Grit Contest

Labor Day was last week and it is the perfect tie-in for a discussion about Grit. Labor Day is a celebration for all the hard working people in America. At Estes, we celebrate all the hard working students who show grit. What is grit? Grit is having passion and perseverance in whatever you are working on.
  It has been said that Americans have become lazy and do not want to work. I find this offensive because that is not how I was raised. My grandparents and parents made sure that I learned to value of work and that I had to work for the things that I wanted in life. Growing up my heroes were both of my grandfathers. My mother's dad was a farmer that was legally blind, but that didn't stop him from working on his farm. He worked everyday on his farm up to the day that he died. My father's dad was an army veteran and  an electrical engineer and was one of the smartest people I have ever known. He raised 7 children on one income and made sure his children's needs were met. I learned lots of lessons from these men, but the most important lesson I learned was the value of hard work. Okay, I will get back to the reason why I am writing this blog entry and that is our grit contest.
Last Friday was our grit contest kickoff. The students at Estes who show grit will earn grit tickets for a chance to go on special field trips! How does a student earn a grit ticket? A student will earn a grit ticket for working hard in their classroom by showing passion and perseverance. This means when things get tough they are going to work through the problems and not just give up and say it is too hard. Companies are going to be looking for employees that can problem solve and work through problems and that is why we want our students to show grit.
Now back to the grit tickets. Students will sign the grit tickets and place them in a classroom container. The more grit tickets earned the better the chance of winning the contest. When the contest ends we will have an assembly to announce the winners. There will be 50 winners announced at the Grit assembly. This assembly will be like our Labor Day in the fact that we will be rewarding our hard workers.
So what will the students of Estes win? The 50 winners will get an all expenses paid trip to Trunnell's Farm where they will get to experience a corn maze, ride on pedal tractors, pet the farm animals, jump on the pillow trampoline, play on the farm playground, take a hayride and pick a pumpkin.
This is just the first of four planned grit contests.
 Hard work pays off, so make sure your child comes to school ready to work hard every day.