Summer as we’ve known it wraps up this weekend, and we’ll switch gears from lazy days and late nights to busier days and earlier bedtimes next week. As much as we’re ready to get back into a routine, there are always a few nerves and worries at the start of a new school year. What will their teachers be like? Who and how will their friends be this year? Are we ready for the homework, the schedule, the after-school craziness?
The newness, even the smells of the fresh school supplies, are all a bit unnerving for some of us. Honestly, I think it’s one of many reasons I knew I wouldn’t do well as a teacher. With the exception of maybe the military lifestyle where one moves every few years, I can’t think of many professional settings where everything totally resets so often. Every August is a clean slate. Staff and students are shuffled. New co-workers, new classmates, new routines, new rooms. For those who struggle with change, school is not where you want to be!
But with all that newness comes opportunity. For friendships… growth… discovery. As my three move into 7th, 5th, and 2nd grade, I’m starting to realize how little control I have over certain areas of their lives. God is writing their stories. I get to be a huge part of the narrative, but I am not the author. This is a painful realization for someone who likes to write. This business of helping three young people navigate their own school days allows for some growth and discovery on my part, too.
I have some pictorial evidence that I’m learning to let go at least a little. This is a picture of my firstborn on her first day of kindergarten seven years ago:
I guided her to “choose” this monogrammed backpack with a matching lunchbox and coordinating name tag.
Fast forward to this year and a picture of the new backpack my youngest will tote to school next week:
I imagine it’s a lot more fun to be the third child rather than the first. Momma is tired. And she knows the backpack is most definitely not a hill to die on. So you are free to sport one with a gigantic 3-D dolphin on it if you so desire. Hopefully I’ll give all three girls a little more room to explore their interests and grow into themselves this year.
The thing about our school years is that we’re still figuring out who we are. Early on, and sometimes even well into middle and high school, I think it’s safe to say that we simply don’t know who we are. And sometimes, even into adulthood, we forget who we are. That’s where parents and teachers have the chance to tell us… or remind us.
“Teachers are the guardians of spaces that allow students to breathe and be curious and explore the world and be who they are
without suffocation.
Students deserve one place where they can rumble with vulnerability and their hearts can explode. ”
Brené Brown
I know this kind of exploring and rumbling happens in the best classrooms. It’s amazing what changes in a life when a teacher sees a gift or a strength or a possibility in a child and lets them know in some way, “I see you! You have something unique to offer the world. Keep going! Keep growing! I’m cheering you on!”
I just hope that kind of thing can happen more in our high-strung home this year, too. Maybe with a good measure of God’s grace, I’ll loosen up a little knowing that my role is less about controlling and more about letting these girls breathe and encouraging them along the way. I don’t want to be a helicopter parent or a lawnmower or a snowplow kind of parent. I just want to be a good parent. And that probably begins with being a praying parent.
I came across this passage this week, and I think it may need to be our verse for the year:
Like a devoted gardener, I will pour sweet water on parched land,
streams on hard-packed ground; I will pour My spirit on your children
and grandchildren—and let my blessing flow to your descendants.
And they will sprout among the grasses,
grow vibrant and tall like the willow trees lining a riverbank.
Isaiah 44:3-4 (The Voice)
May it be so—that my children and your children and all our children— grow vibrant and tall in their classrooms and in our care this year.
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