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Money cannot buy time or success — however, it can provide support. A seat can be saved for those who are in dire need.
Time — the constant. It’s really a stalker in a way, but not the sneaky kind — but rather akin to the obnoxious neighbor — the one you cannot ignore. Time cannot be ignored, manipulated, or taken for granted. This is easy to say when hindsight is, of course, 20/20, and the classroom environment paints a different picture.
Laughter is had, sleeping is done, anger is spewed, and love is given. How, in a single class period, is one not to take the good for granted? How does one not gravitate toward the good in order to embrace the bad? To provide the seemingly demised, a seat — a seat for them — tardy or not.
Let there be a seat. A seat where judgement subsides, anger meets its match with a balance of accountability and grace, and, above all, a seat that is consistent. It is not taken away when one is busy, overwhelmed, or absent in body or mind. A seat that has no names but is open to any name — anyone.
A seat can serve as a reminder that acceptance can counterbalance anger — allowing for magnanimous transparency. A seat that can remind all stakeholders in education that anger should not win — people should be cultivated, protected, and valued. Teaching reveals the very essence of learning — life and all that which it accompanies. Help us teach, Centralia community — help us save a seat.
Audrey Bellows
Chehalis
