Along the Road to Home

About the first of April,  after the shock of not returning to school any longer to finish out the year had started sinking in,  I began to look at school through a whole new window.  I started to examine my own attitudes and reflect upon things in a different and certainly more profound way.  The experience of not being able to be with my 5th grade students in person any longer taught me at least a couple of lessons that I, their teacher, needed to learn.   It was a sobering experience to say the very least. Do you know what my very first awakening was?  I figured out after more than 4 decades in the classroom that straight as an arrow lines going quietly down the hallway were not all as important as we once thought them to be.  Keep in mind that I'm not an advocate for running down the hallways and stringing ourselves out from here to tomorrow by any means.  I'm just saying that the truth is "kids are kids" and even grownups don't go d...

I was there that day when they all walked out the door and never came back again. I think of it so often and remember in my heart what it was like.  It was Thursday, the 12th of March, and the last day of school before spring break.  For some reason that day I more or less threw my lesson plans into the wastebasket, and allowed the kids some freedom and the opportunity to have fun.  In the hour before school was out, we had a "spotcha" party in the lunchroom where they had a great time painting the most beautiful pictures you could have ever seen.  They laughed and had a great time with their friends, never knowing it would be the last time they would be together again as a fifth grade group. The after school tutorial students from my class decided to go ahead and stay for tutoring time even though I told them they could go early that day.  We had a great time as they all worked together reviewing things for the upcoming state tests in reading, math, and sci...

The bookshelf at home is lined with plenty of things to read, among them an entire row of beautiful devotional books that I have purchased over the years.  I'd see one that I liked, buy it, and place it on the shelf.   And that's where it stayed. On the shelf. In pristine condition because when you don't use them that's how they stay. I had so many of them that I really didn't even know which ones I had.  This summer in my quest to figure out what to do with all this extra time I seemed to have, I began to look at those devotionals.  I wondered to myself, "Why am I saving these?  Don't you think it's time to get one out and use it?" And so I did. With highlighter in hand, I began to sit down at my desk and daily read the first of the devotional books I had chosen.  That particular one is now completed and the pages no longer look brand new.  Instead, each page now has its own share of yellow highlighted words, passages, and phrases tha...

The summer of 2020 is moving along at a rapid clip and we now find ourselves already in the middle part of July.  It's amazing how quickly the days of our lives fly by us, even during times of chaos and the pandemic.  Some people, like me  at times, are already saying "Hurry up and get here 2021!"  This has been a time to endure and in the years that lie ahead, to always remember and not in the best of ways either. Back in March, as a matter of fact the very first week of it, I made the decision that the 2019-2020 school year would be my last one.  After 40 years of teaching children in Kansas, Colorado, Texas and now in Oklahoma, I felt like it was time to move on and do whatever it was that retired people did.  Not even two weeks after I turned in my notification that I would not be returning, the pandemic arrived and the last quarter of the school year was taught and completed in a manner of virtual and continuous learning.  In amazement I reali...

The last nearly 4 months have been hard ones. There's no saying it any other way. Hard.  Difficult.  Challenging.  Character building. From that date in mid March when I realized that I wouldn't be seeing any of my 5th grade students for a long, long time until today as we ready ourselves to celebrate the 244th birthday of our country, each new day has brought its share of challenges.  The fear of the unknown and of every single change that a person has to now get used to, can bring out the angst in the best of folks. It brought it out for me. I don't mind admitting it. It helps to be honest about things like that. There is aplenty to worry about and more than our share of things to have anxiety attacks over.   Jobs disappear.   Money runs out.   Groceries have gone up exponentially in price.  It's easier than ever to spend $100 and carry your purchases out in two plastic bags.   Families and friends are unable t...