Go to the Ant...

I was thinking about school... Thinking about my students... and thinking about change. I posted my thoughts on facebook, and then realized I had a bit more to say. It is very difficult, sometimes, to actually care. It is especially difficult to care about a person, concept, or thing that does not actually care about itself. It is difficult to continue a fight which seems long lost... It is quite tough to look around at despair and stubborn hopelessness, and say again and again... "It's okay... I believe in you... you can make it." It's draining, disturbing, and very difficult work.

Times are so different now. Life is not what it used to be. Kids are a new breed. Teaching is not a walk in the park, where your toughest battle of the day is finding out who took Johnny's lunch money. Something very different is going on. And my thoughts have led me to a place where I've found a question... a concern... a wondering. I wonder why and when (in either order) the ball dropped. I wonder why no one tried hard enough to catch it... why so many students have been allowed to trickle and slip through the cracks... and we are now all failing miserably at a game of catch-up.

We're trying to fix something... something huge. But there are not enough hands or voices involved in the effort. So those of us who are trying are finding it difficult to continue... we are losing steam... and that worries me. It's the last day of the first week of school... and too many of us are tired. So, here's what I want to say. To my self, to my team, and to those who'd like to join in.

Go to the Ant. (Proverbs 6)
I'm not calling anyone a sluggard. I'm just saying, don't give up or give in... continue on. Do not be or become the sluggard... waiting, watching, and hoping for a magic supply or fix. Do what you can. Keep working. Do as much as you can for as long as you can. Work at it even when the results seem small... build for the future, and don't wait for some body to give you a special directive. Don't let so much time go by while you're hoping that things will fix themselves. Get in there. Stay in there. Proverbs 6 talks about how much can be lost when you sit idly by. It speaks of poverty and scarcity... and I feel that is exactly the state of things for many students today. But, it's not necessarily a monetary thing. I'm talking basic lack. There is so much lacking for some that it has become life altering and hindering... and it's the norm these days.

If we let go, give in, and turn back... If we sit back and throw in the towel...we are but conceding to the lack, allowing it to prevail.

We may be fighting an unfair battle which we feel we did not start... we might be handling the mess made by some force outside ourselves. Many may not even understand the battle we fight or the endurance and perseverance it demands. Many may not have a clue and this makes it even harder for us, as we try to work and our discouraged by those who flat out do not get it. I encourage you, as I must encourage myself almost every day... Keep it up. Find new ways. Energize yourself. Take it to God. Do whatever it takes. But please, don't give up.


Proverbs 6
Warnings Against Folly


3 then do this, my son, to free yourself,
since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands:
Go and humble yourself;
press your plea with your neighbor!

4 Allow no sleep to your eyes,
no slumber to your eyelids.

5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter,
like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
consider its ways and be wise!

7 It has no commander,
no overseer or ruler,

8 yet it stores its provisions in summer
and gathers its food at harvest.

9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-

11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man. [a]