The Best Thing My Daughter Learned In School This Year

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I’m feeling really grateful today. It’s been a long tough school year and today is finally the last day. We can finally let it go, leave it behind and finally move on. There is a ridiculous amount of information these kids are expected to learn in school. It’s almost like middle school and high school classes are almost equivalent to my college classes and sometimes the kids don’t have the maturity or comprehension to understand the depth of the information. 

My daughter had one particular teacher who has taught her more than any other. He is a stand out and I am grateful she had the opportunity to be in his class. Throughout the year he has offered several opportunities to improve your grade separate from the excessive tests that seem to be an obsession in our schools today. If he told them he would have a paper graded by a certain date and he didn’t follow through, they would get extra credit. He taught them by example to be accountable by putting himself on their level and holding himself to the same standard. 

The truth is, we have come to believe we are here to judge people. We feel obligated to label people and force our beliefs and lifestyle on the ones around us. If they don’t obey, we feel the need to punish and make an example of them. I say we are not here to teach people lessons at all. We are here to love, support and lift people up. When we can help, lending a hand to someone in need is one of the nicest lessons we could ever pass on.

Today my daughter forgot her physics packet. She is not the compassionate type and is resentful I do so much to help her younger brother in school. She really believes I should back off and let him fall on his own behind. Today though she asked me to bring her the packet she left at home. I could have thrown her own attitude right back in her face but I didn’t. I drove that paper right over and you know why? People make mistakes. We forget things no matter how responsible we think we are. Who am I to think I need to teach her a lesson? When she came out to the car, she handed me a token for a free drink at Sonic. Her teacher had sent it out to me as a thank you for driving her paper across town. Did she learn a ton of physics in there this year? Probably not but what she did learn was one good deed deserves another and that kindness really does count. There are no words for the gratitude I feel toward this man. That is the kind of lesson parents only hope our children will learn in school. All’s well that ends well and if this is the last and only thing she will ever learn from her junior year, I am extremely grateful.

6 thoughts on “The Best Thing My Daughter Learned In School This Year”

  1. What a wonderful teacher your daughter was blessed with. I agree that there is too much judging to our society. Treating others with love and respect is the only way to go. Of course it’s not easy, but I always try to treat others how I’d like to be treated. Good lessons she learned this year!

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  2. My form tutor for when I was 16/17 spent every morning and tutorial session telling stories/life lessons that were a blend of comedy and puzzle. I learned and remembered more of those stories compared to all my other classes put together. School is so much more than classrooms and whiteboards!

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  3. I’d be a lil if not terribly afraid to sit in on one of your kids’ classes, from what you say. All I know is my own experience was definitely overwhelming and confusing. I thought I was a smart kid, coming from being a valedictorian in elementary school. But, even by 8th grade, I was feeling pressure from too much work. I cracked my freshman year of high school (under the pressure). But, the worst year of all was probably junior year because of a history teacher who was relentless with quizzes, tests and papers. Yet, he was the only teacher I went to at the end of the year to thank for teaching me how to work my ass off to get a grade. Ironic, no?

    You’re not gonna learn too much from just loving and supporting. Take a lesson my nephews almost learned today about life and death, hunter and prey. I found a half-eaten sparrow outside beneath a tree where a hawk family likes to play. I wasn’t ready to explain how the hawk eats the smaller bird. But, yes, the world is regularly hungry for love and support versus judging and war. Either Aphrodite’s team is playing games with her old boyfriend or she’s on vacation.

    I would have been tempted to teach your daughter a lesson, too, from her attitude toward her brother. But, as they say, two wrongs don’t make a right.

    ‘Sounds like a nice guy, that teacher of hers.

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    • I have come to learn that it is not my job to teach anyone a lesson. They just seem to come on their own in their own time. I am glad I’m not a kid/student today and I’m so relieved that summer break has finally arrived. All that pressure and stress is on hold for now.

      How old is your nephew?

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