Interesting Times

"We live in interesting times," begins Mr. Truman, Rynn's 3rd grade teacher, to a room full of eager parents faithfully attending Third grade curriculum night.  

"The jobs your children may have one day ...probably don't even exist yet.  The discussion last night with our technology team revolved around 'Should we teach keyboarding?  Will it be obsolete by the time these children are in high school?.'"

What?  Keyboarding obsolete?  When did this train start moving so fast, and how did I miss it when it went by?  Even Blogger changed their interface this week and Facebook is so last week.  Ok, maybe I'm the one that is so last week just now hearing about Google Plus.  Someone stop the train! With a room full of brand new Macs humming next door I listen as Mr. Truman continues.  

"In recent years the Oxford English dictionary has severely limited its printing.  What do we do?  Do we teach third graders how to look up words in a dictionary?  Or is this too becoming obsolete?."

I'm hooked by this former lawyer turned educator.  As panic begins to rise in my stomach about keeping up with all this, Mr. Truman holds up a photo of the word WONDER spelled out with found objects  by a child on the shores of Lake Michigan.  

"Yes, he says, we will teach them to look up words in a dictionary AND....pause...
 to practice their spelling words with sea glass in the sand." 

"I believe," he continues to a group of overachieving parents crammed in their children's desks, "that it is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge."  

Supreme art.  Creative expression.  Joy in knowledge.  A zeal to discover the world and never tire of learning.  This is what good teachers do for us.  They awaken joy and desire.  They make us want to run into the world and absorb it.  Have you had such a teacher?  Perhaps not in the classroom but a pastor or friend?  Consider thanking them.  Just a thought.

And in other Little family news.  Jason is recovering well from his THIRD knee surgery.   Although scheduled for a while, it sort of snuck up on us both.   A complete ACL reconstruction and meniscus repair...but, in the words of the orthopedist, Dr. Portland, "he can still climb mountains.  Just not for six months."  For now, it is lots of ice, rest, and oh yeah...trying to write a sermon from his sofa. Maybe in between a few soccer matches.