“Oh my, they need to be done!”
Said a wise woman (myself), multiple times in the past couple of weeks (hours?), of the grade twelve students at our school.
I was convinced that my noticing that these (really, they are lovely) students need to be done was because I am almost exclusively working with students in grade 12, and my own daughter is in her final year. But, other, more wise and experienced staff assure me, this happens every year, at this time.
The evidence of what I am speaking about includes disinterest (in classes, events, even peers), disengagement (of studies, of others), disorder (if I hear once a class, I hear a dozen times, “stop talking!”), and distance (ie. from the school building, due to absences … with or (mostly) without approval).
My secret (so much for secret now) personal desire is that we gather every senior student in a room tomorrow morning, and say, “please do not come back to classes next week. Yes there are classes scheduled until next Thursday, but please, stay home.”
In the past week I have heard the following from a handful of students, regarding everything from absences, dress code, coming late, contributing to class discussions, etc:
“what are they going to do if I don’t ________? I’m done in a few days”
sigh …
My mantra is one that I say (repeatedly) to myself at this point in the school year, when the days are warm, and the evenings are long, and I am longing for summer break:
FINISH WELL
The work is not done until it is complete, and I/we need to strive to complete our task with the same energy and zeal that we began with.
2 Corinthians 8:11 reminds us of something similar to my mantra:
“now finish the work
so that your eager willingness to do it
may be matched by your completion of it,
according to your means”
This is a reminder to myself, as well as to those eager graduates in waiting, to finish well … only four more days of classes …
itsawonderfilledlife 