Every word

I'm grading papers this afternoon (well, actually I'm distracting myself as I am ALL too prone to do by finding something else that sounds "productive" rather than just buckling down and getting through the stack!), and I just finished one of my student's essay about wanting to go to Hillsong United's school in Australia. Another of my students wrote on why he'd like to spend a week in Italy. Yosemite was the destination of choice for a different guy. I love reading these papers! I don't always like critically analyzing them and trying to offer constructive criticism while also encouraging the good work I see, but that's part of the job... I get to read the thoughts my students think, their dreams, their fears, and their regrets. As a teacher, they somehow deem me trustworthy of some personal stuff - I feel like it's a hugely privileged and humbling position to inhabit! As a friend pointed out, sometimes God does some "tapping" on my shoulder through the papers I read and lets me know it's time to be used by Him. I hope when those points come up that I'm listening closely enough to Him to be able to hear what He would have me say.

I know that someday, if I have a classroom where I'm teaching five or six periods with 30 or more kids in each, I won't necessarily be able to devote as much time to reading each student's writing as I do now. I dread that day. While trying to pass on to these kids the importance of writing and my passion for it, I'm communicating that writing is a worthwhile endeavor. If the only person who has the opportunity to read their writing is their teacher, and she doesn't do it, who will? Without that validation of an audience for one's written efforts, what's the point? For that reason, I comment on every sheet of paper my student's hand in to me, because I've read every word they write. I don't want my laziness or fatigue or busyness to be a factor that somehow limits my students' progress.