Grateful Friday

 Wednesday we had an unexpected faculty meeting right after school.

Nothing like ending an exhausting day by being told that amidst the swirling uncertainty of the district splitting and us joking that our district will either be called "The Leftovers" or "The Scraps," our Title 1 funding will not exist next year.

We also talked about the fact that some in the state legislature want to drastically change the way public education will be funded (spoiler alert:  it won't be funded well).  There are many who believe that public education is evil/wasteful/the enemy.

We often feel like we are barely holding on and now our support staff will be slashed. It is wearying and discouraging to be told that all our efforts are neither appreciated nor supported.  

I looked around at the grim faces of my fellow teachers and I knew that their thoughts, like mine, were reeling because we need that support staff.  We need more of them.

We have many students who are a year or more behind academically.  We have students who come to us without their basic needs met.  We have students who do. Not. Know. How. To. Act.

The gap will only widen.

I didn't really realize how disheartening it all was until I talked to Braeden last night about it and started crying.  I guess it had been there, below the surface for awhile.

About the time I'd finished cleaning up the dinner dishes, I realized I also had a lot to be grateful for.

For one thing, as Dr. Seuss said, I have brains in my head and shoes in my feet.  I can keep doing what I can do.

I'm grateful to have a son who understands me thoroughly and knows what to say always.  One time when he was three years old, I was crying about something completely unrelated to him and he brought me his blanket.  He's always been like this and it feels like Heavenly Father must love me because he sent me Braeden.

I'm grateful to have such a great principal.  He said, "What questions do you have?  I have facts and opinions and I will tell you which is which."

He thoughtfully answered our questions and then he said, "This doesn't change what we do within these walls.  We will keep focusing on numeracy and literacy.  We will stick to the essentials."

I'm grateful for the stalwart people I work with.  I can't tell you how many times a kid is positively flipping out and an adult has a serene poker face and just handles it with grace and kindness.

I'm grateful that when I was driving home and my mind was mulling things over and I thought for the hundredth time since the election that maybe I should consider changing schools, an answer came into my mind.

It was a clarifying course to follow.

I'm staying put for now.  Just call me a member of the orchestra playing the violin while the Titanic sinks....

I'm also grateful that maybe things will be OK.  There is a good chunk of time between now and next year and maybe something good will happen.

There's nothing wrong with hope.