Friday Focus

Vol 6 No 11
January 11, 2008

Dear Families and Friends,

The best way to market a school is simply for happy parents to tell their friends the about their child's school. Who have you told recently?

Tell a Friend!

A few years ago, a local grocery store chain in Southern California featured a very simple advertising campaign which simply said: Tell a Friend! Their TV commercials and printed advertisements featured low prices, friendly employees, quality produce, and a wide selection of specialty foods.

And do you know what happened? People did just what the advertising campaign suggested—they told their friends. And for several years this market chain was the #1 supermarket in southern California.

I was thinking about that slogan this week as I was sitting in a meeting one evening here at school. I asked myself: What would happen if families at our school would simply “Tell a Friend” about SFAS?

It’s been suggested that people have a close network of about ten friends. When friends get together and talk, they usually talk about work, kids and school.

I’d like to encourage you over the next couple weeks to simply “Tell a Friend” about our school... talk us up. Tell them what your experience has been at our school. Talk about our caring staff, affordable tuition rates. Talk about the variety of extra-curricular activities we have to offer—hand bell choir, after-school sports, and Mandarin classes. Talk about how your child’s life has been changed by being in our school.

Imagine what could happen! Your friends would tell their friends and they’d tell their friends and they’d tell their friends and.... I think you get the idea. Go tell a friend!

Tell a friend by email here...

Sincerely,
Rob Robinson

Robert J. Robinson, Principal
Teacher, Kindergarten/1st Grade
San Francisco Adventist School

Whatever it Takes

The time was that “whatever it takes” meant something positive. It implied an honest man would work extra hours to keep his head above water. It said a self-respecting woman would protect her reputation or her children’s innocence. But it would appear that things have changed.

“Whatever it takes” was the excuse a woman gave for lying and defrauding—all in the name of being a good mother.

You probably heard about the Dallas episode with a fairy-tale beginning and horror-story ending. A store that specializes in little girls’ clothing sponsored an essay contest. The prize was four tickets to a sold-out Hannah Montana concert in Albany, New York, and four airline tickets to get there from Texas.

One essay was particularly heart-rending. Here is what it said: “My daddy died this year in Iraq. I am going to give mommy the angel pendant that daddy put on mommy when she was having me. I had it in my jewelry box since that day. I love my mommy.”

Persons judging the essays read that one in good faith, were touched by its pathos, and declared it the winning piece of writing. The store made arrangements to award the prize to the six-year-old girl in whose name the essay had been submitted. And news agencies were there to cover it.

As reporters asked questions, things just didn’t add up. A little background checking revealed that it was all a lie. Challenged about it, the girl’s mother defended the deliberate deception and insisted she had done nothing improper. “We wrote whatever we could do to win,” Priscilla Ceballos said. “It said to write an essay. It never said it had to be true. I never said it was true.... It was just an essay. We wrote whatever we could to win.”

Whatever it takes to win is very different from the old mantra of whatever it takes to accomplish an honorable goal. It justifies steroids in sports, juggling the books to defraud the company, cheating on a mate, and using church or charitable funds to finance a lavish personal lifestyle.

How sad that a mother would teach her daughter that it is acceptable to do whatever it takes to get what you want. Perhaps there is some comfort in the fact that this story has made headlines and sparked outrage. Maybe some of us will rethink the two very different meanings of “whatever it takes.”

It is worth whatever it takes to preserve your integrity as a human being.

--Rubel Shelly

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