When you teach grade 4, you deal with children. When you teach in the public sector, you need to remember that eduspeak can obscure what you already know about children. I came across the article The Etiology of Childhood by Jordan W. Smoller while doing my Masters in Ed. Admin. It really resonated with me. It makes me smile every time I read it. 

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or love.
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.
He has forfeited his freedom.

Only a person who takes risks is free.

Source: Unknown

“Evil will flourish when good men and women stand by and do nothing.” Edmund Burke

Evil flourishes like a noxious weed when citizens become complacent; it casts its seeds into the wind so that they land on fertile soil and grow with vigor. Good men and women must act to prevent the growth and triumph of evil. Be an active citizen. Be alert. Stay informed. Speak out. Exercise your right to vote. Leaving these obligations to others encourages evil to spread. Far better that you don’t allow the seeds of evil to gain a foothold.

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.


--- Max Ehrmann, 1927

A Definition of Friendship

Friendship is the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring all right out just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful friendly hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping and, with a breath of comfort, blow the rest away.  Dinah Mulock Craik (1826 - 1887)

Nail in the fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there.

"A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us."

Author Unknown – Circulated via email, possibly written for National Friendship Week

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

© Robert Fulghum, 1990.
Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.

The Nature School

attributed to George H. Beavis 1940s, Springfield, Oregon, Public Schools Newsletter

Once upon a time, the animals decided they should do something meaningful to meet the problems of the new world.  So they organized a school.

They adopted an activity curriculum of running, climbing, swimming, and flying.  To make it easier to administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects.

The duck was excellent in swimming; in fact, better than his instructor.  He made only passing grades in flying, and was very poor in running.  Since he was slow in running, he had to drop swimming and stay after school to practise running.  This caused his webbed feet to be badly worn, so that he was only average in swimming.  Luckily, average was quite acceptable, so nobody worried about that – except the duck.

The rabbit started at the top of his class in running, but developed a nervous twitch in his leg muscles because of so much make-up work in swimming.

The squirrel was excellent in climbing, but he encountered constant frustration in flying class because his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down.  He developed “charlie horses” from overexertion, and so only got a C in climbing and a D in running.

The eagle was a problem child and was severely disciplined for being a non-conformist.  In climbing classes he beat all the others to the top of the tree, but insisted on using his own way to get there…..

The obvious moral of the story is a simple one – each creature has its own set of capabilities in which it will naturally excel – unless it is expected or forced to fill a mold that doesn’t fit.  When that happens, frustration, discouragement, and even guilt bring overall mediocrity or complete defeat.  A duck is a duck – and only a duck.  It is built to swim, not to run or fly and certainly not to climb.  A squirrel is a squirrel – and only that.  To move it out of its forte, climbing, and then expect it to swim or fly will drive a squirrel nuts.  Eagles are beautiful creatures in the air, but not in a foot race.  The rabbit will win every time unless, of course, the eagle gets hungry.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley. ©1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

A variation that I have found that is as loving as all family wishes should be:

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

May God be with you and bless you:
May you see your children's children.
May you be poor in misfortune,
Rich in blessings.
May you know nothing but happiness
From this day forward.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home
And may the hand of a friend always be near.

May green be the grass you walk on,
May blue be the skies above you,
May pure be the joys that surround you,
May true be the hearts that love you.

And more still from http://islandireland.com/Pages/folk/sets/bless.html

Irish words of encouragement... Irish Marriage Blessing May God be with you and bless you. May you see your children's children. May you be poor in misfortunes and rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward. An Old Irish Blessing May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand. A Gaelic Christening Blessing Dearest Father in Heaven, Bless this child and bless this day Of new beginnings. Smile upon this child And surround this child, Lord, With the soft mantle of your love. Teach this child to follow in your footsteps, And to live life in the ways of Love, faith, hope and charity. A Wish for a Friend Wishing you a rainbow For sunlight after showers— Miles and miles of Irish smiles For golden happy hours— Shamrocks at your doorway For luck and laughter too, And a host of friends that never ends Each day your whole life through! An Irish Prayer May God give you... For every storm, a rainbow, For every tear, a smile, For every care, a promise, And a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, A faithful friend to share, For every sigh, a sweet song, And an answer for each prayer. An Old Cradle Song Sleep, my babe, lie still and slumber, All through the night Guardian angels God will lend thee, All through the night Soft and drowsy hours are creeping, Hill and vale in slumber sleeping, Mother dear her watch is keeping, All through the night God is here, you'll not be lonely, All through the night 'Tis not I who guards thee only, All through the night Night's dark shades will soon be over, Still my watchful care shall hover, God with me His watch is keeping, All through the night Remembered Joy Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free! I follow the plan God laid for me. I saw His face, I heard His call, I took His hand and left it all... I could not stay another day, To love, to laugh, to work or play; Tasks left undone must stay that way. And if my parting has left a void, Then fill it with remembered joy. A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss... Ah yes, these things I, too, shall miss. My life's been full, I've savoured much: Good times, good friends, a loved-one's touch. Perhaps my time seemed all too brief— Don't shorten yours with undue grief. Be not burdened with tears of sorrow, Enjoy the sunshine of the morrow. An Old Celtic Blessing May the blessing of light be on you— light without and light within. May the blessed sunlight shine on you and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire. Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep Do not stand at my grave and weep, I am not there... I do not sleep. I am the thousand winds that blow... I am the diamond glints on snow... I am the sunlight on ripened grain... I am the gentle autumn rain. When you waken in the morning's hush, I am the swift uplifting rush Of gentle birds in circling flight... I am the soft star that shines at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry— I am not there... I did not die... Bless This House Bless this house, o Lord, we pray. Make it safe by night and day. Bless these walls so firm and stout, Keeping want and trouble out. Bless the roof and chimney tall, Let thy peace lie over all. Bless the doors that they may prove Ever open to joy and love. Bless the windows shining bright, Letting in God's heavenly light. Bless the hearth a-blazing there, With smoke ascending like a prayer. Bless the people here within... Keep them pure and free from sin. Bless us all, that one day, we May be fit, O lord, to dwell with Thee. In Time of Sorrow... May you see God's light on the path ahead When the road you walk is dark. May you always hear, Even in your hour of sorrow, The gentle singing of the lark. When times are hard may hardness Never turn your heart to stone, May you always remember when the shadows fall— You do not walk alone. A Blessing for Fair Day God be with them now, and bring them home with their fair share of stock or money. From Saint Patrick's Breastplate Christ be with me Christ before me Christ behind me Christ in me Christ beneath me Christ above me Christ on my right Christ on my left Christ where I lie Christ where I sit Christ where I arise Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me Christ in every eye that sees me Christ in every ear that hears me Salvation is of the Lord. Said in the morning when rising... Christ be with me, be after me, be before me, and be at my right and left hand. May everything I do be for Christ. Said when dressing... Lord, clothe me with the robes of innocence. Said during thunder and lightning... O Lord, be between us and harm and protect us from the harm of the world. An Old Irish Blessing May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours!