NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication
February 2015
The Way I See It Jack Winterrowd, Cedar Park
Today, everyone needs a partner in some shape, form or fashion. This is especially true in busy February when ag teachers depend on the support of other people. I think most people would agree that good partners are essential in life. “When a match has equal partners then I fear not.” - Aeschylus I can remember having many partners growing-up. As infants we rely on other people to get through our days. When I was in elementary school my best friend and I spent the days finding all kinds of things to occupy our time. My mother called him my “partner in crime” which would cause me to retort that we never broke any laws or got caught. As younger adults in school we often work with partners because in many instances, two heads are better than one. In our professional lives, we quickly learn that we need the help of good partners to be more successful in our endeavors. I am blessed to have many partners in my life now and in the past who have helped me get to this point in my life. In our personal lives, we strive to find a partner to complete our needs for love and acceptance. My wife, Tammy, has been my personal blessing for more than 37 years. We have been together since the fall of 1977 and we married in June of 1979. She knew what she was getting herself into because I was an ag teacher before we got married and she still said “yes”. Her decision to be my partner and wife has shaped my life in many ways and I am eternally
grateful that she chose to be my partner in love. “In the past a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people... they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.” - Ken Blanchard I had an excellent partner at my first teaching job. Phil Van Cleave took me under his wing and helped me get through those challenging early years of my career. He had been teaching about 10 years when I was hired in Cameron so I depended on him to keep me on track. He was an excellent teaching partner because he let me learn through my mistakes and successes. He supported me in all that we did to make our FFA chapter better. He could have bossed me around because of his experience but instead he chose to lead by example. When I was in graduate school at A&M, I was blessed to learn from a true leader in our profession. Dr. Herman Brown was a strong, determined man who served as Agriculture Education Department Head and earned the admiration and respect of countless ag teachers during his tenure. One day early in my program, he called me into his office and informed me that I was going to be his partner in teaching a leadership development class that he had recently received approval to teach. I was taken by surprise but also extremely honored that he had chosen me to do this with him. He quickly turned all the grunt work over to me (since I was a lowly graduate
assistant) and held me accountable for the ultimate success, or failure, of the course. I soon learned that he really meant for me to teach the class and he would be the professor of record and occasionally stop by the classroom to see that I was doing what he expected of me. That experience taught me that partners can be people who get us started in the right direction and then just be there to support us when we need it. “I always tried to align myself with strategic partners, friends, and information to help me with the things that I did not know, and ultimately, I made it.” - Daymond John I firmly believe that much of my personal and professional success has been the result of God placing people in my life to be my
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