“I’m allergic to school lunches”
This line was spoken in one of the funniest moments I have had with the students this week. We were writing down the allergies of students before lunch when this particular student raised his hand and in all earnestness said, “I’m allergic to school lunches” thinking he could somehow trick us into upgrading his lunch options.
It’s these moments that bring me back into check. It is hard with nineteen boys (ages 4-6) to keep a smile on and positive energy flowing all the time amidst the chaos. It is easy to get lost in the burden of discipline and the boundaries being established in the first week of summer programming. I can see how easily jaded teachers become after years of working with children. It is a gut reaction to want to stop the chaos immediately, but patience is something I need to learn along with the children. I was reminded of this when one of the senior mentors was so patient when all the kids, following one rogue student, got out of their chairs and started kicking in the air to music. Instead of trying to yell over the commotion, he waited for them to stop and then gently and quietly asked them whether jumping out of their chairs was part of his directions. They meekly responded in the negative and sat in their chairs.
It’s a fine line between demanding the students live up to the expectations of being “Gentlemen, Scholars, Artists, and Athletes” (the official LPTM mantra) and joyfully giving grace when they are most vulnerable. And the best way to find this line I am starting to realize is to watch my lead teachers and senior mentors. I am tempted to pull out my “I’ve-worked-in-such-and-such-organization-in-waco-so-I-know-what-I’m-doing” card. But the depth of my knowledge is a trickling stream compared to the oceans of experience the LPTM staff has over me.
One of the most beautiful things I have learned here after feeling especially humble after an exhausting, stressful day, is that joy is a choice. As Henri Nouwen, my favorite of all theologians, wrote —
“Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day”
Just as the LPTM apprentices work to make masterpieces from their own difficult life pieces, I can learn to make joy from the pieces of my own life.
-Sarah