a letter to the children/for the time I won't be with you

Come tomorrow morning, I will have made it to the ripe old age of 65.  I mistakenly was under the impression that my own mother was quite elderly when she was this age.  I confess that I was quite wrong.  She was actually very young still.  How could I have thought otherwise?

Sorry about that Mom.

As a teacher, I've been asked many times how old I am by well meaning students.  They were not being rude, rather they were simply curious.  I never once took offense at it, and it was the teacher in me that always told them the answer.  It was also the teacher in me that made them do a subtraction problem to figure it out first.   I have found most children to be extremely quick at taking numbers away from each other, especially when the difference they find will tell them just how old their teacher really is.  

Tomorrow I will celebrate not only for myself, but for all the other folks out there who would have been glad to have made it to age 65 but somehow did not.  I've known far too many people, friends and family alike whose lives were cut short far too soon.  One thing I know for certain~

It is a privilege to grow old.

Tomorrow I get to celebrate my birthday with 24 children I have come to know and love in a short 12 week span of time.  They are my students at Newkirk Elementary School here along the Kansas-Oklahoma border.  Quite often I share my blogposts with them and this is one that we will read together before beginning a new writing assignment this week.  

You know, I consider myself quite fortunate because I get to go to a job every single day that I love.  I couldn't imagine being more blessed.  This blogpost is for the children.  I am privileged to be their teacher.

~A letter to the children/for the time I won't be with you~

Dear 4th graders,

October has been filled with "happy birthdays" in our classroom and now mine has come to pass as well.  65 years ago on the 26th day of October in 1955, I arrived on planet Earth.  Never once in all those 60+ years did I dream I would one day be your teacher.  We have talked about destiny before in our classroom so you understand what I mean when I say that fate brought us all together, just in the nick of time.  It was no accident that I saw Mrs. Hunter's online post one mid-July day that a teacher was needed for the children of the fourth grade at Newkirk Elementary School.  Just when I thought I would re-enter retirement, God showed me that there was a calling for me right in my own community of Newkirk.

I do not regret coming to be your teacher, as a matter of fact, I kind of call it a miracle of sorts.

You hear me say many things during the course of the day but something you have heard quite often is the fact that I want you all to learn to stick together through whatever comes your way.  I want you to continue to remember that.  You have received me as your teacher in my older years.  There will come a time that I will not be with you any longer and when that time comes, then you must know what to do without me.  On those days when we have troubles, and we must be truthful and admit there are some of those times, I always ask you to look around the room at the faces you see.  Those are the reflections of the kids you will continue to grow up with as you move on to middle school and high school.  You will be a classroom community long after I stop teaching and in the future, long after I am gone.  It will make my heart happy to know that you looked out for one another in the times that come ahead.  It's what I am trying to teach you right now and it has been time well spent.

Last spring when I was sure I would be more than ready to retire, I thought it was for the best.  With the virus going around and such great unknowns about how it would affect people (especially of my age group), I just felt it was best for my health to stay away.  What a crazy thought that was!  By early June I began to look for a classroom, never knowing that there would be one only a few blocks from our home here in Newkirk.  When the time was just perfect, I found you and so my 41st year of being a teacher began.

I have never looked back.

Today we will celebrate with cake and ice cream, not just my 65th birthday, but the blessing of meeting one another in this strange year and time.  We are a classroom community of learners and we are in this together.  Covid 19 cannot stop us from learning nor can it stop us from crossing the finish line together on the last day of school in May.

I love you kids all.

Mrs. Renfro



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