Just a quick note to remind you of the power you wield -- unknowingly or otherwise. My son is only 4. He's only been in school a total of 3 months. Already I see that you have great sway over him. Don't forget that.
He's my precious, darling student. He's so excited to enter your classroom, your world, and learn what you know. Understand that often what he experiences in your classroom, stays in your classroom. No matter how much I entice and lure, he just doesn't want to break the bond you have together. He rarely tells me what he does during the hours he is in your care. When he does, it's only whiffs and vapors that I can't interpret.
I do know this: he has confided, "I trust everything they say." I entreat you to conceive the instant panic this gives a parent. He trusts you, and so I cannot. I must always be on his guard.
With the credence he gives you, take the opportunity to guide him. Enjoy his unabashedly bright brown eyes that beg you to fill him up with facts and figures. Show him the maps of the planet and inspire him to go to the ends of the universe in the pursuit of wisdom. Open his mind. Open his heart. Never, never give him cause to close them through the abuse of this guardianship.
I'll be watching you.
3 comments:
I can say that because I am a teacher, I am a different parent
and
because I am a mom, I am a better teacher.
The day I dropped AJ off for his first day of preschool, ripples went through me both as a mom and as a teacher. My heart softened. I left wondering if his teacher would help him open his string cheese at lunch because those things are tough for a little guy...and would she appreciate how he would pat her back when he gave her a hug...and I prayed she would comfort him if he had an accident, not shame him...I cried not just because he was growing up, but because I just dropped him off and gave him to someone I didn't even know...entrusting her with my child and every amazing, special thing about him.
I teach now with the memory of that hard moment when I had to turn and walk out of that classroom in my mind and in my heart everyday.
It is an honor to be held in such high esteem as a child holds their teacher, and I hope every single one of my children's teachers recognize the power and the gift they possess.
What a beautiful letter. All teachers need to read that...Could it be published in the newspaper? Or even sent to the school? Cooper's darling eyes are filled with trust...hope they never change.
Cooper, I wish that you will grow to be so wise that you might earn the trust of everyone around you.
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