Finding Folly with Frederick

I met a little guy named Frederick. He lives in a garden with an old timey clock planted firmly in the center. It quietly decorates the corner of East 77 and Lexington Ave. Frederick spends his day running back and forth in the garden and on its wall, where a metal fence sits atop. His path to food is a space, just the right Frederick size, is ‘tween the old stones of the neighboring building. He sits and watches the world. All kinds of people to and fro on this and that. Those going to school, those returning home from work, somenfriends chit-chatting, the tired, the exhausted, the kooky, the doctors from near by and the few waiting for their jitney to the beach. Today to Frederick’s surprise I initiated a game of cat and mouse with my camera. However, being adept at any such game, having been raised an urban fellow, (dare I say City mouse) Frederick won and I possess a blurry picture to remind me of what was.

To My Fellow Teachers

 

I have come to realize that there are teachers who teach all children no matter who they are because they believe in them and then there are teachers who believe that not all children can be taught because of who they are. I have also come to realize that the later … don’t realize that they are the true failures. Perhaps we can teach them.

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I wrote this for several reasons.

1. – I heard about a teacher, from another school in our district that has very different demographics, talk about how poverty is ruining our school, moving to a new building won’t change anything, and it doesn’t make a difference if a good teacher leaves the classroom because the parents don’t know enough to stand up. To which I say – Of course poverty can ruin one’s education, but what will you do to change poverty in society so that this is no longer true? How does pride and a good feeling about your school not make a difference? What if the parents see the potential and don’t want to hold anyone back even if it means their child won’t have that teacher?

2. I know of a teacher who views all poor children of color as beneath them and blame the child and the parents. Why can’t the parents just send in snack or lunch everyday – they literally cannot afford it.  But they obviously do not care about the children enough to work hard enough to see them succeed. Teaching is a LOT of work. It is not for the lazy.

3. Another teacher, believes that they themselves are such a victim and they alone are fighting for their students because NO ONE else will, is failing their own students by saying the students can do far more than they actually can. So when they are challenged in the next grade, they fail miserably. There is no shame in being a solid C than a fake A. The C will grow, the A will fall.

++++ What I would like to see is, instead of society blaming all teachers, that teacher training be amped up and principals make sure they hold all teachers accountable.  And… if you do not like working hard and you do not like ALL children – get out of teaching – for the sake of our future society.

Nature wins – every time – can you see it?

 

 

I have seen nature do amazing things.

We all know about Tsunamis, Earthquakes, trees growing through fences, animal adaptations, and more.

When I visited Australia I went on a tour of different places where the forest had already reclaimed old mining settlements.  You might see if you looked hard an old rusted out thing sitting under regrowth.

The book The World Without Us by Alan Weisman talks about what would happen if we all just upped and disappeared, not a single human left.

Could his predictions be real?  How fast would it happen?  Ask the wolves coming back into the city.  Ask the butterfly who will emerge from the chrysalis hanging in the subway.  Do you see it now?

Look Up!

Each person you meet in your life has a potential for impact, realized or not.

Good and bad.  Once we have realized the bad, it is up to us and us alone to take the experience and turn into a positive by learning from it.

But I digress.  I have met someone for as short as a train ride downtown and our conversation has stayed with me for years.

But then there are longer relationships we have had and we all hope we have taken something away from it (or still are).

Many years ago, almost half my life ago at this point, an important person in my life at the time said, “look up.”  He went on to say that most people don’t look up but they should.  He told me to look up at the buildings in Manhattan.  It is amazing what you may see.  The structure, the architecture, and you can even tell the age from the corners of the buildings as they reach the roof.

Since then I have always looked up.  There are great buildings in this city and views.  It has engaged my sense of aesthetics and made me carry my camera around at all times (until my phone started taking better pictures).

So today as I walked to a lecture today, I looked up.  I was so glad I did.  I took a picture.  I hope you can see what I saw and the reason why I took the picture.  It is part of the magic of NYC.

I am now passing on these great words to you…

Look up – it is worth it.

A New York City Gem – Sunset From The Cloisters

Sunset.

Gute Vaynakhtn un a Gut Nay Yor

I am Jewish and it is Christmas, cue in the Chinese food jokes….

I belong to the Facebook page of the synagogue I sort of belonged to as a kid (in an effort not to fizzle into non existence four synagogues joined together to become the one that exists today).  Someone posted a query from another site about our Christmas traditions.  The Rabbi answered with his and how it has changed.  Those made me start to think about mine.

