Copyright © Louis Schmier and Atwood Publishing.
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 07:39:04 -0400 (EDT)
Random Thought: That "High Five" Word
I was dozing on and off on the car ride back from Jacksonville
last Saturday. It was nearing midnight and I had just attended an upbeat
four hours of seminars for a business my Susan is entering. The entire
four hours centered on that exhilaring word, hope. Negatives were not
given tickets for admission. It was an encouraging and supporting high
five gathering.
As I went in and out of consciousness, I was thinking about
how I had defined hope. I had said that I thought hope really meant that
this moment is not the end. But, what does that really mean. I kind of
let it pass in the days that passed, but a conversation in class last
night rekindled that question. And, I walked on the wet streets this
pre-dawn morning looking for an answer. This is what I came up with.
Probably nothing original.
It means if we educators only think of ourselves, if we let the
students only think of themselves, if we only think of the students as the
persons we and they are right now, all of us will remain who we are and
where we are. But, if we educators think of ourselves, if we can get each
students to think of him/herself, if we think of each student as the
person we and they can be, we all will strive to become and most likely
will become the persons we all can be and go where we can be.
Hope means that if we don't get better tomorrow, if we don't grow
tomorrow, today is pretty dull. It is those improving and growing
tomorrows that make the todays exciting, for each student and for us each
of us.
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