Photograph (teacher's worries)

No, third graders, not all pictures are selfies. Just as your question cannot be answered in the exact moment it begins to percolate in your brain, no matter how many times you call my name.

The world is a strange and beautiful place. Sometimes more beautiful, sometimes more strange.  I worry about how my protective urges could affect the worldview of the small people in my care. Am I creating a  mob of angry minions who demand their every whim be fulfilled?  Or are my students learning to live wildly and freely in a world that won't give them more than a possible push in a direction that might be right?

There is a fine line between security and freedom, and I am seeing that line is drawn when the children are small.  They'll push that line either way sometimes, and complain about the direction they pushed it.  I'm learning there are so many more lessons than reading, writing and arithmetic that we teach, and most of them are never on the syllabus, even when there is a character program or religious teaching involved.

May the lessons that I teach be the best available, the wisest possible, and long enough remembered to do some good in their lives.