My mother’s best friend is Irish Catholic.  In fact before marriage and children she had spent some time as a postulate.  So I grew up with her kids and their traditions.  When we all went on vacation for a week in the summer, we would stop at the synagogue on Friday for services and then on Sunday we all went to Church before the beach.   Every Christmas Eve (although it could have been a day or two before – childhood timelines are a little fuzzy) we would go to their house and help trim the tree, enjoy really good baked ham, and exchange gifts.  Our gifts were of course dutifully wrapped in Chanukah wrapping.  We did this every year up until the eldest had been in the Navy for a few years, we got older, my brother joined the Navy, divorce happened, a child was born, and some of us left Queens.  So our tradition slowly came to an end as we reached into our mid and late 20’s.  Those are some of my fondest childhood memories.  I do miss that tradition but life moves on and new traditions are formed and those are just as important.

Since then, I have had no new tradition myself.  Each year has been different.  A couple of times I have been in a car on the way to Florida.  I spent my Fulbright year at my exchange partner’s parent’s house.  I took his place because it was his first Christmas away from home in over 30 years.  So I got to experience a traditional English Christmas full on with Midnight Mass, Christmas crackers, and squishy Brussels sprouts.  Last year I joined a friend and her foster daughter for dinner and gift exchange.  I got to see her daughter give the official engagement ring to her girlfriend.  Ahh young love.  Meanwhile back at the home front my brother proposed to his girlfriend.  We were always on semester break during Christmas when I went to St. John’s University but it would have been interesting to experience Christmas at a Catholic University.   There are many other years that I have no memory of what I did.  But there are a couple of years that I have recounted to others because they speak to the cultural and traditional Jew in a Christian world.

I once was sent to UCONN for a conference during the summer.  As I got off the Grey Hound, I noticed one other person get off.  We bonded immediately – I mean who else doesn’t own cars and takes Grey Hounds to be stranded in the boon docks for a week besides New Yorkers in education?  A few years ago I joined that friend for a play and dinner.  We were meeting another friend of hers.  As my wonderful friend who is a WASP with DAR roots described what her traditional Christmas with her family would be, her friend (a Jew from Vancouver) turned to me and said, “so you are a Jew and I am a Jew, what are you doing for Christmas?”  Who could resist that line?!  We made plans immediately.  I got introduced to one of my most favorite bands, The Moshav Band.  We were in a room full of Jews having a blast.  I think the only other place that had more Jews on Christmas Eve would have been the Matzo Ball.  And I avoid that at all costs – once in my 20’s was enough of that!  That concert was one of my best Christmas Eve’s.  And I made a new friend to boot!

A few years ago my brother got divorced.  I was sorry, no one wants to get divorced nor should they have to go through that pain.  Our relationship had been strained during his marriage so we had just been getting together again and I was getting to see my nieces more often.  He invited me over for Christmas Eve that year.  I had to admit I was a little shocked that he had the kids at all on Christmas Eve as his ex is Christian, but that was the arrangement.  So I went over with Chanukah gifts.  I remember walking in and seeing a big Christmas tree in my brother’s living room.  It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen one in his living room when he was married.  I just hadn’t expected it afterwards.  I immediately asked in a bit of shock about the Christmas tree.  My brother said yes of course he had a Christmas tree and did I notice the Star of David on top, did I like it?  I said no.  But why lie and my brother knows me well enough to understand.  It is his choice.  I would never tell him not to do it.  I just don’t have to love it.  We lit the Chanukah candles and had a great night.  Then after the girls went to bed, my brother turned to me and asked me to help eat the cookies and drink the milk (wait what?!) and write the letter from Santa to the girls because they knew his handwriting.  Wow!  So I did.  What is an Aunt to do?  The next morning I woke up with two girls, standing over my air mattress, trembling with excitement.  “It’s CHRISTMAS.  Let’s go downstairs!” was my good morning greeting from the girls.  I went downstairs and saw the joy of opening gifts on Christmas.  I had never experienced that at all before, it was exactly as I had read in books and seen on TV.  It was by far the most surreal Christmas I had ever had.

A few weeks ago I went over to my brothers to bring over belated Chanukah gifts.  I was ready for the Christmas tree.  The previous year when I had met my brother’s girlfriend, I knew she loved Christmas.  This year my lovely new sister-in-law had saved the gingerbread village making activity for when I got there.  We sat as a family and made (the best we could in between children sneaking candy and icing) the village.  I have made gingerbread houses before but with kids that I was not related to.  I even make gingerbread people with my Pre-K class every year (and by goodness they run away each and every time!) but we do it around a winter theme.  I had a great time but again, it is a new tradition for me as a Jew.   We have already decided how we are adjusting the actual activity next year.

