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Message From AMS Principal Gibson
A MESSAGE FROM AMS PRINCIPAL Mr. Gibson
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Coulda, shoulda, woulda. We all have had regrets from time to time. Sometimes we wish we could go back in time and take our older, wiser self to an important time in our lives and push the redo button. Adults will take this wisdom and do their best to share their findings with their children, or if in education, their students.
One of my biggest regrets as an educator is having taken a foreign language class in both high school and college but failing to learn to understand, speak, or write in that language. For me, it was Spanish. The number of times over my 24-year educational career that I have said, “Man, I sure wish I’d learned Spanish back in the day” is not able to be counted. On a regular basis, I find myself being disadvantaged by not having this ability.
In our middle school office, we rely heavily on Wendy McCue to communicate with our Spanish-speaking parents and students. I am learning that not only does she represent the face of our school, but she is most notably the voice and the ears of our school in helping to serve or Spanish-speaking students and parents. Ms. McCue becomes the primary contact to help assist parents with communication. She will give her cell phone number out to new parents who might have questions. The communication she does for our school with our Spanish-speaking families is difficult to calculate.
Ms. McCue translates during parent meetings, in the enrolling process, in answering arising questions, and even in times of joy and in times of crisis. I have seen her in each one of these situations and am reminded that we need to make our students aware that this is a skill that could provide dividends socially and financially in the future.
If there is one piece of advice I could give to our young people, it would be to not overlook some of these vital skills like learning a new language that could be helpful in the workplace or just in their personal life.
WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO BE A WENDY MCCUE.
Scott Gibson Principal Argyle Middle School 940.246.2126 Ext. 3002
