Passion...

Last week in our Sunday school class we talked about the different soils upon which seeds are cast and how that soil affects how that seed grows and matures and how strong it becomes. I started thinking about the seeds that we cast through our influences on others - friends, our students, our kids - and the soil upon which they land... On a daily basis, it seems, I think about the kids at my school - my student trainers, the athletes I see and the general population there. And I wonder a lot of the time about what kind of home they're growing up in, what kind of parents they have, what kind of struggles they go through to make them the way they are. I usually start wondering about these things because I've had a typically unpleasant encounter with one of them and find it easier to blame their upbringing than anything else. The attitudes and personalities that seem so selfish and disrespectful really make a person wonder what kind of "soil" they are and how the seeds planted in their lives will survive. A lot of them are particularly rocky and as a teacher I struggle to do two things. One, I strive to prepare my students for their future. I do my best to teach them habits and skills that will benefit them in college and their lives beyond, to "cultivate" a better "soil" because I want to see them be successful and happy. This is an everyday challenge! They are very resistant to new ideas. For instance, my class had to write a paper last year and my encouragement to them was this - that they don't necessarily have to be interested in the subject but that it's important to learn the process of writing a research paper. They didn't get it. None of their other teachers make them write papers, apparently. I just told them that when the day comes in college that they have to write one, they'll thank me. :) Two, I try to sow a seed in them. I do my best, though many times I fail due to pure frustration, to be a positive influence and to challenge them to do better. This all gets me to thinking about passion. As a teacher I believe you have to have a passion for what you teach. It's the best feeling in the world when that light bulb goes off over their heads and they "get it"! At the same time it's so discouraging to have your efforts be shut down by the inevitable few that just don't care. I tell my kids all the time that I surely didn't care for calculus but I had to pass the class all the same so why not try to find something about it you like? They don't really get that either. I know I think back on some of my teachers throughout my life and truly appreciate them. I hope someday at least a few of my students feel the same way. :)