Kindergarten

I broke a promise this week.  I went back to school.

When I graduated from high school 40 years ago, I vowed I would never go back to school again.  I hated school.  Oh, lunch hour and PE were not too difficult, but you could have the rest of it.  Journalism was alright too, except for the teacher.  She and I were not best buddies. 

I don't know exactly what my problem was, other than the fact that I was dumb as a box of rocks and just did not try.  It is a miracle that I graduated.  As I remember it, I had a half-credit extra somewhere (probably physical education) and they were kind enough to let me go.

College was out of the question.  With my lack of interest in occupying a chair in any classroom, that would have been a waste of time and money. 

Life can knock you around pretty good, and when it does, you either learn or you spend the rest of your life just existing, wasting away.  I did not like the prospect of the latter, so I started taking the former a bit more - a lot more - seriously.  Thankfully, I found work that I loved.  I learned the business I was in, which altered the course of my life.

I still do not like sitting in a classroom, or sitting anywhere for very long.  I don't attend very many seminars, and webinars, or whatever they are called, are even worse.  I do not learn like that.

But something happened in my life several years ago.  I do not know what it was or when it happened, but I have an intense passion for literacy, or more specifically, fighting the war of illiteracy.  Today, I am happy to go back into the classroom, but only long enough to deliver the message to students that they had better learn to read, and develop the habit of reading something every day of their lives.

I am on a mission to promote the importance of literacy, and I have many wonderful friends who are helping me spread this message.  We are beginning with the youngest children in my community for two reasons.

First, birth to age three are a child's formative years.  Kids will learn to read and then they will read to learn.

Second, it might be too late to reach some of their parents.  The percentage of people in my community who are living at or below the poverty level is shocking.  We are trying to save the next generation and change their lives before they repeat the cycle.

That is why I am going back to school, to a kindergarten and second grade classroom.  I am one of hundreds of mentors in my community who visit the same kindergarten classroom one day a week.  We just hang out and read, work on art projects, and whatever else the teacher needs us to do.

So, I am going back to school.  And I am going to try this time.  And I am going to like it.  I am all grown up now.  I can handle it.

Today's Winning Thought:  "We can have more than we've got, because we can become more than we are." -- Jim Rohn  

     

 

Comments

[Laura Spradlin]

Marv, what a blessing to learn that you are mentoring my daughter's class! I had no idea! It was so nice to see familiar faces last night at the school too. Thanks for everything you do for others.