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CAT Tracks for April 11, 2012
The Three Amigos |
The article below is an inspiring story about three educators who became instant millionaires, yet continue to do what they love...educate!
From the article:
I feel all warm and fuzzy inside...
...read the article and you will too!
I shall return with commentary when you are finished...
From eSchool News...
Educators win Mega Millions, decide to keep teaching
Posted By staff and wire services reports On April 10, 2012 @ 3:47 pm
In today’s toxic political climate, teachers have taken more than their fair share of criticism for the state of U.S. public education. Turn on the TV or open a newspaper, and you’re likely to hear more rhetoric about how teachers don’t care, or that teaching is an easy job.
But in an example of what it really means to be a teacher — to have a passion for learning and a dedication to inspiring students — two public school teachers and a school administrator are sharing the spoils of last month’s record Mega Millions jackpot, planning trips to Europe, new homes, and a daughter’s college education … all while continuing to plan lessons and grade homework.
According to news outlets and Maryland Lottery officials, these self-declared “Three Amigos” plan to keep working. What’s even more humbling, they’ve chosen to remain anonymous, so their students and peers might never know.
In conversations with lottery officials, the teachers indicated no desire to retire, said said Stephen Martino, director of the Maryland Lottery. “They said, ‘I can’t give up my kids,’” Martino said.
This was the first time the three had bought lottery tickets together. Each contributed $20 for a total of 60 tickets.
The Maryland winners claimed their proceeds April 9 and chose to remain anonymous, but the lottery agency shared some details in a news conference, including the fact that each of the three works other jobs outside school to make ends meet.
“If it can’t be you, these people are precisely the people you would want to see win,” Martino said.
The winning Maryland ticket is one of three nationally that split the $656 million jackpot, the biggest in Mega Millions history. The other winning tickets in the March 30 drawing were bought in Kansas and Illinois. Kansas’ winner claimed a share of the jackpot April 6 but also decided to remain anonymous. Nobody has come forward in Illinois as of press time.
Martino said the winning Maryland ticket came from a 7-Eleven store in Milford Mill, outside Baltimore.
Each of the three educators will receive a lump sum payment of $35 million after taxes.
The two women and one man work in public education in the state. Officials did not disclose where, and said they knew each other from work but were not all at the same school.
One woman is in her 20s, one is in her 50s, and the man is in his 40s. One winner is a special-education teacher, one is an elementary school teacher, and the third is a school administrator.
Their plans include backpacking in Europe, a tour of Italy’s wine country, and paying for a daughter’s college education.
All three also planned to buy new homes and invest, officials said.
CAT Tracks Editor's Note:
I have been there, done that...
...hypothetically.
As one of the downtrodden at Cairo High School, I used to kick in my dollar (was it $2?) when the lottery hit the trigger level. If one of the "regulars" happened to be absent, one of us would "cover" by contributing for them. Friends don't become millionaires and leave friends behind.
Oh, there were a couple of exceptions: Hard-core skeptics or religious types who looked upon the exercise as either futile or sinful. We tried to convince them to donate: "Do you really want to be the only teacher left at Cairo High School?"
But...
In the end, we simply shook our heads and walked away. (Of course, they had the last laugh...since we never won anything more than ante-up money for the next round. Ahhh, but for at least a brief shining moment...that elusive - now dead - feeling of hope.
Leading up to "drawing day", teachers would speculate on what they would do after they won. "To call in or not to call in"...that was the question first pondered. There was NO QUESTION about going to school...it was simply a question of whether you would notify them that you weren't coming or whether you would simply sit at home and let them wonder...and whether to answer their call of inquiry when it came.
Me...
...I always dared to be different.
I responded to the question with a truthful: "I'll go to work...keep teaching."
There were two reasons for my assertion, neither very warm or fuzzy:
Plus, I've learned from the masters!
Like Cairo school officials, I'd let that money hit my account at the First National Bank and just let it sit. I'd wait for my bank statement to arrive and just stare at it for days, weeks, months...yea, years. Then, I might FINALLY figure out what it is that Cairo school officials see...feel. I'd let friends, family, whomever suffer...I'd do without necessities...I'd let my house collapse around my couch...developing that addiction to money for money's sake that obviously obsesses and motivates BOE and FOP members.
Or not! (The first paragraph, yes. The second paragraph, hell no!)
Let me be teaching in the hallowed halls of CSD #1 again. Talk about doing it my way! Attend racially-tinged, teacher-bashing SIP days presided over by the likes of he who shall remain nameless? Hell no! Attend regular and special meetings of the BOE? Hell no! (Don't fret, Dear Readers. I'd hire someone to attend, take notes, and type them up for me for posting and your reading pleasure.) Worry about teacher evaluations based upon whether the administration like me? Hell no!
Nope...
My ass would be "fire proof"...as in: "You can't fire me, I quit!"
Bring it on...make my day!
So...
...savor the article above.
Be inspired by the selflessness of dedicated educators. My hope is that the new millionaires actually do enjoy their jobs...that they work for school districts that respect and appreciate their employees...that they will live happily - and more comfortably - ever after. (I confess to being guilty of generalizing/stereotyping. Having only worked for CSD #1, I tend to ass-u-me that other school districts are like Cairo.)
But...
I would be interested in knowing what becomes of the "Three Amigos".
A couple of years down the road, when the reality of their new-found wealth and independence settles in and when their principal, superintendent, or school board orders them to do something like Cairo school officials regularly require...
...will they cheerfully comply?
Or will they exercise their escape clause...invoke their FU moment?!
"...in an example of what it really means to be a teacher — to have a passion for learning and a dedication to inspiring students — two public school teachers and a school administrator are sharing the spoils of last month’s record Mega Millions jackpot, planning trips to Europe, new homes, and a daughter’s college education … all while continuing to plan lessons and grade homework."