The building I live in is very special.  When you move in, at the board interview, we tell you that if you don’t like being nice and saying hello to your neighbors, this is not the building for you.  We also tell them about our annual holiday lobby party where we have a pot luck, make ornaments (guess which Pre-K teacher runs that!), trim the tree, have a visit from Santa, and sing Christmas carols and Chanukah songs (our Santa has an English accent and our board president Gordon misses seeing him every year – go figure!).  This year I noticed one of our Jewish families were not there.  I stopped and chatted with my neighbor, I had really needed her help for the Chanukah songs.  She told me why they couldn’t make it this year.  But she told me of her Kindergarten aged son’s surprise when she told him that they don’t celebrate Christmas as she explained they weren’t going.  His response was yes we do!  We celebrate it every year in the lobby with Gordon dressed as Santa!  Out of the mouths of babes.  We as Jews do celebrate Christmas, just in our own way within our Christian society.  Some of us join our friends in their traditions, some us form our own.

Yesterday I joined a friend for his Christmas Eve Day tradition, a walk through the Cloisters and a drink afterwards.  Today I am going to work on my much overdue filing, start to organize my taxes, shred some documents, and surf Facebook some more (I am liking the pictures of a former student and her family in Israel).  Perhaps I will even order in Chinese food later.  I am not sure what I will do next year but whatever it is, I will get to add it to my bag of stories and experiences.

A Merry Christmas to all of those who celebrate!

A Yom Tov to everyone!

Gute Vaynakhtn un a Gut Nay Yor (Yiddish to English loosely Translation:  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year)

When you have to confront yourself…

We all have to make decisions in our life.  Some are simple and we never put more than the few second of thought into it.  “Coffee at Starbucks again this morning.”  Others take a bit more weighing of the options, facts, etc. “I am voting for….”

 

Then we have decisions that take the breath out of you.   Those are the ones that make you stop in your tracks and question who you are, what your beliefs are, and how far are you willing to compromise what you thought you believed in.  Yeah those decisions are intense.  There are no good examples of those because it depends on the person and their life and I guarantee that they are often not shared with others as often as the types of decisions above.

 

How often do we have to make those?  Can you think of a time where you had to sit back and really make a decision that was that life altering?  Did you see it coming?

 

I had to make one of those decisions years ago.  It was terrible.  I made the best decision for me at the time.  I still stand by that even though there are times I wonder what if I had chosen the other path.  What would my life be like now?  Not, would it be as fulfilling?  My life would have been good just in a completely different way.   I believe that.  The whole experience made me see myself in a different way and took a lot out of me.  Decisions like these take up your entire mind and you sometimes loose thought of events and people around you as you go through them.  I am glad I had amazing support then.

 

I found myself the other day suddenly being confronted with one of these types of decisions.  WOW!  I did not see that coming.  I was broad sided.  I was stunned and shocked about my initial reaction.   It wasn’t what I thought it would be, entirely.  In the past I thought that when confronted with such an issue it would be an easy decision and perhaps 10 years ago, it would have been.   Maybe….

 

24 hours later, and I can still think of nothing else.  Am I ready to concede to one side or the other?  The best advice I got today is to live with my thoughts for a bit, what makes me want to rush to a decision that could most likely change the course of my life.

 

The funny thing is that both the old decision and my current one to make revolve around the same theme.

 

I will be mature about this,    THBPTHBPT!

Reflections of 5773

The Rabbi asked us to sit and listen to the silence after the shofar, to listen for the voice of g-d.  He asked if we heard it.  I didn’t particularly hear anything different than before because I had realized in my reflections of whether the previous year had been good or bad, just a few days ago, that I had been listening all year long and had heard a lot…

I wanted to share that with you.

I started last year, finally for the first time, asking to leave early from work (actually not shying down from my religious right) so that I could actually get to my dad’s and eat dinner with him before services on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in stead of literally sitting in his truck and eating my dinner out of a thermos as he watched and then rushing into services.  I was much more relaxed at the beginning of Rosh Hashana last year.   I found myself much more relaxed the whole year long.

Friends.

