The End... and the Beginning

It has been a long time since I've written here. Many things have happened that I wanted to write about, but everytime I sat down to write, I found I had to edit/censor so much that the posts lost their value. Imagine a letter home from the Western Front during World War I and the way the Home Office in Britain would cut out important names and events, troop strengths and such... my posts would largely have looked like this.

The reason being of course is because the major events centered around the departure of students and the reasons for their departures... things I cannot post. But, also, the repetitive nature of so many of the stories... I try, I succeed, I push forward, we fail, fall back, regroup, try, succeed, push forward, fail, fall back... etc ad infinitum.

However, something did happen today (and will, I plan, happen again tomorrow) that I want preserved for myself and for posterity. Today was the last day that I had the Friday group in class (they work tomorrow and we have final exams next week). I wanted to leave them with something to know what they had meant to me, so I wrote some brief parting remarks and delivered them at the end of class. Some of the students cried and I nearly did, too, but I don't want to forget what I said (and will say three times again tomorrow) so I'm posting it here. Enjoy...

"When I was a young boy, my teachers - with my parents, naturally - had the most formative influence on my life.

My 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Randolph, taught me to read, and she was one of the people that - being someone that experienced the inhumanity of segregation personally - taught me the fundamental value of human life.

My 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Burns, taught me my states and their capital cities -- and she taught me that valuable knowledge comes only with hard labor.

My high school math teacher, Mrs. Savage, taught me calculus - and helped me to understand that no branch of human knowledge was beyond me if I would only reach...

My Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Patton, yelled at me one day when I yelled "BOOM!" while playing Ninja Turtles with my friends -- and so I learned the importance of maintaining order and I enforce it in my own classroom and world even today.

Years from now, if you look back at who your teachers were and what they taught you, I can't know what you will say I taught you - or even if I will make the list of your most influential teachers. My list of teachers [that I just gave] was hardly exhaustive, but is a good sampling of the people who had the biggest impact on my life.

Whether I make your list someday or not, know that you've all made my list. A teacher's first class is the one they never forget; it's said the teacher learns more from that class than the class learns from the teacher, and I'd always assumed that was because so many new teachers tend to not know what they're doing. The truth is, I learned more from you about myself - what I'm capable of, what I believe, what I hope - than what I've learned from nearly two decades of formal education.

So, remember not to talk when someone else is speaking. Remember that if everone refused to pick up litter that they did not put on the ground themselves, then we'd all be living in garbage. Remember that persons in authority can always hear more than you think they can [reference to "cockroach peeing" inside joke here].

Remember to always tell the truth. Remember to love truth. Remember to love.

It has been a joy being your teacher. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that joy.

If you're satisfied with the condition of the room, class is finished; go in peace to know, love, and serve our Lord."

It is the rare person who comes to know the meaning of life. I still seek truth, but the secret to a life well lived is no secret at all to me. To see children grow in knowledge, to accomplish something they could not before, to witness knowledge that has been passed down for centuries passed on again, to be someone responsible for its preservation, to fight to make the world better than I found it when I arrived... I've found all the meaning I need. I've found love in my work. In the eyes and in the words and in the thoughts of those I teach, I have glimpsed the very fabric of love itself... I've found God in my students.

Were this year the final one of my life, I would pass feeling complete. But by some glorious miracle of God, I get to do it all again starting in September. Indeed, the end of this chapter has come, but it is only the beginning of the next.