A phone call from Campbell High School
March 23rd, 2006 at 03:47pm
Regulare readers would know about the recent Campbell High School P.E. Class story (see here and here if you would like to catch up). Well yesterday, at some time between 2PM and 8PM while I was at CIT, Gai Beecher, the principal of Campbell High School rang and left a message on my answering machine.
The short summary of the message is that she thanked me for the recent letter of praise, saying that it was nice to receive positive feedback from the public…or something to that effect, I don’t remember the exact words and the message has since been deleted.
I can quite honestly say that it was my pleasure to be able to send a positive letter, especially seeing as they had worked on fixing a problem.
This does highlight a couple things though:
- People (myself included) are most vocal when they are critical of something. I was quite critical of the initial problem, due to the unsafe nature of the problem, and the fact that it showed a (probably unintentional) drop in standards since I was last at Campbell High School in 2003.
- It is important to give credit where credit is due. It’s fine to be critical, but it is pointless to not give credit when you see a change for the better in whatever you were critical about. I often raise concerns about this, that and the other, but I like to be able to follow through to an outcome of some sort. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is not, in this case it was, and I am happy about that.
Campbell High School (and all schools for that matter) probably don’t hear from the public very often when they set a good example, but I’m sure they hear all about it when they don’t. It would have been all to easy for them to ingnore my gripe as being “just another angry letter”, but they didn’t, and for that they are very deserving of praise.
I must say that Mrs. Beecher’s phone call was a very nice gesture, and one which I have taken the time to return. I rang her office earlier this afternoon, she was unavailable at the time, but I left a message for her, assuring her that I received and was very grateful for her message.
Hopefully we can now close this chapter and move on, with the knowledge that everything turned out for the best.
Samuel
Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,Samuel News,Samuel's Editorials
3 Comments
1. Chuck A. Spear | March 24th, 2006 at 3:12 am
Good on you Samuel and good on Campbell High School.
I think Campbell High School should give an annual award called the SGS award to the student who is the best behaved on school excursions.
2. wonko the sane | March 24th, 2006 at 4:22 pm
I agree, Chuck. They should also name a wing of the library after Samuel. The Gordon-Stewart Wing.
To get good at anything you need to practice, so I would recommend that all Campbell High students are held back after 3pm to attend pool commute practice. The teachers should have whips to keep everyone in line.
3. heatseeker | March 25th, 2006 at 9:25 am
I’m just wondering how long it is before Campbell High School takes a restraining order out on Samuel ….