing and reflecting on a great year. Certainly, our year has been difficult, but that does not mean it has not been great. Remember your why! Why did you choose education as your career? Then, why did you choose to move into leadership? I hope that you have a clear understanding of your why, and I hope you revisit your why often as you reflect.

Allow me to share my why. I left Arley, Alabama, and Meek High School in 1987 and headed to the University of Alabama to study English with hopes of going to law school thereafter. I even chose to take Latin to prepare myself for a career in juris prudence. Why did I choose this path? Because I thought everyone wanted me to be a doctor or lawyer. That was other people’s why; not mine.

My first year of college was essentially unproductive. I did not enjoy the classes, and I had no desire to be an attorney. Near the end of the first year of college I had a conversation with my dad, and I told him that I did not want to be an attorney. Daddy was a man of few words, but he looked at me and said, “Son, I’ve been a coal miner most of my life, and I’ve made a good living. But, I hate going to work every day. So, have a career that will make you happy and it will not make you hate work.” Essentially, my father told me to find my why.

I told him I wanted to coach and teach, and he told me to follow that dream. I did. I immediately changed to English/History as a major in the college of education. A few years later, I did my student teaching in the fall at Collins-Riverside Jr. High School in Northport, AL. I volunteered to help coach football and basketball, and I simply immersed myself in the fabric of the school. I wanted to learn as much as I could about teaching, coaching, and learning. When I graduated in December, Dr. James I. Davis hired me to be the In-school Suspension Teacher in a portable classroom. We had no internet and no computers. We did have a set of 1992 encyclopedias. I loved every minute of the job.

The following fall, I moved to 7th grade Civics and English, and again, I loved it. Coach Mike Griffin and his wife, Linda, became the Godparents to our oldest child, Dailey, and I still have wonderful friends from those years at Collins-Riverside.

Thirty years later, I still love what I do! Certainly, bad days or even months have occurred, but overall, I have never lost my why. I love teaching and learning. As the Executive Director of CLAS, I am still teaching and learning and still loving it! I hope you still know and love your why.

The 2022 CLAS Convention will be a great event and opportunity for you to recharge you and your why. We have great speakers from across the country, region, and state ready to work with and learn with you. The CLAS staff has worked very hard to design learning opportunities, networking opportunities, collaborative opportunities, and countless other opportunities.

If you have not signed up, Get ‘er done!

Sincerely,