I initially wrote this as a response to my cousins post about how people ask kids what they want to be when they grow up and expect an answer about a profession when it would be better for a child to have the goal of growing up to have character qualities. I decided to share it here also.
Hmmm..It’s interesting that you bring this up because I've been saying something similar for a long time. I have the fortune or misfortune of teaching with what I call academic snobs. These are the people that think the worth of a student is defined by their grades or better yet, whether or not they are an "honor" student....and heaven forbid that a child not go to college!!!! At a staff meeting yesterday, this point was made apparent again when these teachers again made it clear that they felt classes like mine, or art, or music were blow off classes and only served as place to put the kids that didn't meet their standards of worthiness.
I guess the mom and the FACS teacher in me gets a little ruffled about this. You see, I have those kids that dare to fall in the category of "average" by those that decide that their worth is based on what they can regurgitate on a test. I guess I’ll take the opportunity to tell you about my “average” children.
My oldest child teaches Technology Education at a Middle School. There’s a special place in heaven for teachers of Middle School students. He didn’t graduate with honors. He had to work very hard for the grades that he got but now he’s making a difference in the lives of kids. His experience with struggling and working hard in school is part of what makes him an awesome teacher.
My second child trained in construction at Northwest Tech in Grand Forks. He didn’t have special stole when he got his high school diploma, but he can build pretty much anything he can imagine and is an amazing husband and father.
Child number 3 was an honor student, but defied immediate expectations and chose to serve his country in the Army. I know how some people feel about him serving 3 tours in Iraq, but this mom is damn proud to have a child who was willing to serve. He now attends college and has more sense at 24 than most people develop in a lifetime.
On to child number four. This “average” child taught English in China, helped start a church in Pittsburgh and is one of the most amazing dads I’ve ever met. He has an immense capacity to care about people that is thrilling to watch.
My fifth average child showed me a long time ago that he genuinely cared about the people around him. In an effort to keep his friends from drinking, he asked to have a few of them over after a home football game. There were 105 kids in the backyard that night. He made a difference then and is making a difference now by traveling to high schools throughout the United States as part of a team whose goal is to motivate students to make good decisions.
My sixth child, and only girl, is pretty small, but has a heart that is huge. She has a goal of running an orphanage in Kenya someday. She has helped in the rebuilding effort in New Orleans with her brother, worked with orphans in Zambia, and is working to save the money that will allow her to enter the mission field.
Yeah, my kids are pretty average if you look at their report cards, but they are anything but average in the things that really count. I guess that’s to be expected since their dad was pretty average too. What most people don’t realize is that he was anything but average when it came to making a difference in people’s lives. He made more of an impact through his short life and death than any honor student, or for that matter, anyone I know.
Hmmm..It’s interesting that you bring this up because I've been saying something similar for a long time. I have the fortune or misfortune of teaching with what I call academic snobs. These are the people that think the worth of a student is defined by their grades or better yet, whether or not they are an "honor" student....and heaven forbid that a child not go to college!!!! At a staff meeting yesterday, this point was made apparent again when these teachers again made it clear that they felt classes like mine, or art, or music were blow off classes and only served as place to put the kids that didn't meet their standards of worthiness.
I guess the mom and the FACS teacher in me gets a little ruffled about this. You see, I have those kids that dare to fall in the category of "average" by those that decide that their worth is based on what they can regurgitate on a test. I guess I’ll take the opportunity to tell you about my “average” children.
My oldest child teaches Technology Education at a Middle School. There’s a special place in heaven for teachers of Middle School students. He didn’t graduate with honors. He had to work very hard for the grades that he got but now he’s making a difference in the lives of kids. His experience with struggling and working hard in school is part of what makes him an awesome teacher.
My second child trained in construction at Northwest Tech in Grand Forks. He didn’t have special stole when he got his high school diploma, but he can build pretty much anything he can imagine and is an amazing husband and father.
Child number 3 was an honor student, but defied immediate expectations and chose to serve his country in the Army. I know how some people feel about him serving 3 tours in Iraq, but this mom is damn proud to have a child who was willing to serve. He now attends college and has more sense at 24 than most people develop in a lifetime.
On to child number four. This “average” child taught English in China, helped start a church in Pittsburgh and is one of the most amazing dads I’ve ever met. He has an immense capacity to care about people that is thrilling to watch.
My fifth average child showed me a long time ago that he genuinely cared about the people around him. In an effort to keep his friends from drinking, he asked to have a few of them over after a home football game. There were 105 kids in the backyard that night. He made a difference then and is making a difference now by traveling to high schools throughout the United States as part of a team whose goal is to motivate students to make good decisions.
My sixth child, and only girl, is pretty small, but has a heart that is huge. She has a goal of running an orphanage in Kenya someday. She has helped in the rebuilding effort in New Orleans with her brother, worked with orphans in Zambia, and is working to save the money that will allow her to enter the mission field.
Yeah, my kids are pretty average if you look at their report cards, but they are anything but average in the things that really count. I guess that’s to be expected since their dad was pretty average too. What most people don’t realize is that he was anything but average when it came to making a difference in people’s lives. He made more of an impact through his short life and death than any honor student, or for that matter, anyone I know.
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