A Gathering Of Adults

If you are in education, you know it's time for Teacher Appreciation Week! Our WCS family does a terrific job of making us feel wanted, from the PTO to the administration to the kids themselves. Businesses have special deals going on- free sandwiches for instructors tomorrow at Chik-Fil-A! Our staff will be treated to a terrific lunch of Friday by our parents, a tradition I love. I don't remember any of this going on when I was a kid or even in my early years of my career. You'll never hear me complain about this fairly new holiday!

I found an envelope on the wall outside my classroom door this afternoon. Inside was the note posted above. It was penned by a member in our National Honor Society and as an NHS alumnus, (York High School, York, Nebraska chapter), I was honored. Ordinarily, that would not in itself be the subject of one of my nightly treatises but it is because of the opening line which I have highlighted. You see, as a preface to delving into any mature subject matter in my five class periods, I always state, "We're all adults here......." It's the heads up from teacher to student that I expect them to handle what we discuss in the manner of someone who is older and more mature. I'm not sure when I began quoting myself several times per week but it  has slipped into the realm of tradition, which often has no well-defined point of origin. The point is that the kids get the point. 

One of the best known passages of scripture comes from Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:11 which defines the path of maturation:

When I was a child, I talked like a child,  I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

As I interact with every child K-12 in WCS with our Honduras-Haiti project, it's important to know my current audience. You don't speak to a five year old as you would an eighteen year old. Examples for seniors often are not fitting for first graders. Emotional and intellectual growth are processes as Paul  reminds us. So is spiritual growth, or at least it should be. It won't be long until these youngsters graduate into an ugly world, a world made ugly by many adults who inhabit the population. The soon to be grown ups are going to have to make big folks' decisions that will have repercussions in their family, their community, and their church. Hopefully, they will appreciate my treating them as quasi-equals someday. I absolutely already appreciate these nearly ninety kids entrusted to me. Several times a year, I ask, "What you would call me without you?" The answer? Unemployed. That's an adult thing to have to deal with.


Applicable quote of the day:
I was in high school, and when you get to be 14, 15, you start to feel a little more like your own person so that you can assert your adulthood a little bit.
Damien Chazelle

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