~and so I just do~

~from Texas, good morning dear family and friends~

     Several of my students at school read this blog each week and one of them decided to give me a suggestion as to what I should write about.  The idea was pretty much short and sweet but it did plant a seed for writing.

"Mrs. Renfro, you oughta just write about why you love us kids so much.  That's all."

I smiled and said that I would indeed give that notion a try.  
So here goes and I hope that young lady reads it and knows that she was my inspiration today.

     One of my "cardinal rules of thumb" as a teacher has always been this.  I say it to the kids time and time again, so much so that they can finish my quote without hesitation.  I tell them....

"Do you  know what you do if you ever have a teacher who says that they don't love you?  You find another teacher.  That's what you do."

     Once this year, a young man asked me what that meant.  Did it literally mean to leave class and find a new teacher?  If so, how in the world did you do that?  I had a smile on my face when I replied to him.

"All that it means is that there should never be a teacher who doesn't love you or have your very best interests at heart each and every day.  99.9% of all the teachers you encounter in life will be that kind of teacher.  Don't worry.  It's a reminder for me."
     
     Children are actually very easy to love, especially so if we adults remember the fact that we were once one of them too.  Everything that they do, good or bad, we grownups have more than likely tried once or twice ourselves.  As the years go by, we seem to forget that.  In our now "grown up" version of the kids we used to be, we lose sight of that very fact.  
     As a seemingly "forever" version of a teacher, I've had the occasion to meet, teach, and to love many children over the years.  The little ones that I knew back in my first days of teaching are now in their early 40's and there is something that I have come to realize.  That feeling of keeping them in my heart didn't stop once I passed them on to the next grade in life.  Their teacher loved them back then and she still does today.  
     So why do I love children so much?  Why do I choose to be a teacher?  In one way it's hard to explain and in another, it is quite easy.  
    
    I just do.

She is the quiet and shy little girl that I used to be.  There were plenty of teachers who loved her very much.  Even though I struggled with math, couldn't run as fast as the other kids seemed to, and never could figure out how to hit a baseball during a recess game.....  they loved me even so.