It frustrates me greatly that there is such a great need for each individual child to experience good and kindness during their school day, while also experiencing knowledge and discipline.
The teacher/first responder/pseudo-parent/special needs coordinator is tasked with an insurmountable burden when there are many children put in a room that also want good, kindness, knowledge and discipline. How is one to do all these things and get them to pass tests also?
Over my ten years of education experience I have found it is most important to love. A school classroom is extremely like the real world. Extremely. There is so much that goes on under the exterior artifices that exist in the classroom. Between the people in charge of the teacher and the parents in charge of the child, the teacher is pulled in many directions that cannot be handled all at once.
When I think of the forest, there is a lot of stuff you don't see that is making it all work. Like the fungus decomposer and the food web replanting seeds and nurturing the Earth. When I think of the tree, I see an outer shell with many inner shells that have been effected by past events that will determine its success.
It is hard, but I do believe it's Christ's work. Hug a tree. Hug a child.
