revtlmack

School days, school days
Good old fashioned rule days
Reading and writing
And ‘rithmetic…

Truly a song that isn’t sung very much, any more…

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait until school began after the long, summer break!  First, I was bored.  After all, one can only ride one’s bike, play outside for endless hours, and watch unlimited, largely unsupervised television (on all four TV channels) for so long.  Going back to school meant seeing old friends, meeting new people, having different teachers and challenges…and, above all, new shiny school supplies.  And, I liked learning…I still do.

It has been fun watching FaceBook in the last couple of weeks: many posts are of “last minute” vacation picks, that last hurrah of the summer; some are of teachers, especially the brand new ones, readying their classrooms; some are of administrators, many of whom have worked through the summer, attempting to build energy and excitement among the ranks for the coming year; some are of parents, many of whom are ready to get back into the routine of “ordinary time,” that is, school time; and, this week, this week there will be pictures of parent-teacher-kid “meet-n-greets” and those wonderful “first day of school” pictures.

It is all ritual, really, isn’t it?  The hesitation, anticipation, preparation…

And, ritual grounds us… it brings order out of chaos.  Rituals are closely associated with rules.  Rules create a “norm” of sorts… an agreed upon acceptable limit on what is okay and what is not okay, in society.  While a profound criticism of contemporary society is that there are no longer “communal, acceptable, agreed upon mores of what is okay and what is not okay” may have some legitimacy, we cannot discount the value of education and the influence that educators have on our children and our society.

You see, I don’t think too much about quantifying “learning” in standardized testing.  It saddens me that there is so much of an emphasis on this…so much so that teacher’s jobs are often in jeopardy because of such testing.  Regardless of what may or may not be learned in “reading, writing and ‘rithmetic,” the importance of school and education rests for me in producing more generous, loving children who will make our world a better place.  There are always calculators for complicated math problems.  It is the wonder, the creativity, the problem-solving, and the becoming a better person that really interests me in our educational system.

Perhaps, it is Robert Fulghum who expressed this best in his watershed work, All I Ever Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten, 1990.  Below is an excerpt of his book:

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do  and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.

Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.

The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.

Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

                                                                                                                                              © Robert Fulghum, 1990.
Found in Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Villard Books: New York, 1990, page 6-7.

These are the pieces and places of learning that will make the world a much better place.

A few years ago, I decided that we would not have a traditional blessing of the backpacks at Horseshoe Drive United Methodist Church.  Instead, during the service, I ask for all of those who are students, from Pre-K to college…along with all of the parents, grandparents who are their home support…along with all the teachers, administrators, support staff, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians…any and all who are involved in the various educational systems, parish and state, to come forward…these are prayed over as they begin a new year.  It is a simple prayer asking God to bless, guide, guard and protect them in their wonder, exploration and learning…that old friendships may be rekindled and new friendships be started…that all be sensitive to others, especially those who are on the outside of the “friendship” circles, that they may be more inclusive in all relationships.  The prayer gives thanks to God for the teachers, who share generously their time and gifts…who bandage booboos and celebrate achievements…

The rule challenge of education is to make the world a better place….and, if kids learn how to read, write and do arithmetic, that’s okay, too…

Blessings,

rev. t