Trading Worries.

I started with an underlying level of worry: are they getting enough or are we missing a critical topic?

But the worry over "How are they doing in school?" is gone.

I don’t need grades or report cards or conferences to try to figure out how they’re doing. I know because I’m there. I don’t need to do hours of research or spend days in each of their classrooms to try to keep up with what they’re being taught, where they excel, where they need more work or to monitor behavioral or interpersonal issues with their peers. I know because I’m teaching it and they are home with me. All. The. Time.

It’s a good trade.

I know that if we miss something and it becomes critical for them to learn it, then we’ll learn it. I can't teach them everything nor would they be able to learn it if I could. I've traded that underlying worry for a simple definition of what I perceive my job as teacher to be:

1. To give them a broad base in the basics.
2. To teach them to know how to learn anything they need to know.
3. To teach them be good communicators.
4. To identify, reveal, cultivate and nurture their individual strengths and special talents. Then to narrow their academic focus to specialize in these areas to the point where they can move on to either higher education or a career.

My hope is to send them into the world knowing what God created them to be and do, having a strong sense of who they are and where they’re going. Of course this takes a great deal of discernment and wisdom that I alone do not possess. There it is. Faith. Again.