Speech to Support Staff of Johnston County School System

August 18, 1993

By Philip R. Taylor

Johnston Community College Auditorium

Thank you, Dr. Houliham, for that gracious introduction. I want to also thank you and Tom Williams for asking me to speak and I want you to know that I think you both are very brave men for not asking to see this talk in advance. I’ll try not to embarrass you.

Ladies, Gentlemen: First I want to say what an honor and privilege it is to be able to talk with you for a few minutes this afternoon. Also, I have attended these kinds of meetings before, I know what it feels like to sit where you’re sitting, and so I’ll be brief.

· “Preach the Gospel at all times, if necessary use words.” Francis of Assisi A.D. 1215

· “What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?” John Chrysostom A.D. 400

· “We are supposed to preach without preaching, not by words, but by our example, by our actions. All works of love are works of peace.” Mother Teresa A.D. 1983

I come to you today with these quotes because I think they are important, very important. I realize that most of you are known as support staff, support personnel. That is what you are called; that is not, however, what you are called to do. Just as teachers are called teachers and that is not what they are called to do either. We call teachers, teachers, but they are called to be motivators, and an inspiration to children. Teachers are called to the special task of helping our young find excitement and joy in learning. Teachers can’t teach anymore than a jackrabbit can play ping-pong, but they can and do inspire and motivate and make possible for learning and growth to occur.

Likewise, we call you support staff, but you don’t support, you serve. You are called to serve, to share your energy and your love with both children and teachers. It is when you finally see your employment as service that it ceases to be a job and becomes part of life’s work. It matters not your job title: Food service, janitorial, maintenance, clerical, teaching assistants; you are all called to service.

Let me tell you a story, about my mother. From the time I was three years old and she was forty until six months before she died at the age of 74 from cancer, my mother was a cleaning lady. She scrubbed floors in motels, in hospitals, and in schools. To me and to thousands of other people she met during her lifetime, she wasn’t a cleaning lady or a scrubwoman; she was a servant, a bearer of God’s love and spirit in a harsh and fearful world. She was the oldest girl in a family of ten children. She raised seven of her brothers and sisters after her own mother died in childbirth. She dropped out of school after the third grade but taught herself to read, write, and do basic math. She instilled in me a hunger for learning that has lasted a lifetime. I never even considered dropping out of school. I knew she’d kill me.

My family came to this continent in 1655 and I became the first member of that family to finish college, all because of a member of the support staff, no, because of a servant. She’s been dead 9 years; I can still see her face. It was transparent and all lambent spirit; I still look to her for inspiration. I’m still in school too, Mom, taking two courses and teaching two courses. I never enter a public building or walk down a hall, or cross a floor that I don’t see her, there on her hands and knees cleaning, scrubbing, and serving. I give you her example and exhort you to a life of service as your life’s work.

Go with God and Go in Peace