~and in 20 years, the world will not even care~

7 years ago this upcoming month of May, I retired from being a teacher after 32 years of service to my home state of Kansas.  I walked out that last day of school with only a few things in my hand, having given away most everything else to other teachers.  My two sons met me at the door of my classroom, told their mom that she really didn't need to cry, and off I went into the unknown future.  

The unknown future lasted all of 5 and 1/2 months.  By early October that next school year, I was back at work as a teacher in the very same district that I had just retired from.  For the next 3 years I would continue on there. When Mike and I got married in 2013, I moved to Colorado with him and began my career as a teacher in the Rocky Mountains for two years.  After relocating to this part of the world in the summer of 2015, I taught for one year in Texas and now I am finishing up my first year in Oklahoma.  

Along the way in this journey, I have learned so much about myself not only as a person but a teacher as well.  Perhaps the greatest thing I have learned is this.  It took retirement for me to really become the teacher that I was meant to be all along.

Twenty years ago, I would have never dreamt of writing the post that I am writing today.  I'm not sure if I would have had the courage to do so.  Today I do.

Yesterday my class of 3rd graders, 21 strong, finished up our part of the Oklahoma state assessments in reading and math.  We've worked hard this entire school year.  There was never a moment of downtime, not a second of the day ever wasted.  Parents gave their support to me 100 percent and I'm not kidding about that.  They had my back the whole way as we worked together for the kids.  My principal taught my students every single day in a computer lab setting as we helped them get ready to be prepared for the tests of this week.  For nearly 8 weeks, the entire class stayed after school for an hour each day to work on tutorials to further prepare us to be ready.  If I had a dollar for every time I said the phrase "on the day of the test", well I could probably buy us all a steak dinner somewhere.  We took it as the serious business that it has now become, not only in Oklahoma but everywhere else in this nation as well.

As we finished our math test yesterday and I gathered up all the books to submit to the test graders, whoever they might be, I asked the kids to stop for a moment because I wanted to talk to them.  I looked at each one of them, face by face, and told them that I had something important to tell them and that I needed them to listen to me.  I told them how very proud I was of all of them and that I knew how hard they had all worked.  I reminded them that each one of us, myself included, had used the utmost of integrity in the administering and the taking of the test as well.  I knew that I could sleep last night.  

Then one of those kids reminded us all of something.  That young man pointed out the bulletin board that has been up all year long, a constant reminder to us that we are a classroom community.  He told us that we had all stuck together,  just like we were supposed to.

And I thought that I might have cried.

And so with that I just had to tell them something that I felt they needed to know.  I didn't cry yesterday but as I type these words today, I think I might just have to.

I told them that in 20 years, the world would not care or even know whether or not they passed their 3rd grade reading and math assessments.  It is true.  The world will not even care.  It is just one single test given on a random day and graded by a computer that scans the bubbles on their test booklets.  That computer won't know how hard they worked all year long or how much they have grown as students and children.  When the state results come out, whenever that is, the name of their teacher will be assigned to the scores and for better or worse, the scores shall stand.   We gave 100 percent as we took the test and I'm so very proud of them.  I know the importance of teaching to the standards and I realize full well how important it is to have kids prepared to go on to the next grade.  Yet I know one other thing too.

Every child is different and every child deserves the chance to get there on their own terms. Sometimes we just need extra time to grow and change.  No test is ever going to matter in the scheme of life.

Not in 3rd grade.

Not anywhere.

In twenty years from now, I bet the world is going to be much more thankful for 29-year old adults who stick together and take care of themselves and one another.  Somewhere out there will be another 9-year old student in the future who will be glad for a teacher who sees that they have value.  And oh yeah, what a world it would be if people left no others behind.  That's what I want my boys and girls to know.  That's what I want them to see is important.

A test score is just that.

A test score.

Life is filled with so much else that is 1,000 times more important than how well you fill in a bubble sheet when you are a 9-year old.  That's a life lesson I hope they always remember.  On the first day of school I had one desire for those students of mine.  I wanted those kids to say at the end of the year that their third grade year was the best year they ever had.  

If they can say that, then I did what I set out to do.

Way to go third graders!  Your teacher loves you and is so very proud of your accomplishments this year.

The community rock jar has been in our room all year long.  Each of them placed a rock inside the jar at the beginning of the year as a sign of being willing to belong to our 3rd grade family.  

Not only did I give one year of my life to them, they gave one year of their life to me.  We met each other half way.  I will miss them when school is out in a few weeks.