Monday, March 11, 2013

Nurturing


This past weekend I made a stop in the Dollar Tree and purchased Shamrock Garland for our office Poinsettia. (Yes, you read that correctly we have a Poinsettia that is still alive in March!) While searching for garland for the now “St. Patty’s Day Poinsettia," I was struck with a thought. Typically most poinsettias are dead or dying by January first and are in the trash no later than the fifth. I thought what was different about our office poinsettia? It wasn’t expensive; I purchased it for two dollars at Aldi’s. It wasn’t a new hybrid poinsettia; it was just your average run of the mill Christmas plant, why hadn’t it died yet? The answer hit me as I was checking out. No one had dismissed it as unimportant or not worthy of care because the holiday was over. It had sat on the counter in the sun and it had been watered and cared for daily. Our office staff had not given up on it because a date had passed.




Being a teacher and of course thinking teaching is a divine calling I connect every little moment with teaching. I could only think what would happen if we treated our students like the office poinsettia? What would happen if no one gave up, because MME was over or they hadn’t passed the MEAP? What if we continued to water and nurture our students regardless of the fact that they are past their cute and cuddly years, and have made some serious mistakes? If we nurture our students would they, could they, continue to grow and flourish? The answer is yes! All of our students are poinsettias in March, society expects them to wither and disappear, but if we nurture, water and tell them that they don’t have to be what others expect them to be, they too can be a –soon to be- Easter Poinsettia!

Just think about it. How can you break the norm? Who can you nurture beyond societies expectations? Better still ask yourself, have you.....
- Monica Martin

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