A friend trusted me enough to place her twins in my class this year.  I had to trust in our friendship enough to say I can do this if we can be honest with each other, good or bad.  We were and our friendship has a bond that it never has before.   I am grateful for our friendship.

I did not loose any friend this year.  Always a plus!  But I gained a few.

I had another birthday.  (Yeah we all do, but I must say I am proud of my age.  I have accomplished a lot and it took time.)  I decided to take a shot and ask a couple of good acquaintances to my party, instead of just close friends.  They have become very good friends.  Each in turn introducing me to new experiences and ideas.  I took leaps into doing things I am not comfortable with and felt supported.  Bikram yoga?  I thought those people were insane – now count me as one.

Despite the birthday and age mentioned above, I had a moment of HS style unrequited crushing going on this year.  But one of those new closer friends took me to a singles party.  I figured we would have one drink and leave in an hour.  It is usually mostly women and weird men right?  Now no crushes but someone I really like and enjoy their company and they feel the same way about me.   Woo Hoo!

Sandy. 

As I walked into the market to buy something simple and seeing the line wrap around the store, it occurred to me this might be bad.  I called my friend in the Rockaways and said to go ahead and bring his wife, three kids, and four dogs to my place.  Nah – they would be ok they would ride out the storm like last year.  When they finally got a charge for their cell phone a few days later they posted the pictures of the non-existent beach, their car filled with sand far away from where they parked it, and I watched him be interviewed by NY1, as he hooked up a generator, saying that he had no heat or electricity with two children under 3.

I joked that the only thing that upset Upper West Siders about the storm was that Starbucks wasn’t open the next day.  This ridiculous thought was driven home on that Wednesday as I walked home and I overheard a woman tell her son there was no school on Thursday.  Child- “why?” Mother – “I don’t know why.”  Child – “but why?” Mother – “You just don’t.” Child – “but why, does it have to do with the storm?”  Mother – “I guess so.”

So offended by that level of apathy, I chose to have my Pre-K class and grade colleagues spear head a drive to collect things for victims of Sandy.  My students would come in each morning during the following two weeks, so excited to tell me that they put things in the box to give to people.  My father managed to get enough gas to come into the city the day before his birthday as we had planned months ago.  We loaded up his truck and sat in 3 hour traffic to get to Brooklyn.  We dropped off things in several places.  It hurt my heart as we drove around one block and I watched a child with a backpack on walk into a pitch-black building.  When we arrived a group of men helped unload the truck and bring things into the church.  In the church I saw hundreds of people lined up to get a hot meal.  People who probably never thought they would ever have to be in a church line to receive hot food.  Yet right outside was a man trying to scam my father out of money claiming my father had just damaged his car and if he pays him $100 he won’t call the police.  Despite the man trying unsuccessfully to take advantage, I thought it was an excellent addition to my father’s 75^th birthday celebration.  Sometimes the best gift is giving.

Months later Sandy still touched (and still does) people.  We talked about a totally unrelated storm in my class and one child looked at me with the same fear in his eyes the day we watched the video of Big Bird loosing his nest to a hurricane and said, “I don’t like storms!”  We talked about how not all storms are the same.  That nothing would happen to him that evening.  A sigh of relief followed.  My Rockaway friends left New York.  The storm took such a toll they left for another state this June.  When I recently asked how they were, everyone was great.  They are living a better life than they were in New York.  Their boys have a back yard now.  They are happy.

Family.

My brother is getting married.  Mazel Mazel!  I am very happy for them.  My new sister in law is nice and we get a long well.  Our parents have been divorced since we were little.  Please, please don’t say you are sorry.  Trust me, even at 5 years old I knew this was a good thing for all those concerned.  What has made me sad over the years is that neither of my parents found someone else despite being fairly young at the time their marriage ended.  I am happy my brother did not follow that same path after his divorce a number of years ago and he has found happiness.

I have a bond with my nieces and future sister in law that I have never had before.  One of the best days I had this summer was spending it with them at the Central Park zoo and carousel.  We all have issues with family member from time to time and a number of years ago my nieces didn’t even know who I was.  I cherish the time now and am glad we are past that place.

I had a few moments this year where I felt I might need to leave my home.  Once for medical care and another to help a friend.  Both times I knew I could count on one particular relative to take me in without question or hesitation.  I told my best friend and she was surprised.  (Remember that part above about having issues with family members.)  She told me that I clearly wasn’t angry anymore if I considered moving in with them.  I realized I wasn’t.  The history is still there and it won’t go away but the anger is irrelevant.  It only causes me pain.  I am glad it is gone. I really don’t miss it.

