they get more ordered

 

many wheels aren’t squeaking

“when the going gets tough,

the tough get going,”

a truism that describes one way

that challenge can be a stress test

that brings out the best in us,

adolescence is a major stress test of the system,

as hormones and developmental change wreak havoc

on the comfortable stasis that can be late childhood,

add a pandemic, with its wrenching change to social possibilities,

and change to the feeling of stability to the universe,

and, “Katie bar the door!” the world can be topsy-turvy,

how do young people respond to it all?

some as if wired, manic in their need and action for the social,

even when all their frenetic energy doesn’t really get them anywhere,

like those cartoon characters running off a cliff,

their legs churning powerlessly, fruitlessly, over an abyss,

and in that frenetic driven time mistakes can be made

and draw our attention, something wrong with the Force,

meanwhile, some young people are quieter, more focused,

when the going gets chaotic, they get more ordered,

they pull thoughts and self together

to continue to move bud to flower,

to continue the risk of assertion of self

in writing, in projects, in discussion,

in athletics, in art, in connection to others,

our attention is drawn to the wheels that squeak,

how glorious it is that so many wheels 

spin and work with purpose at the same time that others squeak,

the machine of the self working itself forward, inexorably,

the product revealing itself before us feels right and true

to what the Maker within hopes to create with every one of us,

I celebrate each step of each successful making.

by Henry H. Walker

October 26, ‘22

the intensity of middle school

 personas for and of the world

each of us constructs a persona

that expresses who we think we are,

who we hope we are,

and we construct a persona for the world

that is as hospitable, or inhospitable,

as we feel at the time,

middle schoolers work to figure out who they are,

and what they’re good at,

within a world that shifts and morphs

and seems to change the rules of the game

right in the middle of each play,

no wonder that many experience the middle school years

with frustration more prevalent than empowerment,

add a pandemic to the mix,

and it’s as if excessive oxygen fuels the fire of emotion,

we can feel a manic commitment to friends,

for they might be able to hold our heads above the encircling water,

we can feel a slap to the face

that wakes us up from our sureness,

we fear and we are anxious,

we know that we can lose,

that someone important to us can slip away,

or that we can feel ourselves to be imposters,

now is a time for the best of us, the best within us,

to show us, and to show the world,

that the personas we hope to be true

can actually come to be real,

despite how tenuous hope can be,

how susceptible to a pin prick the bubble of belief is.

by Henry H. Walker

October 14, ’22

the quality of the teacher?

 

advanced degree of the heart

What makes a great teacher?

It’s first the heart

that reaches out to the student,

the skill with which relationship

can begin, can grow, can blossom,

only the student can allow the steps forward,

each needs to trust that the way forward

is possible, and right,

the teacher can help the student see the choices before them,

we can support, encourage, applaud,

yet it’s the student that needs to move,

and, when they do, where they go can be amazing,

what makes a good teacher is the care and the skill

to meet the student where they are

and help empower them to realize where they can go,

too often, schools assume 

that an advanced degree for the teacher

establishes their worth, I disagree,

the lack, or presence, of letters after or before a name

does not determine the quality of the teaching,

the advanced degree of the heart 

can determine the quality of teaching.

by Henry H. Walker

September  30, ‘22