Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Notes from public school - day 94

This morning was a cold morning in Greenville, SC. 

The temperature was 28 degrees F when I opened my front door at 6:45 a.m.

Maybe it was the biting wind.

Maybe it was going back to school after a long weekend.

But I wondered for a moment,  “What if I close the door, put down my school bag, take off my coat, and climb back into my warm bed?”

Do all teachers have moments like this as we set out for new days at our schools?

Probably so.

“Do I have enough ‘hmpff’ inside of me to manage 40 nine and ten year olds from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m.? What if __________?

You can fill in the blank with all the possibilities that can occur in a day in the life of a child.

It takes a lot of ‘hmpff’ to help a classroom full of 4th graders make it from point A to point Z, and all the lettered points in between.

“Do I have enough smarts to pass knowledge on to my students?”

It takes a lot of smarts to help the “I think I’ve got it!” light come on in the eyes of children who learn in so many different ways.

Do I have enough heart to make it minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, for all 180 days of school?”

It takes a lot of heart.

So yes, it would’ve been easy to close the door.

But I didn’t.

Here’s one reason why.

As I opened the front door of my school, one of my students met me with a smile and open arms.

“Hey Mr. Barton,” he said. “I missed you yesterday. I’d rather go to school than anywhere else in the world.”

And there you have it. 

We come back every day because our students need us.

“Care is the biggest part of cure,” I learn by living and working in the inner-city.

We care.

That makes all the difference.















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