I don’t like grown ups. I don’t get them at all. They make simple things hard and miss the wonder of leaves whirling on an autumn day. Life among those who have not yet achieved adulthood is the best of all things. It is challenging. Failure is not an option when a student cannot grasp the smallest increments of reading or mathematics and begin to grow. Every educator I know, myself included, spends endless hours and creative energy finding ways to reach the unreachable. The same is true in ministry. When a child can’t wrap their mind around an infinite, all loving, all knowing God and rest their faith in the truths that have seen me through the mountain passes of my life’s journey, my mind won’t rest until Heaven speaks and I see the answer.
One of the tasks given to public education is to direct the study and remembrance of national heroes, patriots, and people of notoriety. Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day and Presidents Day are a few occasions where lesson plans follow the obvious. January brings Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and discussions about this era of America’s past. Did you know that most books/biographies about people of the civil rights movement speak to God’s direction for peaceful protest and perseverance under the most trying circumstances? They are most often a testimony to spiritual victory.
Children do not hold back their observations and questions. These moments with my class give me encouragement and hope for the ages to come, because, in this season of the school year I understand God’s call for a childlike heart more clearly than ever. A five year old does not comprehend the constitutional issues created by the Jim Crow Laws, but they do recognize and empathize with Martin and his siblings when they were told their white friends could no longer play with them, or that Rosa Parks was not welcome to a seat on a bus she paid an equal price for. They get it, and see its wrong without any commentary from me. I read the book and direct the discussion. State standards don’t include a section for my opinion. However, in their honestly, they display the beauty of what the world could look like if adults loved as they love.
The school where I teach and the community I live in is very diverse, both economically and ethnically. My classroom reflects the demographics of this town and surrounding countryside. Once, after reading about Ruby Bridges, and the story of New Orlean’s desegregation, a child raised their hand and asked, “Mrs. Rooney, are there still people of color on earth today?” Sitting next to this little tike was a friend of color, but it was NOT the recognizable attribute noted in the heart and mind of this young scholar.
Dr. King, I hope our paths cross when I get to Heaven, so I can tell you of the little one who didn’t even know children came in different shades of red and yellow, black and white.
In a world full of diversity, and variables, there is an absolute. Be like the children, and love one another. (Gretchen’s abbreviated translation, Matthew 18:3 and John 13:34-35) Dance in the falling leaves, catch snowflakes on your tongue, stomp through some mud puddles and let your soul be young again…….forever.
All My Love,
Gretchen