We sat outside yesterday and wrote poetry down by the pond at the back of her complex. She was perfectly at home with a pencil and a piece of paper and once she got going, she found some beautiful imagery of her own making. This is what I miss most about teaching. It's the wonder of the moment. It's the pleasure that lights up in a child's eyes when she realize that what she's doing is noteworthy. It's the personal satisfaction that a child can take from a simple response to her work. Great praise isn't necessary, but responding honestly is.
And, while I'm relieved to not have to travel for 18 miles down the freeway each workday morning at 6:45, I find I miss these moments and, each day of a teacher's life is filled with moments like the ones Carrie found yesterday. I don't know quite how I got involved in her life and in this rather wonderful homework club that meets at an apartment complex that seems to be filled with teenagers, but I'm glad I found my way into it. Being open and having a connection probably helped. But I go twice a week for about an hour and a half and a half where we sit in what would be an apartment bedroom with two other adults and children. There are other rooms filled just like ours and it amazes me how we can tune everyone and everything out. Our connection is growing.
How did I get lucky enough to be paired with Carrie? She is like so many of the gifted children I taught over the course of my career at a unique school for children like her. She is focused, serious but her eyes light up as she makes discoveries. This is what's missing from my life right now.
I've been traveling hither and yon since June - to Morocco, to Grand Rapids to San Francisco and soon to South Africa. The full sense of retirement is still to come but now that the house is, well sort of, clean and organized - now that the dog requires a daily walk of about 3 miles - now that there is a certain structure to each day, I find I'm missing something important.
It is so difficult to go from full-time work to no work. How I wish there were an interim step in here, but for me, there wasn't and I couldn't have kept up the required pace without some personal repercussions. So, I think about teaching a lot. I think about the state of it here in this country. I think about my granddaughters and the education they're getting. I think about how one would go about helping adults reframe what they know about teaching. So, a blog, well, it's my beginning. Whether or not anyone reads it is okay with me. I'm just going to put out my thoughts and should someone happen to stumble on it, well, good.
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