Today, I decided to take a Sabbath. I try and do this every week, and am still experimenting with it. Honestly, it feels a bit like an excuse for laziness since I'm so used to going, going, going. I would argue though, that a rest day is necessary. It's woven into the fabric of creation, God rested on the seventh day from his work of creating the world. It makes sense than, that he commands us to rest from our work as well. Maybe this is one of the most counter cultural things we can do in American culture. I know people like to argue that it's not a New Testament thing, but I dare say Jesus was a practicing Jew and therefore observed the Sabbath. Yes, He did heal on the Sabbath, but doesn't it make sense to give people freedom on the Sabbath? About a year ago, I dove into a book about keeping the Sabbath and got about halfway through it, like I do most of my books. Recently, I purchased another book about keeping the Sabbath that's been really good to read as well. Not sure if I'll make it through that one or not yet. In the Bible, God says to remember the Sabbath day because it is holy. Maybe the holiest thing we can do all week is to simply be. Rest in God's assurance that He loves us and that He can take care of the world perfectly well without us for a day.
If anything, I tend towards the opposite extreme, where I want to take a Sabbath about every other day. This isn't good either, because it's known by another name, laziness. Ever since high school when I realized I could do far less work than was required and still get an A in the class, I've tended towards laziness. It is something that I constantly battle against in my heart and in my soul. Sometimes, I read the Proverbs just to try and scare myself into working harder. That is probably the wrong approach. In Scripture, we're told to work as if working for the Lord. Either I don't take that verse very seriously, or I need to reevaluate my picture of who God is. In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us again and again that man can do no better than to enjoy the wife of his youth and the fruit of his labor. In Proverbs it talks about how a laborer's sleep is sweet.
What would the fruit of my labor look like in my own context, I wonder? Back then, I'm pretty sure Solomon was referring to actual fruit, as in a vineyard or some other agricultural process. That doesn't seem to apply to my situation, pretty sure if I tried to grow anything it would die right off the bat.
What does the fruit of my labor look like in regards to teaching kindergarten, though? Let me brainstorm a little bit here, if you will. I think I saw it the other day, when an ESOL aide was in my class and said that my students were doing much better with sounding out words than they had been in the past. I've been working pretty hard with them with our little readers, getting them to sound out words and memorize our site words that you can't really sound out and just have to memorize.
The best fruit of my labor in kindergarten would be if my students left my class knowing how to read. Another teacher has been coming in and helping my students with writing, and the kids just love when she comes in. It's precious to see my kids excited about writing, and this will obviously help them become better readers as well so it's truly a double bonus.
Another fruit of my labor as a kindergarten teacher would be if my students know all their numbers from 1-20 and can do basic addition and subtraction by the end of the year. Other teachers tell me that for years kindergarten students weren't expected to be able to read by the end of kindergarten, it was more a time for them to adapt to playing well with other kids and learning how to socialize in general. We may have lost something there, but ideally you can do both and I would even encourage it when possible. At my school this can be difficult as kindergarten itself is quite the culture shock to a lot of my students. It's hard to remember what my students are going through when they first enter my room, but I have experienced it myself in regards to traveling to other cultures and experiencing culture shock myself.
A fruit of my teaching kindergarten would also be teaching students how to learn. Now, this may sound ridiculous at face value, but hear me out for a minute. Many students, whether they be in kindergarten of 5th grade for that matter, want the teacher or someone else to do all the work for them. They don't really want to learn anything, they just want to be given the answers so they can move on with their lives. If we don't teach our students how to learn, said another way how to think, than who is going to? Who is going to get them to think critically about social issues and the problems that will address our nation and world as they come of age?
A dear friend and coworker of mine says one of her main motivators for teaching is so students can read and find things out for themselves. Otherwise, they'll just believe anything they hear on TV that may or may not be true. My own mom did a fabulous job of this when I was in high school and wrestling with some issues of the faith. She encouraged me to seek out answers to the questions I had, not to just settle for what she or the church had to say about things. I had started asking questions because I was learning about evolution in high school and the question of why there was a need for God was impossible to escape. At the time, this was a very difficult lesson to learn, one that took me getting hospitalized to realize that God is indeed real and He does answer prayers. You see, there was a time that I specifically remember where my grandma had stood by the hospital bed and informed me that many people were praying for me, up and down the phone lines. She then posed the question of whether I had prayed for myself yet. I had not at that point due to not even knowing whether I believed anymore or not. That night was the first night in a long time that I took the time to pray. It was something along the lines of, "God, I don't even know if You're real or not, but if You are, I could sure use Your help right about now." The next day the doctors prescribed a new drug for me and I was on my way to recovery at last. God is someone to be experienced and trusted, not some argument that needs to be addressed. There is room for apologetics, of course, but to me arguing does very little in the minds of naysayers who can point easily to the Church's hypocrisy as a reason to not believe.
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