We have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn
from trees, that vigorous and pacific tribe which
without stint produces strengthening essences for
us, soothing balms, and in whose gracious company
we spend so many cool, silent and intimate hours.
- Marcel Proust, Pleasures and Regrets, 1896
Everyday spent in this classroom is the turning of another page. It is impossible to say how good teaching makes me feel. I love inspiring kids, particularly, MY kids, classroom 7, because I think they’re the best.
And I’ve learned, teachers need recess too. And by recess I mean we need to play jump-rope more often. Yesterday during second recess I was about to take a trip down the hall to the lounge to put my feet up, but as I passed the playground I realized that I could no longer remember the joy of double dutch. There is a reason why kids laugh and play at reccess.. it’s because they’re having fun. And yesterday, as Ally and Mitchell turned the ropes for me, and I jumped in the middle and tried my darndest to keep up, I felt a free release unlike any other.
As it typically goes with mission trips, how the missionary feels, in the end, far more blessed than the missioned, it is the same with the teacher and the taught. I simply do not deserve to be here. I am blessed beyond comparison, learning things from 5th graders that add to my life a depth of understanding I never thought I’d grasp…
As adults, children teach us to be more literal (somehow we’ve unraveled the ability within ourselves throughout the years). We learn from young ones, the way I did this week, that truths like Matthew 17:20 are much more powerful when they’re taken literally.
Thank you God for recall, reflection and learning from the unexpected experts of our time.
Class after a long day’s work is so hard. Perhaps the hardest thing I have ever done in my life (and I do it five times a week) is wake up at 5:45, sit in traffic, work until 4:00, sit in traffic on my way home (except I am not going home), only to get to school and try to be alert for the next five hours. Everyday, I rely on some small mind game to get me through. Like tonight I slipped off my sandals and put my feet up on the chair next to me. No doubt some of the other students were grossed out and maybe a little annoyed at me taking up so much space— but I HAD to. There was no way around it. I needed to think “ah, how nice, it’s like I am sitting home watching TV,” except it was school and I was listening to my Human Diversity teacher make sexist remarks.
A little bitter and drained? Obviously. But the thought of some of the other students in my classes– some with three kids, a husband, a mortage, debt, bills, an entire house to clean (as opposed to a 20 x 20 foot space in a small apartment) makes me see my greif for what it really is: whinning.
Having come full circle I am left with this: I’m young, single, capable; now is simply the time.
I love when I do my hair big. Boys don’t like it; which makes me like it even more.
