I grew up in the wide-open Great Plains of Texas, right where the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles meet. This rugged stretch of land has even been the subject of documentaries, and for good reason. Life there isn’t always easy. Dust storms can turn the sky to night and bring the streetlamps to life at midday, blizzards can pile snow to the eaves, and the unmistakable aroma of cattle rides the wind for miles.
But me? I’m proud to call it home.
There’s nothing better than a West Texas sunset painting the horizon, the word of a cowboy you can take straight to the bank, and a community bound together by integrity, hard work, and neighborly duty. Growing up in Dalhart, Texas, I learned to not only respect those values but to live them.
The Panhandle has produced its share of heroes, Buddy Holly, President George W. Bush, Patrick Mahomes (adopted from East Texas), and one perhaps lesser-known legend: Woody Guthrie. Many of us grew up singing This Land Is Your Land, Guthrie’s iconic reminder of the beauty and promise of our country. Born and raised in both the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma, Guthrie originally titled the song God Blessed America. His message wasn’t just about beauty; it was about responsibility. His daughter, Norah, once explained her father’s philosophy: “Because I love the pretty parts, it makes me want to fix the dirty parts.”
That’s a West Texas way of thinking – love something enough to respect it and take responsibility for making it better.
I believe that mindset was born in the Dust Bowl, when hard lessons about the land led to the creation of soil conservation programs, now a global standard for sustainable farming. It’s a legacy of respect that reminds us that loving our land means caring for it and that feeding our families and clothing the world with our cotton comes with the responsibility to protect what we have. That same mindset drives us here in Wylie ISD, where we are proud to be a district that not only values excellence in learning but also embraces the responsibility to respect, protect, and strengthen our community.
Those lessons are at the heart of The Wylie Way. We are proud to be Wylie ISD because our values, identified by our community as the qualities we want to instill in our students, guide everything we do. These first nine weeks, we’re focused on Respect and Responsibility, two values that build strong relationships, strong communities, and strong futures for our kids. We want our students to achieve at high levels, but just as importantly, we want them to be good people who treat others with kindness, take ownership of their actions,and work to make the world better.
Our campuses will bring these values to life through classroom conversations, service projects, and our upcoming Wylie Way Day on Wednesday, Sept. 10. We’ll also continue using the Achievement Profile to help students reflect on what makes them unique, who makes them feel valued, and how they can contribute positively to their community.
Being “Proud to Be Wylie ISD” means recognizing the good, respecting it, taking responsibility for it, and passing those values on to the next generation. Just like This Land Is Your Land, our values remind us that pride isn’t just about celebrating the good. It’s about caring enough to improve what can be better. When we respect what we have and take responsibility for shaping what comes next, we ensure that the legacy we pass on is something worth being proud of.
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