Subjective
I am surrounded my children who call me by name. Amazing. This past week I was offered a position as a 1st grade teacher for a month, while the head teacher is on her maternity leave. I am so, so happy. I am proud of myself. I’m the happiest I have been in many years. With regards my living situation I am the happiest I have been in over four years. It is impossible to separate my feelings of joy from my proximity to children. It is even more difficult to claim my life is invaluable as I spend my time serving their eduction and growth. I have these moments of pause during the day to become conscious of how blessed I am. For a moment I enter into a still world, a world of enduring breath and I see children surrounding the room, engaging learning. It is grace.
Ecological / Sociological
There are places where objectivity serves a beautiful perspective. Toward that end I like to talk of children as indicator species. For biology, indicator species define characteristics of an environment. They are often the most sensitive species in an environment and will indicate changes in pollution, climate, etc. Frogs would be one clear example as they will often be the first species affected by pollution since they breath through their skin and live in water habitates. In society, children are indicator species for safety, learning, play, and growth. Where do children spend time? Schools, churches, museums, ballfields, playgrounds, home. Where will one not find children? Bars, financial institutions, jail, courthouses, congress. The qualities of life, the feelings and experiences associated with places children spend their time are exceptionally good, even virtuous, and definitely more fun than the qualities associated with places children rarely if ever attend.
Political
Over recent years I have dreamt about changing the energy of politics from desire and pride to play and service, even courage. A political aesthetic is in need, a beautiful democracy that channels as much love as it does collective rigor, authority, and representation. I’m not sure these changes can occur within the State as it is constituted in the present.
The Future
This is the world the children I serve deserve. A world that understands poverty has always, already been overcome. There is a quote in the elevator of one of the schools I work at by Forest Whitcraft:
“One hundred years from now
It will not matter
What kind of car I drove,
What kind of house I lived in,
How much I had in my bank
Nor what my clothes looked like.
One hundred years from now
It will not matter
What kind of school I attended,
What kind of typewriter I used,
How large or small my church,
But the world may be …
a little better because…
I was important in the life of a child.
iamadam 