I realized I had a magazine sitting on my coffee table, so glanced through it to see if there was anything interesting to read. I found and article called "Soil and Soul" that contained this inset quote from Wendell Berry:
Since I rarely hear anyone talking about topsoil, I thought perhaps there was a Green Space here for me, so I went back to the beginning and began to read.
The article is an interview between Father Michael Woods, Sister Kathleen Durkin, and Eileen Biehl. It is about the work begin done by Catholics in a community effort called Grow Ohio Valley. But that isn't what I was interested in.
Where I was drawn in was by statements made in the article, the conversation, that paralleled my life as a teacher. Recently, I had come across a quote from a movie about how student growth is like that of a flower -- we cannot pull it up from the roots, we cannot paste the leaves on -- we are required to set the environment and let things blossom in their own time.
In this "season of testing" panic, I have watched my colleagues -- and yes, even myself -- trying to do that last minute pulling of the roots, pasting on of leaves. This article about Soil and Soul brought me back to the place I need to be.
Some quotes and thoughts:
The complete reliance of all humanity on the soil for sustenance and survival placed farmers and the agriculture industry in the position of caretaker and cultivator.
As an educator, I feel that requirement to be caretaker and cultivator. I think this is why teachers get so angry and frustrated with the whole era of standardized testing. We see ourselves in a much different role than those tests require. I also think the sustenance and survival of humanity relies on proper education, and that goes right down to every last child in every school -- not just the easy ones to educate.
We need to appreciate that the SOIL grows the food, NOT the farmer. The farmer's job is to work thoughtfully with grace and humility to realize God's great gift to us in the soil.
Teachers, too, have to understand our role is to tend the soil of good instruction, allowing for healthy growth in our students. They are God's gift to the world -- we should be nothing to destroy that beauty, certainly not just because some politicians told us to.
"Health" is a word related to salvation. It speaks to "making whole," and is related to heal, hallow, holy, and holistic. It is indeed "holy" work.
The current dysfunctional and unhealthy systems in place in our schools do little to help make us whole. It is a constant battle for a teacher to keep things in place to do no harm. It is sometimes harder than parents or the general public realize.
Farming is a form of liturgy. There are set rhythms to the seasons and how nature moves and there is a constant set of things required for farming: water, weeding, pruning. But, each growing season is never the same.
This quote can easily be replaced with the school year and how it has its own seasons. Fall is the toughest -- getting to know our students, who they are, what their abilities are. It is never the same two years in a row. Then around Thanksgiving, usually things start to smooth out, we are in routine. Then the intensity of getting ready for the tests -- third quarter -- the one where students start to feel either much stronger or much weaker. The pressure is on. Then, testing season, and when it is done...some rest, some fun, some activities that release the school year with pleasure. The things needed: teaching, observing, reinforcing, reteaching, measuring growth, raising awareness, reflecting, and creativity...the list could go on and on.
After reading and reflecting on this "Green Space" today, I read the next poem in River Flow. It is called "The Wildflower" and it begins:
In the center of this wildflower
the names of things revolve like planets...
I was immediately reminded of the Buddhist teaching about the orange. What does the orange contain? Everything in the universe -- the seed, the tree, the leaves, the soil, the air, the sun, the rain, every movement someone made to get that orange to grow.
Everything is in everything. The more I can remember that, the better person I will be.
The soil needs to be healthy and ready. The more I remember that, the better teacher I will be.
Everything I am is in that soil. Let me remember to cultivate with care.
"Soil and Soul" published in imagine ONE: Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, Spring/Summer 2017
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