My daughter is now almost halfway through the 6th grade. This year was her first year being taught by a male teacher and my concerns were in the beginning, how would she cope with this new adventure?
All her teachers before her were female and also sadly for the fact that most of her life she only had an impartation from me, her absolutely awesome mom, to hand her the necessary tools and guides she would need in life. I somehow feel that my fears of being inadequate, in the field of teaching from a male point of view, would perhaps give her a disadvantage, especially compared with her peers who have a male role model to look for guidance.
With the trauma of losing her dad at a very young age, one of the personality traits she has developed is not easily finding peace when change comes. Like so many of us, I have found that the familiar friendly face makes change so much easier for her to cope with, than without. So each year with school this is one thing we literally have to breathe through and my pep talk skills have to be top notch.
I suppose she is very much like me when I grew up. I hated school. It was a militant do this, do that atmosphere. Don’t speak out, up or to. Conform to our ways. Don’t stand out. Be what we want you to be. Only recently I have really stepped into the “who I am” frame of mind set. To discover this at the tender age of 44 is a sad fact indeed.
I am however grateful that I have had the opportunity to grab hold of my identity and have the freedom to move in my new found confidence. It may be an ongoing progress of work and more work to develop in every area of my life, but I am even more grateful that I can recognize personality traits and patterns in her. In recognizing this I feel that I am equipped to better guide and motivate her where I perhaps lacked in my years of growing up.
Don’t get me wrong. My parents did an awesome job in raising me. But new tools pop up every day for self betterment. I just grabbed it when the opportunity offered itself after realizing I needed some more polishing.
Mackenzie’s personality has really exploded this year. She has become more sassy, witty and confident in her capabilities. I just love how she has this dry sense of humor where she leaves me speechless on more than one occasion. She would then walk away screaming with laughter with the knowledge of one more nick on her belt for the win.
My fears of her coping and if she is doing well at school, not just in academics but on social level, were soon given a Prozac and I knew Mr. James was just the right dose of what is needed. Every day after school she would get in the car and babble about how funny this was and he said this or that. I silently wished Mr. James could have been her teacher straight through to University, but sadly life is taking him through a different adventure and I could feel the slump in Mackenzie already with the news.
I encouraged her as I have done with each New Year and new teacher that mom’s prayers always work and you get the right teacher. A teacher that is kind and funny. One with enough patience to do what some parents don’t often get right. Oh, lets say for instance being clever with Math. Not my strongest forte. I am an artist and not a mathematician. And yes I had to Google how to spell that and no I can’t pronounce it. My tongue has a will of its own.
I sat wondering yesterday what the next teacher would bring to this party of GR 6’s. The need for my little lamb to be protected from the bad world and the nasty teacher is already rearing its head. Whiskers! I am overprotective. I know. Forgive me.
I would want the season of having a man impart some firm wisdom to stay as long as it can as she has 10yrs of catching up to do. But I have come to realize a season is just that. A season. Seasons come and go and change is inevitable. She needs to learn from this. Take the experience and make it part of her journey into an adult.
Humans want to hold onto the good things forever. Who wouldn’t? But the Lord also created Lemons. And Lemons are sometimes needed more to enhance the flavor. Mr. James’s wonderful skills as a teacher was much needed for Mackenzie in this particular season. He opened the door for her to grow in confidence to know that she is holding the world in her hands and everything she wants is hers to claim. You might say that it’s my job as a mother and not the teacher’s job.
But some days the Lord also brings along someone just so absolutely awesome like Mr. James to impart that knowledge and confidence to a child in his class. Purely because I think he is on the outside looking in and can come from a different perspective than a struggling parent trying to juggle the world who is on the inside looking out.
So here’s to all the Mr. James’s in the world. I am forever grateful for the worldly knowledge you impart to my child when I am not there. Our greatest treasures are left in teachers hands to help with the molding and shaping into adulthood and their fingerprint is always visible and can never be erased.
I pray that Mackenzie will forever remember each and every teacher that has helped her in life. And I pray for every teacher to come, to have the same fun personality with creative ideas as Mr. James to help shape magnificence.
I share some truth from Henry B. Adams (I don’t know him. – He just sounded extremely wise. And again Yes, I googled famous quotes. You can not expect me to know that as well. I’m a mother not a philosopher) #GoogledThatTo
Okay!
The quote from Mr. Henry B. Adams
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.