Now More Than Ever

We spent the summer watching the loons on our lake raise their two loonlets. I was impressed. They work as a team to overcome the odds against the little ones. The surprise snowstorm in early spring, the eagles and hawks, even the swarming mosquitos can disrupt the family. Yet, they persevere. I can hear their yodeling now as I write.  In a world that daily bombards us with crisis and bad news, here is a story of hope and determination. It is a lesson I hope my educator friends – all those who make a school work - can carry into the new school year. Your health and your work have never been more important.

The foundation of our public schools has always been the notion that democracy can only survive if our citizens are just, fair, and reasonable because they know what is true and they know what is false. Your job has always been to help kids understand the age-old struggle to overcome ignorance. We want our kids to learn how to solve problems and create – as Aristotle said – “the good life”.  It is a lifelong challenge to create curriculum and relationships to achieve such a goal, and this year is more important than ever.

I applaud you for your creativity and determination in making the best of a bad situation last school year. I can only imagine the conflicts you felt when Covid 19 kept you from meeting your students in person. I hope you will have the chance this year to meet the needs of our kids once again, especially the emotional needs. I know you are concerned about the academic disruption Covid caused, but I also know you recognize the anxiety kids are feeling. I know you will do your best to help with both.

I also hope you will care for yourselves. Those of us with long experience in teaching know how valuable colleagues can be in dealing with personal stress. From the laughing banter in the hallway to the thoughtful academic discussions over coffee to the moving personal shows of support, we educators need each other.

We are often reminded to heed the lessons of history, especially after we don’t. What we must do is help our kids develop the tools to make a better world for themselves and everyone else. I know you will.

A poem:

 

Poet in Residence at a Country School

The school greets me like a series
of sentence fragments sent out to recess.
Before I hit the front door
I'm into a game of baseball soccer.
My first kick's a foul; my second sails
over the heads of the outfielders;
rounding third base, I suck in my stomach
and dodge the throw of a small blue-eyed boy.
I enter the ! school, sucking apples of wind.
In the fifth-grade section of the room
I stand in the center of an old rug and ask,
Where would you go where no one could find you,
a secret place where you'd be invisible
to everyone except yourselves;
what would you do there, what would you say?
I ask them to imagine they're there
and writing a poem. As I walk around the room,
I look at the wrists of the kids,
green and alive, careful with silence.
They're writing themselves into fallen elms,
corners of barns, washouts, and alkali flats.
I watch until a tiny boy approaches,
who says he can't think of a place,
who wonders today, at least,
if he just couldn't sit on my lap.
Tomorrow, he says, he'll write.

…..Don Welch