I look at these young ninth graders.
So innocent.
So unknowing.
And I wonder about them
As they sit here
Scribbling the answers to their final.
I wonder about these young souls.
Who will pass,
And who will fail.
Who will make it,
And who will fall behind.
Who will lead,
And who will follow.
Who will collapse beneath the burdens of life,
And who will grow from them.
Who will marry,
And who will remain single,
And who will divorce,
And who will wait for children.
Who will become disillusioned with Judaism,
And who will marry a future Rosh Yeshiva.
I look at these ninth graders
And I wonder about their future.
So unknown.
So scary.
Yet so bright.
written while proctoring...
16 comments:
Beautiful..
I soo think that way..
I look around shul sometimes at all the little kids..and wonder these same things..so much promise..so soft and pure...fast forward 30 years >>>
I do this all the time... Not only with my little students, but with high schoolers on the bus... then I get embarrassed when they catch me looking at them.
Did you mean it this way -- when I was reading it, it sounded like the high holy days prayer -- the one that goes "who by fire, who by water, who by hunger, who by thirst..."
I sometimes worry about others I see and then I mentally give them a blessing.
david - ain't it scary?
bas-melech - i look at these kids on the bus and subway, too...lol...
yeah, i did mean it that way. glad you caught on.
lvnsm27 - that's beautiful.
you really care about these kids... oy.. if we only had more teachers like u!
I always worry about how things will turn out... will we ever know? So many changes happen over time.. I often wonder if anyone ever gets to do things as planned.
Do you ever share these thoughts with the students? I think high schoolers are often very short-sighted, and reality catches them by surprise...
Sounds like the Unesaneh Tokef...
Heck, sometimes I think like this about myself, let alone others; but I see where you're coming from. Everybody needs encouragement...
almost - yeah, i do...
and most don't do as planned.
"rabos machshavos bileiv ish..."
basmelech - well, these weren't my students. they were some kids i proctored... but i guess i did, albeit in a differnt format.
jewmaican - it's meant to sound like that.
yeah, i think about that about m'self, too, but when you're faced with a whole group of these ninth graders... what can i say? it just hots you hard.
Besides looking at the individuals within the class i enjoy looking at the group dynamics - who is popular, who is left on the sidelines, who is clever, who is avaerage and who just seems 'not to make it'. I then turn this all on it's head as looking back at my own school days, majority of those who were popular are now not and those who the class thought may 'not be much' are bringing up large happy successful families and those who 'got by' have now developed themselves into somebodies. Which just goes to show what did we know when we were in school and what do we know about the inner strenghs every person possess? I just wish that each pupil should reach their potential and fulfill their tuffkid.
So many kids have so much potential. The problem lies when they just don't care or land up in the wrong crowd. Without being an educator I find that the hardest--watching, good kids fall through the cracks (not necessarily going off the derech or being at risk, but falling short of what they could have been.)
VS - so true...
you teach?
littlebirdies - right... i was one of those who didn't care...
:)
most of us fall short of what we can be.
yeah, i teach kids who are on the fringes of the class in either small groups or one on one where nec.
First thing I thought of was also the the high holy days, specifically the Unisaneh Tokef prayer.
vs - that's great!
swfm - seems like it was obvious, then...
I don't know you enough to say if I agree or disagree, but from what I've seen on this blog you seem like a pretty great person. If you fell short of that, I'm not sure what you expected of yourself.
littlebirdies - i expect a lot of myself, as do many others...
and i'm NOT too hard on myself...
thanks for the compliment. i appreciate it.
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