Friday, February 27, 2015

Beautiful Fridays

I love sunny Friday afternoons at school. There is an energy on campus that just makes everyone smile.

It's ironic that Friday inspires this joy and yet, the children would happily stay there until evening and play with their friends rather than go home.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Other Duties as Assigned

It is important to remember that there is an inherent dignity in labor, just as there is an inherent dignity in man. Before Adam's fall, God gave Adam and his mate a job. They had a task, tending the garden. In our original blessed state, we were happy with work.

I was thinking of this today as I was mopping up after a toilet that had overflowed. It surprised me at first that I was able to face that task blithely. It was tempting from time to time to have a bad attitude about the situation. Honestly, no one likes to deal with an overflowing toilet. Whenever those thoughts rose to the fore, it occurred to me that I had to actually dwell on unpleasant aspects of the chore to be bothered by it. Thankfully, it was not hard to remember what so many saints have lived, that any task, no matter how small or menial, is beautiful if done out of love.

It was not hard to see this afternoon that no work is beneath you, but that you might be beneath the work, if you cannot see the dignity in the labor or perform the action out of love.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Everything in Its Proper Season

Lent is perfectly suited for late winter. It may seem obvious to point out that God, in His infinite wisdom, has organized the liturgical seasons to perfectly match the and complement the seasons of nature. While it is a well known and oft spoken truth that He brings all things to fruition in their proper time, there is still wisdom and peace to be found in appreciating that truth. It also seems to me that the Lenten late winter is one of these proper times that is not as frequently expressed.

I mentioned yesterday that one of the challenges of teaching is to keep students engaged during third quarter when they are most inclined to run a muck. Children and teenagers and not the only ones who have this inclination in late winter. We all feel that the cold and darkness and drab surroundings have lasted too long and are not yet close enough to ending. In the classroom, the solution is to shake things up with some different class activities, directly engage specific students who are most likely to fall behind, get everyone up and moving a little more often...

In this regard, our souls are not that different from the classroom. We get in a rut. We get complacent. We accept the state of things no matter whether we are ignoring our present state of sin or settling for a limited or effortless prayer life. Our souls and minds and moods need shaking up this time of year, so God gives us Lent. We have a whole season in which we are invited and challenged to slap ourselves in the face, wake up, look at ourselves and study our lessons in a new way. 

It may take a little extra energy to get started, but we are happier for applying the effort. I am happier for this commitment that I will finish my day by saying something good. My mood has been lighter since the very moment I decided that this is how I would celebrate my Lent.

God bless. Thank you.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Discovering Leadership

February, also known to students and teachers as Third Quarter, is a difficult time in the school year. Christmas is over. The weather is (usually) nowhere near warming up. We have all had enough time to get firmly settled into a rut and there is still too much of the school year left for students to necessarily be worried about pulling their grades up for report cards.

It is the teacher's responsibility, to plan for this and provide class activities that will help the students stay interested in what they are learning. In pre-algebra, this is the time of year that I really get the students demonstrating problems at the board or working on individual sized white boards as quickly as they can. My Greek 2 students make it easy for me. I have three highly motivated students in that class who love to learn and love language in general. They also enjoy the privileges that come with being upperclassmen in a very small class that can be trusted to work hard. My Theology 8 class is the one that really concerns me with regard to the third quarter slump. The architecture of the room makes it feel packed with 14 eighth graders. It is the only class this year that I have not taught before, which always makes me a little nervous about pacing. I will admit that the class typically has a set formula for how we proceed. Reading and written questions for homework followed discussions of the homework to correct it the following day. Class discussions start with the homework corrections but always expand from there. Quizzes are held on Fridays. It's very predictable. And it's utterly amazing how much the class changes when they have another kind of activity to do.

Such simple things can shake up a class. Today I had them making study guides for the first two thirds of the current chapter. It covers a great deal of material, so there are about a hundred questions for the chapter review at the end. Two of the three sections used 73 questions. The students know this now because they had five minutes to find all the questions based on the material they had read so far. Once they found the right questions, the moved around to assigned groups and teamed up to identify where in the chapter to find the answers to those questions based on the outline format their textbook uses. I gave them small blocks of time to achieve certain parts of the assignment, allowing them to decide how they got it done. Division of labor and teamwork were permitted and encouraged. I was surprised to see which students took the work seriously and showed leadership within their small groups.

I have one student in the eighth grade who is a scout. He is not just in scouts, he is a scout. If you give him a task and a team, he will lead. It was such a pleasure to watch this today. Puberty has not been easy on him and he has struggled in many ways. Today, he flourished. I need to find more ways to keep those fires burning.

I am grateful for a good day.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Ready for Launch

A blog is, unfortunately, an attractive medium for an undisciplined writer.

I will admit from the beginning that I am undisciplined, but that is not why I am here. This medium, as opposed to any other, gives me no excuses for not starting immediately and not keeping at it. Behold, instant gratification transformed into instant accountability. My first goal here is very personal. I am trying to stop complaining for lent, but it is not enough for me to refrain from complaining.

Perhaps my husband would settle for an end to the complaining or venting or whining or whatever one wanted to call what I do on the drive home, but stopping alone is not enough. For one reason, the void must be filled. If I seek to stop any habit, with what behavior do I replace those actions I want to cease? This leads me to honestly face what I ought to be doing with my time when I have the precious attention of others who are generous enough to listen to me when I have something to say. Any friend, especially a friend who loves me enough to marry me, deserves better than to have his time and attention spent fruitlessly by another. The people I talk to (or write for) deserve much better than to have irreplaceable moments of their lives wasted on hearing me complain about anything. It is far better that I devote my energies to things that are worth their time and attention. What is worthwhile to spend time listening to, reading, writing, and talking about? That is what I should fill my thoughts and energy with, rather than complaints.

It is not enough to abandon vice without seeking the corresponding virtue. The likelihood of succeeding in conquering the vice diminishes without building a foundation of virtue. In this case, there are numerous facets to charity for me to examine in relation to vanquishing my chosen bad habit. If I truly love the people I speak to, I should give them something worth hearing. Those I speak of, whether they are people, institutions, or situations, also deserve to be spoken of with charity instead of vexation. I also am a better and happier person when I rise above the emotional sinkhole of complaining. Lastly, if God has seen fit to make me in His image, I ought not make Him look bad.

If you have found your way to this little blog, the path to it may have already led you through some mentions of the superversive movement advanced by a handful of speculative fiction writers and other creative thinkers who appreciate truth, beauty and goodness. This site will begin as my promise to close my day with something good to say.

Pray for me, I'm going to need it. I will return the favor.