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February 2010
"Above and beyond the call of duty" is the way most of us have heard it. I actually "Googled" the phrase and found that there were more than 968,000 search results associated with it. I also discovered that the phrase is an idiom. (I've used that word a few times when describing someone I thought was a complete moron.) But basically, "above and beyond the call of duty" means "one who does much more than is expected." Folks who research origins of idioms and metaphors will tell you that this phrase initially was reserved for police officers, firefighters, or soldiers lauded for heroic efforts. Well, I think the definition needs to be expanded to include educators who do more than what is expected. Lately, it seems, I've been hearing more stories from teachers who routinely go above and beyond the call of duty. Take, for example, a third grade teacher who recently took a day of her Christmas holidays to attend the funeral of the mother of one of her students. During a time of year when kids should be allowed to stay up late, sleep in and look forward to surprises, this little girl got the biggest surprise of all: the death of her mother. On short notice, this teacher left her family and drove across town to an unfamiliar neighborhood because she cared. I'm sure this little girl will never forget running to her teacher, throwing her arms around her and sobbing her little heart out. Nowhere in a school district handbook does it state that you are to be there for the students 24 hours a day, seven days a week, come rain or shine. It states that you should be able to do your job in 185 days, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. But I bet there's not an educator around who has a heart for the teaching profession and believes that. I remember Coach Gordon Wood telling me some of those "above and beyond" stories as I sat in his living room in Brownwood. At that time, he had coached more teams to state championships than anybody in the country. You know what he told me? He said, "Riney, it wasn't just the game of football I had to teach. It was the game of life." Then, for an hour or so, he told stories of kids who needed more than just a coach; they needed someone who was willing to go above and beyond. Coach Wood said he once drove all night to get to the Texas-Mexico border to pay a fine that released one of his students from jail. "We had a good father-son talk for the next six hours," Wood said. "He was a different kid after that." Coach Wood developed pneumonia, suffered a heart attack and died a few months after our visit. Above and beyond the call of duty. That third grade teacher did it when she made certain that she was there for a student who had lost her mother. Coach Wood did it almost daily during his 43 seasons. And right now, as you are reading this, there is a person in education going above and beyond the call of duty. Oh, it might be a coach, a secretary, a principal, a custodian, a bus driver or a superintendent, but you can bet that it happens more often than any of us realize. Because they don't do it for the glory; they do it for the kids. Above and beyond. What a difference it would make if we all followed that philosophy! RINEY JORDAN, whose best-selling book, "All the Difference," is now in its sixth printing, is an international speaker and humorist. He can be reached at riney@htcomp.net or by visiting www.rineyjordan.com |
I've never seen it listed as a qualification on a job application. I don't think I've ever heard it asked during an interview. But if there were a way to find out whether or not an individual is accustomed to going above and beyond what was expected, wouldn't he or she most likely make an incredible employee?