Anti-Semitism and Community.

My route to work is always the longer one.  I must stop at Starbucks and then I walk down Amsterdam Ave past all of the construction going on at the new synagogue.  On day shortly after the New Year on the Civil calendar, as I walked past the construction, I heard a construction worker say, “Don’t listen to that kike, he has too much money.”  Oh the pain.  I have never actually ever heard that word uttered before.  I marched straight to work and email the synagogue.  I had an immediate response from the President saying he would take care of it and talk to the appropriate people.  He then invited me to the de-consecration of their old synagogue and consecration of the new one the following Sunday.   I decided to go.  It was such a beautiful ceremony.  It was an amazing experience to be part of the process and see the community in this way.

That Monday as I walked my path to work, I thought as soon as I get to work I will email him and thank him and tell him how wonderful everything was and how I look forward to joining them for Shabbat sometimes.

I never made it to work.

I remember everything from that day.   And given that us Jews manage to find humor even in the darkest moments, the one thought that I always retell with a laugh is that as I lay temporarily splayed out on the hood of the livery cab, I thought “really, am I really getting hit by a car?”

My former teaching assistant had been in a car driving by the scene.  The whole school knew within minutes.  A teacher from the HS right there helped.  The firefighters from across the street came out and surrounded me to protect me until the ambulance came.  So many people came from my own school the EMT closed the ambulance door to keep them from interrupting.  My best friend later told me that even though she loves me, this was absolutely the LAST time I was ever allowed to do this in our friendship!

You may know people like you and appreciate you at work until something like this happens.  Then you REALLY know how much they love you and wish you well.  I got an amazing amount of support from the entire school community, right afterwards through gifts and thoughtful emails and through the rest of the year by lending me extra monitors everyday, understanding all the extra time from work I missed, parents carrying bags for me on trips.  It made such an impression that when I was called on to speak on the behalf of and about our community I mentioned this as evidence.

I realize how lucky I am to be alive.  I know.  I truly do and did from day one.  I was reminded when one day I forgot to move my time card to the “in” side and our secretary/ my friend told me with a straight and serious face I can’t do that because she needs to know who is present and one day just a few months before I suddenly hadn’t been.  (To understand this at an even deeper level, you must understand there have been multiple years where I have not missed a single day of work.)

I was reminded again when, 4 months later, I stood in the living room of my Principal’s mother to pay my respects and my principal sat there and looked at me and said, “Ms. Blum he was hit by a car.  Can you believe it, he was hit by a car.”  An unlicensed driver had killed her father instantly as he had crossed as street.

I was reminded again just last week when one of my friends and colleagues just didn’t show up for work.  I was sorry to say her name during Mi Sheberach (prayer for healing) but glad it wasn’t Kaddish (prayer for the dead).   Right now during the time between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur g-d is writing in his book of life.  I hope I don’t, nor anyone I love, have to sneak a peak again for a really really long time.

This year I was witness to extreme greed and evil juxtaposed to extreme generosity and kindness.  The evil rendered a family of five homeless while they were on vacation.  I saw the father near tears as he had to listen to what happened and struggled to think about how to provide for his family.  I saw many neighbors step up and work together to make sure that this family does not remain in this state.  We are only a few weeks away from providing a stable and permanent place for them to live.

Work and School.

I have always told the middle school social studies teachers that I am available to talk about the holocaust.  It touched my family intimately.   This year a new teacher to the course took me up on the offer and asked me to talk to her honors group.  I had a few of them 9 years earlier in Kindergarten and the others only knew me as the Pre-k teacher who sings silly songs with her class every time they walk down the hallway.  None of these children have ever had an experience or probably realized they knew someone affected by the war.  At first they didn’t care, but as I spoke, they listened.  They heard and saw pictures of people who died, my grandfather included.  They saw the picture of my step-grandfather’s son who died before the age of 5.  They saw the thick book that listed all of the Dutch Jews lost during the war and included dozens of my family members.  They learned that one woman who helped my family was not much older than them.  Did it have an impact?  – Apparently enough that the non-honors class asked the teacher if I could come back and speak to them.   I am not sure what each child took away with them, but I know it had a positive impact on our world because they saw something they hadn’t before.

