Lean Forward, Learn Backward

Imagine you are a first-year teacher with a group of enthusiastic twelve-year-olds anxiously awaiting your introduction. What they don’t know is that you are as stressed, maybe even more so, than they are. You aren’t sure you can connect to them, guide their behavior, teach them anything, or even if you want to be a teacher. While you are only ten years older than them, it seems the age difference is much greater between 12 and 22.

Now, push the fast forward button 50 years. You are now standing before the same group only now with a half century of teaching and leading experience. What might you say to them about the intervening decades that separated you? Further consider this scenario isn’t just imagined but very real. It happened to me two weeks ago.

I began my teaching career in 1973 in a small very rural Appalachian community not far from the Ohio River after completing my US Army commitment. The experience I had with 24 sixth graders I met that first August morning became transformative for me. As it turned out I had them for two more years before they entered high school and together, we bonded over athletics, school events we planned, a time capsule we buried, and a local history book we spent two years researching and writing together. Our learning journey as a group— me as a teacher and they as students —turned out to be quite sticky, memorable, and life altering.

I discovered my life’s work—- teaching— and they matriculated through early adolescence into high school. The old adage that life is lived forward but learned backwards was never truer than with this group. Over the years, I’ve never forgotten this group of kids and other students at this wonderful school with whom I played softball with, watched President Nixon resign, and taught numerous subjects to them. For the people who think teaching is easy you should spend a warm sunny afternoon on the second floor of an even warmer room explaining basic civics education or how the circulatory system works in your body.

Two weeks ago, 20 of 23 students reconvened near the school that has now been closed for years. Kids, now 62, gathered from several states and surrounding communities. I surprised them with recently republished copies of our 164-page local history book entitled by them, “The Wilderness That Became Lawrence “. I wasn’t at all surprised that nearly all of them still had original copies from 1976 when the manuscript had been typed by high school girls, printed by a local printing company, and held together by staples. While the original copy was copyrighted and contained numerous citations and references, it seems almost a relic now. Modern publishing kept all the original language but used current techniques to bind it as well as make it available on Amazon with proceeds to go to the school district.

What do you say to a group who the mere sight of them after so many years practically took my breath away? The reconnections came almost instantly with them and each other. Quickly, our laughter, tears, and emotion filled the American Legion Hall where we assembled for dinner. I began by apologizing for my many missteps as a beginning teacher. I thanked them for helping me to find my footing as an educator, for having the most supportive parents ever, and for all of us growing in a community that cared for its children more than anything else. I have only one word to describe all parts of this one evening remembrance bolstered by earlier together years and applied lessons thereafter. Love. For our community, their families and each other.

It turned out that teaching was never just about standards. Or content. Or discipline. Test scores. Accountability. Resources. Technology. None of these. It’s mostly about RELATIONSHIPS and with that, the other pieces are made possible. Not sure? Ask kids a half century later if they were marred by consequences for misbehavior, high expectations, or inadequate resources. I’m beginning to think teaching and schools might have had some advantages decades ago. When a lot less direction from the State and Feds created what they have sought most— results.