Saturday, December 6, 2008

teaching as "calling"

teaching as “calling”


I love the idea of a “calling,”

moments ago I wrote of feeling a call to be outside
and how often I give in to that pull,

there’s something different, though,
about feeling the pull to serve that greater
with the substance, the hours, of one’s work,
to feeling that I am “called” to kids, to education,
to feeling my pain and my joy,
and using them and my care to connect with student after student,

and, when this works,
I can be as enabler of the best that is within them
to find its way to reveal itself in action,
and in that revelation of self within effort
each can hear and answer a calling to appreciate themselves,
to let those selves write large and true upon the paper of the world,
and to create line, color, and power upon the canvas of their being,

tomorrow is Thanksgiving,
tonight I feel thankful beyond words
for how often I can be there, true, for my students,

I joy every time each reveals and creates a best,
and in this Friends school we are blessed
that such revelation is so common.

by Henry Walker
November 26, ‘08

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