Teaching School is not for Sissies

MY RANT FOR THE SECOND WEEK OF SCHOOL

Teaching is one of the most rewarding careers in the world-- if you like children.  Teaching is so easy when it it going right....AND nothing is harder when it's going wrong.

I gag when people tell me how teachers should teach.  I have this little devil in me that would love to give the “Knowledgeable One” 25 first graders and see if they could get them lined up for lunch...bathroom, hands washed, lunch boxes picked up, lunch money if they need it....you teachers know the drill.  Most uninitiated folks would crumble in eight minutes or less.

There is nothing sweeter than watching Early Childhood teachers during the first weeks of school.  They are MAGICAL.  These are teachers who can open milk cartons, dry tears, teach procedures, get the kids to eat something and eat their own lunch SIMULTANEOUSLY.  Personally, they are my rock stars in the Woodstock of school. MAGICAL!  No Lie.

Really, I've been told numerous times, "I've been to school for (fill in the blank with number of years)
and I have never heard of this.”  That’s because the good old days might not have been so good.

Rambling Thoughts:
1.  We don’t use chalkboards because of the dust...computers don’t like dust.
2.  Supplies....it’s just like home....the pencils walk off when we aren’t looking.
3.  My child doesn’t have a textbook to bring home....that’s because we use more than one resource for teaching standards...we have a variety of materials for your child to use.  Drill and kill just doesn’t work.  In Georgia there are textbooks online.    
4.  Widipedia is not a good source to use in a reference paper.
5.  Learning how to learn is very important.
6.  Getting along with others is very important, too.

Teachers want to impart knowledge.  They want children to take school somewhat seriously.  They don't want to be called, "B*^&h."  Or, "B" or "Bee atch."  And then they sure don't want to hear a parent saying, "My child wouldn't say that.”  (Okay, I did really enjoy showing this hateful mother a video tape of her child doing exactly what the mother had told me he would never do.  In fact, I showed it to her twice.)

Do you really think that teachers want children to be disrespectful?  Common courtesy goes a long way in life.

Fighting with parents is not high on a teacher's lists of "things that I enjoy."  In fact, most teachers dread listening to a parent rant about their child.  Teachers want your children to hand in their homework, study, and do well.  I've met very few teachers who enjoyed putting an F on a report card.(Now, for the record, I do think my high school chemistry teacher liked it.  He put my F in red and stated that he had saved the world from me becoming a nurse.  That was low.  IN BRIGHT RED!)

So, listen to your children.....but listen to the teacher, too.

God gave us two ears, two eyes, and one mouth.  In old Erin’s little world that means:  1.  Listen twice as hard, 2.  Read the information twice, and then 3.  Only talk about half as much as we actually do.

And to my teacher friends out there:  Parents don’t keep the good kids at home.

And Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon All of Us

Mom’s urn was a metal.  I’d never really thought about urns until we were faced with the task of picking one out.  Brother Dan thought that this one would appeal to her.  As usual, he was right.

Now, back to the diggers.  After about ten minutes of digging, Brother Jim asked, “Is this deep enough?”

Dean shook his head, “No, only if I stand on her and push her down about a foot.”

I started writing this conversation down.  You never know when you might need this information.

“Erin, bring the urn over.  The hole is deep enough.”

“Wait a minute, I’m writing all this down.  I don’t want to forget anything.”

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Things I learned:

1.  A hole needs to be fairly deep....even for an urn.

2.  Packing tape works well for lowering an urn into the ground.  Take a big long piece, loop it around the urn, and it will act as a means of helping the urn descend into the grave in a sacred manner.  We didn’t do this.

3.  God loves fools and my family.

4.  Lay plywood down before digging a hole and put the dirt on the plywood.  Then when you fill in the hole, the ground around the grave doesn’t look nasty.  The finished grave will look much nicer.

5.  Sprinkle a little grass seed on the dirt to get the grave looking good.

6.  Mom and Dad did a good job with raising the three of us.  We knew that Mom was in heaven and that this burial could be a family story for the rest of our days.  We appreciated every minute of it!

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Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.


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PS.  God, thank you for my parents.  They prepared me to live, love, and laugh....usually all at the same time!

My family in approximately 1958.