Grabbing the brass ring
Hymns...5 verses, 6 verses. Prayers full of thee's and thou's spoken reverantly and full of emotion. Students' faces shining. Traditons: stepping over swords; students plunked on the head with a Bible to remind them that they must submit to the admonishment and correction of the Word of God; "Alma Mater" sung IN LATIN!!. Students hugging teachers passionately; teachers eyes and voices full of love and tears. Soberness mixed liberally with laughter. Everything serious; no one taking themselves too seriously. Honors. Pride. Joy. Laughter. Music. Tears. A room full of students who all worked together, who all worked hard ~ really hard. A room full of students who loved eachother and were passionately proud of eachother.
. . . and me ~ crying my make-up off, and crying again, and crying again ~ and me ... hugging my students, crying with them, with joy, with passion. I remember these students in my class -- deep talks, jokes, laughter, admonishments. I remember looking them in the eye again and again...seeing who they really were ~ hoping they would see that reflection of themselves in my eyes.
When I was young, there were places where there were carousels. Sometimes they had a pole beside the carousel with an arm that reached toward the carousel that had brass rings. The idea was to lean out and grab a brass ring as you went by. To get the ring you had to decide that you would not simply 'go along for the ride'; you had to decide that just going round in circles wasn't for you. You had to stretch yourself, leaning out of the comfort zone, way out beyond the perimeters of fun and security. But to get the ring!! Oh!
They did it! Congratulations Daena, Joshua-Paul, Eric, Daniel, and Rachel. You got the ring!!!
. . . and me ~ crying my make-up off, and crying again, and crying again ~ and me ... hugging my students, crying with them, with joy, with passion. I remember these students in my class -- deep talks, jokes, laughter, admonishments. I remember looking them in the eye again and again...seeing who they really were ~ hoping they would see that reflection of themselves in my eyes.
When I was young, there were places where there were carousels. Sometimes they had a pole beside the carousel with an arm that reached toward the carousel that had brass rings. The idea was to lean out and grab a brass ring as you went by. To get the ring you had to decide that you would not simply 'go along for the ride'; you had to decide that just going round in circles wasn't for you. You had to stretch yourself, leaning out of the comfort zone, way out beyond the perimeters of fun and security. But to get the ring!! Oh!
They did it! Congratulations Daena, Joshua-Paul, Eric, Daniel, and Rachel. You got the ring!!!
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