2006 Virginia Public School Convocation Highlights

Dr. Cannaday discusses the moral and economic urgency of public education in the 21st century. “Kids look to us to inspire hope.”

In Franklin County
“It isn’t calamity to die with dreams but it is calamity not to dream.” Kids look to us to inspire hope. They do. They don’t know what it is like; they just look because they want to please you. And little kids want to please a lot. They come to school, I tell you, they’ll have those big old backpacks on that come down half way to their knees, and I can’t figure out how a kindergartener has anything to put in a backpack – they don’t have any books yet! But they have stuff…

In VDOE Studio
I tried to help people understand two perspectives. One, a moral perspective and that is treating children you teach as if they were your own, which really does raise the commitment level to children and their education. The other one is an economic perspective and that is that we all hope for our children that the standard of their living will exceed that of their parents, and that is in great jeopardy if we don’t help our children become equipped with the skill sets and knowledge so that they can compete on a global landscape and not simply within a city or county or within the state.

In Franklin County
I hope that this year you take, as you have in the past, a real personal interest in every child, the ones that always seek attention and the ones that sit back in the back and never get your attention. Remember, each one of them, we’re going to need. We’re going to need them for them and we’re going to need them for us.