I am one of those crazy people who actually enjoys doing yard work. From time to time, my wife tells me that we should pay someone to do the yardwork. I refuse, though if I am honest, during the hottest weeks of summer, the offer is tempting. I refuse to have someone else do my yardwork for two reasons. One, I hate paying someone to do something that I can do myself. Yes, I am cheap. The second reason is the bigger reason why I do not pay someone to do my yardwork. I get a great deal of satisfaction doing the yard. In an hour and half, after I mow, run the weed trimmer, edge, and finish it off with the blower, our yard is transformed into a thing of beauty (at least it’s beautiful to me). There is something very gratifying about being able to see the fruits of our labors. When success is sometimes hard to see or measure, seeing the successful result of an hour and half of sweat and toil motivates me to keep going!

For our students at Acceleration East High School, it works the same way. When students see the fruits of their labors at school, it motivates them to keep going and to work even harder. Once they taste success, no matter how small the bite, they want more! Let’s be honest, there is very little motivation to keep doing something challenging if we never see any positive outcomes. If you went to the gym each morning for two months at 5 a.m. and never lost a pound, never saw an increase in muscle tone, and never saw improvement in your cardiovascular health, how many of us would continue the grueling daily regiment? The answer is very few.

Acceleration East High School will be known as a school where we make much of our students each day, celebrating success and praising improvement. We are so proud of our students and we want them to experience the satisfaction of success and improvement. Please help us at home by making much of your student and reminding them that hard work produces positive outcomes!

Enjoy the rest of your week!

Douglas K. Loftus, M.S. Ed.

Principal