Happy Friday, All!
In the midst of all the madness, I must say “Thank God It’s Friday”!
So much going on everywhere . . . from a mass stabbing of people in China to overcoming, slowly and as painfully as it is, the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT exactly one week ago. Peace be still …
We have got to look for the good in this life. It is so easy to look for the bad rather than give a helping hand or look for good in folks. Now, obviously, there is a balance to all of this “looking” for stuff that I am proposing. I remember when we were kids growing up and we wanted to convince someone that we were telling the truth, the thing we used to say most is, “cross my heart and I hope to die!” Another one that we used to say, though I don’t think that it was fair to my mother was, “I swear on my mother’s grave!” Yet, as young as we were, we wanted people to believe in us and trust us … and that is as children, y’all!
Do you think that any of the teachers at Sandy Hook ever contemplated putting their lives on the line to protect their students? Now as a former teacher and still “doing my do” in education, we get so involved in our work, which is really a labor of love, that we rise to each occasion as if it were the last. That is, the serious minded teachers are like that. I don’t mean to sugar coat teaching, but I do want to make it clear that it – teaching – is something that most teachers do from the heart.
Well the world didn’t come to an end yet, and, there are as many articles out now about the “other” Mayan calendar that has been found, which indicates that we may be here on Earth for another 5,000 years, as there were before 12-21-2012 was predicted as “the end of this world order”. I am grateful! Yesterday, I picked up a box at the Post Office sent to me by Mrs. Diane Martin Keck, one of my former students, who lives in Trumbull, CT with her three lovely kids as well as her husband, James Keck! It is a home-baked vanilla rum cake and some home-made cookies. Now, I mention this just so that you may understand the depths of the bonds that can be created between two people – teacher and student – that can last a lifetime. So, today, and everyday, may we count our blessings and value the little things in life too, just as the little girl from Florida City, FL whose home burned down with all the Christmas presents inside. A complete stranger, as well as others, who heard the story broadcast on the news, went Christmas shopping for two families who lost everything in a fire caused by a stove that was accidentally left on. When the little girl saw the acts of kindness shown to she and her family by a stranger, she fell to the floor on her back, covering her face, and cried tears of joy! Merry Christmas!
Peace Out, y’all!
John I. Cook, Director
Educational Excellence 