~as we begin to return to the classroom~

 Haven, Kansas might have been the place that I grew up in and the locale that I will always call my "hometown" but for the first 8 and 1/2 years of life I grew up with the rest of my six siblings in Burrton, Kansas.  Burrton wasn't all that far away from Haven, just a county to the east and up the dirt road a bit.  We all  lived on our family's farm, the 9 of us,  in the sand hills about 2 miles north of Highway 50.  It was a happy existence for the little girl that I used to be.  I made mudpies with my little sister Cindy on hot summer days, watched fireflies at night while my folks sat outside with neighbors who would come over to visit us, and was entertained by the menagerie of animals that lived on our farm. Every once in a while we would go down to the Harvey County Park that was only a 5 minute drive from home.  Those 16 acres of land belonged to us and any other person on earth who visited them. It was "free"  to roam and play in the biggest park we ever knew of.  There was no "Worlds of Fun" in Kansas City  back in those days but shoot, who needed it anyways?  We had the swinging bridge to play on with our friends and if you dared, to run wildly across well at least until one of us heard our folks say "YOU KIDS STOP THAT!"  It was a good life.  A simple life and one that I sometimes miss and often times still remember.

     I have thought about the "18" in the days just now past and I'm wondering how summer time has gone for them.  Many of them have gone on vacations with their families and oh the stories that they will have to tell when school begins again in now, less than a month.  Some have gone hiking and fishing in the mountains while others have made the weekly trek to the library to pick up a good book or two for reading.  Last night I ran across several of the kids that I knew from Olathe at the Montrose County 4H Fair and I watched with delight as one of "the 18" and his little brother showed their pigs in the annual swine show there.  Both of those guys came home with a blue ribbon for all of their hard work and for that I say "a job well done Fletcher boys". 

     Yesterday I made a trip over to the school to unload my car's trunk and back seat of the things that I had stored in Kansas that I will use for school this year.  While there, I rearranged the desks in some kind of semblance of order and took a quick look at what was needed to do before school begins mid-August.  I smiled as I looked at my teacher's desk and its current state of being pristine.  I've never won any contests for the "cleanest teacher's desk" in the world and I'm sure that year #37 will not be any different.  But hey, I could try harder.  I remember as a kid back in Haven, Kansas that there was a teacher that had absolutely the most spotless desk ever and she managed to keep it that way all the time, without fail.  Miss Myers had a grand total of about 3 things on her desk in her fifth grade classroom.  Her attendance book, lesson plan book, and one plant.  That was it.  Total.  Not sure that I will ever be like her but perhaps it wouldn't hurt me a bit to consider traveling a little lighter on my desktop.  Time will tell and we shall see.

     Soon there will be "the 20 or the 21" or what ever number of students that shall be assigned to my classroom this year.  Yesterday as I was rearranging things I was imagining what it would sound like when they all arrived there for the first morning of school.  Perhaps there shall be a few tears from little ones and parents alike.   I expect that, you know?  And even though it wouldn't be too fun to experience that day in and day out during the entire  school year, it's to be expected.  We all have loved our mommies and daddies with our "6-year old hearts" and to part with them, even for a school day's time is not easy.  But we make it.  The backpacks will come off and find a place on the hooks alongside the wall and school supplies will be emptied out into desks and other storage places.  Attendance will be taken, the lunch count sent to the office and we shall begin.  I'm most ready.

     I do not know what lies ahead for me this school year but whatever it is I am ready to embrace it.  One thing I have learned, having "failed" retirement now twice is that teachers should never take for granted their position as educators.  The greatest thing I've now learned is that I am not done learning yet.  I always felt that I was a good teacher but the crazy thing is that now, nearly 4 years into the second stint of doing this I have finally become the teacher that I was meant to be all along.  It's a nice feeling, one that I have been most happy to experience.  There is much to learn for the students this year and there is an even greater amount for me to learn.  I am up for it and I give thanks for the chance so to do.

     I don't know their names yet, not even their little faces but soon, very soon, they will arrive. I will tell them on the first day, just like I told "the 18" so many times that they could recite what I would be getting ready to say, word for word. 

"If you ever have a teacher who says they don't love you, then it's time to find a new teacher."

    Maybe I don't know who they all are yet or which seat they shall occupy in the classroom but their teacher loves them already.  Unconditionally. Without fail.  Always.  Mrs. Hyla Bacon back in the first grade at Burrton Grade School loved the little 6-year old that I used to be.  I hope she would be happy that I grew up to be a teacher, just like her.  In the very least of things and of the greatest of things, this teacher shall forever give thanks.