LEAven Blog

Does this phrase bring hope, or have you been waiting and waiting for “next year” for too many “next” years? Your favorite team just isn’t producing. So maybe next year will… there I go. The words come almost automatically to seasoned White Sox fans.

But that’s baseball. This is the end of the school year, so now you’re building guilt, anger, frustration, and blame, and if you had room in your self-pity box, you would add even more discouraging words. Like so many baseball teams, you’ll take the summer to rebuild. Maybe it won’t take any longer than it did to construct I 80!

Let’s imagine next year in terms of your classroom and school.

There’s the tired, worn-out mind, body, and, dare I say, Spirit. The year was long. You are tired. You’ve even considered quitting. How could you pump new energy into next year? This one is easy. No, no, simply saying, “Get some rest,” is unlikely to work. For busy teachers, getting rest must climb over piles of summer projects, tapping on your conscience for a place in your life. If you’re planning to “just rest,” you’ll probably need to discipline yourself—to set aside time every day to read a book, catch up on correcting assignments from last February… oh, wait. I did say get some rest, didn’t I? Well, there’s always…. Or, you can start now. Start enjoying next year’s victories now.

Maybe, if you think hard enough, you can help some students who are living in the land of next year. (Or maybe learn how to rest from them!) Take Lippy Morgan. You wish someone would. But he’s already enrolled for next year, and his parents asked if you had a lifetime enrollment plan at Leviticus Lutheran School. So Lippy will be back, energized by his vocabulary study of disrespectful words, vulgar phrases, cursing, swearing, and everything else the catechism prohibits. If his family won’t move away, maybe you could move the school…. Or maybe you could reach some sensibilities by killing him with kindness. Pray for patience. Then approach him with questions about his plans for summer—and yours. Could make for some interesting conversations on one of your walks to the principal’s office. Pray for him; ask him to pray for you.

Speaking of the principal’s office, if you dare, perhaps you can make next year better with a reminder of the note you sent her last March, asking her to replenish some essential supplies. You know, things like printer ink, detention slips (custom-made for Lippy), toilet paper, classroom library books, and whatever else you can dream about (while you’re resting!).

Next, your students’ test scores. They weren’t as good as you hoped. (Parents had stronger words.) The solution? Work harder? Hardly. Maybe if you had geography texts with a copyright later than 1956… (Oh, the new ones were packed away in the closet—last 1970.) Or maybe you could get imaginative this summer, dreaming up (again) and listing some ideas that would excite you to teach—and your students to learn. Cruise the Internet for ideas not directly associated with your existing resources. (Be sure to send a note to the principal asking for permission.)

Come back down to Earth. Realize that for some, there won’t be a next year. Consider what students need to know for their salvation. The Athanasian Creed, for starters? Luther’s morning and evening prayers word for word like in the good old days? As good as they are, the answer is much simpler. And you already know it. So spend some of your making-next-year-better-plans resting your dreams on Jesus, planning to share the great news of free salvation through faith in Him.

Oh, don’t forget to tell that to Lippy too.