GOOD MORNING…HAPPY FRIDAY!
GHS Cross-Country State Meet - Mary Lyndell Graham will be competing this morning at the UIL Cross Country State Meet in Round Rock. Wishing Mary Lyndell the best of luck!
Graham Incentive for Teacher Awards Coming Soon- As a result of our STAAR Scores this past year Graham ISD will be awarding approximately $115,600.00 in GIFT Awards. The STAAR/EOC Progress Award Amounts are approximately $32,500.00 and the Distinction Designation Awards are approximately $83,000.00. We look forward to delivering these awards as soon as the calculations are finalized by early December.
4-Day School Calendar Surveys- Graham ISD is exploring a 4-day school week for the 2023-2024 school year. Please complete the survey to provide the district input regarding a 4-day school week for Graham ISD by 4:00 pm on Sunday, November 6, 2022.
Staff Survey- Please see the survey link that was sent to your district email address on Wednesday, November 2, 2022.
Parent Survey- Please see the link that was sent via ParentSquare on Wednesday, November 2, 2022.
Community Survey- https://forms.gle/hkmumBw7gS7djaSc9
Never Forget Who Helped You…
This picture touches me every time I see it, and, in some way signifies to me the circle of life. In the first picture, a middle-aged Coach John Wooden is helping a young Lew Alcindor understand the complexities of big-time college basketball. In the second, some 40+ years later, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is seen helping Coach Wooden as he leaves a basketball court.
The pictures demonstrate that the two had a special relationship, but they don’t explain how a young, self-described cocky black athlete from New York City could become such a close friend to a white, conservative midwesterner. As Abdul-Jabbar explains it, on his recruiting trip to UCLA he became aware of how unique Wooden was as a coach. In their first meeting on campus, they only briefly talked about basketball. This is how he describes that first meeting with the coach: “He gave me a long look through his nerdy black-frame glasses. ‘I’m impressed with your grades, Lewis. For most students, basketball is temporary, but knowledge is forever. You can only play basketball for so long, then you’ve got to get on with the rest of your life.’ It was essential to him (Wooden) that his players keep good grades in school.”
Abdul-Jabbar found this conversation to be unexpected. He was a highly recruited young man, and all of the other college visits had been about the same with lots of flattery, a hard sell of their schools’ basketball programs, and visions of the national attention he could receive on their campuses. Coach Wooden was the only big-time coach to even mention academics on his recruiting trips.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar admits that he learned many things from his coach. For his professional basketball life, none was more important than the development of his signature sky hook. Coach Wooden had supported the outlawing of the dunk during Abdul-Jabbar’s time at UCLA. Wooden favored the beauty of basketball, the gracefulness, and the intellectual complexity of the sport rather than allowing it to deteriorate into a bunch of brutes jamming a ball through a hoop.
Because of his relationship with Kareem, Coach Wooden was forced to rethink some things. As the Bruins traveled the country playing in almost every city in the U.S., Jabbar was slammed with every racial slur known. Coach Wooden was embarrassed for and ashamed for those who looked like him and who were about his age. He could not understand their intolerance. Abdul Jabbar later said, “It really bothered him. It really affected his worldview. For someone like him, that felt like he had his hands on the reins of everything, that must’ve been humbling.”
After Coach Wooden’s passing in 2010 Abdul-Jabbar says his understanding of the strength of their bond has only grown deeper. He has come to realize that it centered on basketball but included a passion for literature, history, music, and mutual respect for the differences of their backgrounds. In fact, Kareem says because of the coach, he developed an appreciation of the coach’s favorite music, 1940s swing, and Coach Wooden developed an appreciation for Jabbar’s favorite, jazz.
I’ll encourage you to take some time to reflect on Kareem’s words, in your life never forget who helps you!
HAVE A NICE DAY…TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND OTHERS!
CORNY JOKE OF THE DAY:
Why is a bee’s hair sticky? (Scroll down for the answer.)
Because they brush it with a honeycomb!
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