The Apprentice

There was a little girl on my camp team for years named Hayden who considered herself to be my assistant coach- now she is playing for me! Yesterday, Luis Hernandez came by to visit and he met Hayden! He's in the real world now and doing well. The following, from March 9, 2009, is about Luis who also made it his goal to be my assistant.

I'm not quite sure when but Luis began joining me at my classroom door every day before my fifth period sophomore Bible class, of which he is a member. Between classes, faculty members stand at their doors and monitor the halls. I speak to each youngster who enters and try to personalize the greeting. At times, when I am picking up papers or doing something at my desk, I ask one of the kids to be me for a minute in my hall duties. Luis must have been my stand-in one morning, enjoyed himself, and penciled himself in as a regular, leaning back against the door mimicking my cross-armed posture. He's your typical tenth grade boy, a soccer player with a wonderful girlfriend named Danielle. He takes his new responsibilities seriously. Luis is prompt and greets his classmates as they enter the room. I even let him write a hall pass to the bathroom last week. There's one more thing. If you are a regular reader, you know that I have a world class collection of ties that I wear in rotation daily. Luis brought a red striped necktie from home which he keeps just inside my classroom door. He arrives before anyone else for fifth period and loops the tie around his neck. Keep in mind that while I wear long sleeve, button down oxford shirts with my neck wear, my apprentice sports the WCS short sleeve blue polo top with his tie. We have started asking passersby if they can tell us apart. It's difficult. If you subtract the fact that I am taller, slightly older, and Anglo while Luis is Latino and a teenager, we are practically indistinguishable from each other. I signed my contract this afternoon for the 2009-2010 school year. I neglected to ask Dr. Lacey if Luis had signed his yet. You see, I think we make a pretty good team. In Luke 6:40, Jesus said, 
"A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher." 
Luis is getting it. Since becoming a teacher-in-training, his Bible grade has taken a dramatic jump. My guess is that Jesus would approve.

(Luis is fifth from the left- and also from the right- in the back row of the team picture from this year's Westbury Christian School soccer squad.)

Applicable quote of the day:
"Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater." 
Gail Godwin


God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
http://www.hawleybooks.com/
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com