This is the day when Texans celebrate the battle that won independence for Texas. The battle lasted 18 minutes.  That’s not very long.  Teachers get a longer duty-free lunch than that.  I think there are some TV commercials that last about 18 minutes.  We now have school for 75,600 minutes.  That’s enough time for you to re-enact the glorious battle 4,200 times.

The fact that Texas secured its independence in less time than it takes for you to dry a load of laundry shows that BIG THINGS can happen in a SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.  Educators know this, because they facilitate BIG THINGS in a SHORT TIME.

Here’s a safe prediction: somewhere in the great State of Texas today, a remarkable thing is going to happen in a public school classroom.  A student is going to come alive with a vision for his or her future that the student did not have before.  A teacher will be the instrument that lit that fire.   An administrator will have supported that teacher to be that instrument.  The enlightenment will happen in an instant—much less than the time it took for Sam Houston and the boys to put Santa Anna on the run.  The teacher may not even see that anything extraordinary has happened. The administrator will be too busy with paperwork and problems to know about it.  Maybe the student will tell the teacher what happened. Maybe this will happen that day, or maybe at the 20-year reunion, or maybe the student will recount the magic moment to the teacher’s children at the teacher’s memorial service. Or maybe the student will never talk, and the teacher will never know what happened.

But this will happen today. We know this, because it happens every day.

DAWG BONE: ON THIS DAY, AND ON ALL DAYS, MAY GOD BLESS TEXAS.