I love my job.  I am lucky.  It doesn’t happen to everyone so I know how special that is.  However, as I have done in my life before, I know I need change.  I took a few moment a few years ago to think about my future and decided to go back to school to pursue speech therapy.  This year I took my pre-reqs and was accepted into Grad school.  So now I work and go to school.  This semester starts an internship too.  I realize how lucky I am to be able to take on this challenge at this time of my life.  I have always respected people, especially parents, who do this.  I was able to avoid it in my 20’s, but now I am up for the challenge and change.  My best friend who has always supported my great leaps keeps telling me I am crazy but it is a good idea.

But I am still very committed to my job now.  I am now beginning my 15^th year at my school (19^th overall).  I have taught almost every grade in this school and all types of classes.  There is a positive in every child!  I work with the parents on various projects and I believe our school is a great school so I defend it whenever challenged.

This year huge forces, developers and government, challenged us!  Here I shamelessly put in my other blog address so you can go check the history noredevelopment.wordpress.com .  In a nutshell they wanted to bid out the land our school sits on to developers.  The developers could choose to relocate us for 2-3 years, tear our building down, build a luxury high rise, and then put a new school for us back down in the basement.  We said no!  That’s right, we said no! I saw parents, teachers, students, alumni, and community members get together to fight this.  At times it seemed to be equivalent to tilting a windmills.  Two of us, co-chairs of our committee, literally met every single morning and emailed every night as to our next steps.  We created new organizations and joined old organizations to form new coalitions.  It didn’t make a difference what color, religion, socio-economic status, education level, or where you lived, we all marched together, literally.  And one day, we won!   Our school still stands and will not be torn down.  Children will not be relegated to the sub-basement to learn.  The best part of all of it was a few days after we were told we won, a small child who had marched with us and helped us present at an educational forum, came up to me and looked at me as she said, “I saved the school!”  I told her she certainly did and I was proud of her.  That prideful smile was priceless.

Summer Project.

I cleaned.  I figured my year is about to be turned upside down with work and school, so let me get some projects out of the way.  I found all of my VHS tapes.  I wanted to transfer the interviews I did with my grandmothers to DVD and send it out to my relatives.  I watched every minute of those videos remembering my grandmothers and the rich history from which I came and what they passed onto me.  But in my transferring I found my prom video (ahhh Mullets and poufy dresses) and my 21^st birthday party.  I learned or rather confirmed a few things about myself.  I have changed but not where I thought I did.  I didn’t know how I got to be who I am now.  It seemed a mystery to me.  I don’t remember ever being that way.  But as I watched the videos I saw the same person I am now, just younger with less world experience.   Apparently the teacher death stare was acquired by teaching year 3.  My values have changed since my 21^st birthday, but that is ok.  I would be far more wary if they hadn’t.

The World.

I hate listening to the news.  I don’t like hearing bad things.  I don’t want to think these things will affect me, but it has become reality to teach children how to hide safely in their classroom incase of an intruder.   Three (billion) cheers to the teachers who gave their lives.  AND don’t forget Antoinette Tuff!

I have nothing nice to say about the media in today’s society especially here in the United States and quite honestly it is our fault because we haven’t told them to stop their sensationalizing of everything thus giving heightened value to the irrelevant.

Silence.

The assistant Rabbi asked a few good questions at the end of services this year (since I have a memory like a sieve, I only remember 3 out of 4).  He said ask yourself:  Did I love enough?  Did I let go enough?  Did I play enough?  I think I was better at each of the questions this year than I have ever been before (including the one I cannot recall as I write this).

So was it a good or bad year?  I think it was a very powerful year.  I listened to the silence and I heard.  Did you?

L’shana Tova

5774

A Priceless Lesson

I have been telling this great story since June and today as I told it, I realized that this is why we teach…It wasn’t something that was part of Common Core, you can’t test for it, but we (not just me – but other teachers as well) taught one child a priceless lesson.  We can’t put a value or grade on it because the potential of it is limitless….

When our school was recently offered up to developers.  We fought back.  Our school community joined together.  We joined a neighborhood coalition.  We got community volunteers.  We had a march, a rally, and participated in an educational forum.  We had students, parents, teachers, alumni, community members and politicians join us.  The next day we found out we won!  Our school will stand!

About two days later at dismissal a small child walked up to me, I think a Kindergartener.  She pulled on my shirt and when I looked down at her she said, “I helped save the school.”  I told her she did and she walked away with the biggest smile.  I am not sure what exactly she has taken away with her, I do know that was the best lesson I never planned for.

A little shout out while we take a bit of a summer break…