PASTOR PAUL’S PASSAGES

OUR INTERNET SERVICE OPENS UP A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES

As this school year begins, let’s celebrate old friends reunited in the classroom and new possibilities explored at home.

With our super-fast internet, your household has access to virtually unlimited ways to learn. VR headsets and apps can transport your children to outer space, take them on safari, or make them feel like they’re inside a famous painting. Social media builds connections and inspires creativity, and streaming videos offer lessons on any subject.

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One year ago, we were talking about how we might safely return to the classroom in our public schools. This past year saw us engage in a very interesting mix of virtual and in-person learning. A year later and the numbers of Covid-19 infections are once again spiking in Oklahoma and across the country. Experts tell us it is important that children be in the classroom, but that children who have not been vaccinated ought to wear masks indoors. Taking in these facts and admonitions, I am praying that our kids and the faculty and staff that guide them in the learning process will have a wonderful 2021-2022 school year. When I was a kid in school, I never knew challenges to learning like the challenges our kids have faced in this pandemic. I was never asked to listen to my teacher on a Zoom meeting or submit homework on line. The only mask I wore to school was the wool ski mask that kept my face warm from freezing wind. I never had to research a topic on the internet, but I did have go to the school or public library to use the encyclopedias. Until I was in high school, I never had to turn in a writing assignment in typed print. (My agony was copying my essays in legible cursive handwriting.) My grandchildren seem amazed when I tell them that I was not permitted to use a calculator when doing math homework. Despite the differences in learning between our generations, kids going back-toschool in 2021 face much of the same drama as did the young people of generations past. Families are shopping in preparation for the first day of school. Back in the day when my mother was getting her kids ready for the first day of school, it may have been in some ways easier. With seven siblings in my immediate family, and a whole host of cousins who lived in the same town, my mother and aunts every summer did the “clothes swap.” My sisters exchanged dresses and blouses with female cousins. Mom moved jeans and tops from one dresser drawer to the next – each of my brothers with which I shared a room had his own drawer in the dresser. Ripped jeans were patched, socks were darned and shoes evaluated for the amount of wear left in them. Only after all this had been accomplished did mom make her trip to “Miracle Mart” where she bought most of the store-bought clothes for her family. My grandchildren are excited to go school clothes shopping. Their mother has a budget dictated by the amount of money she has been able to set aside for new school clothes. Although my grand kids aren’t wearing many hand-me-downs, the drama of back-to-school preparation is much the same as when I was young. Everybody wants to look “cool,” i.e., their best in front of their peers. While four-year old Teddy is concerned most with having Marvel superhero t-shirts and shorts, his big twelve-year-old twin sisters have their own vision for what they want their wardrobe to be. I was no different. I talked to my mother for weeks before I persuaded her to add fabric to the bottom of my bell-bottomed jeans for school. Boy, did I ever look cool in those bell-bottoms! The last eighteen months have been very difficult for many families. We can help each other get our kids ready to go back to the classroom. Let’s have our ears and eyes open to see which children in families could use assistance. Perhaps churches and social clubs are groups who can check with families about back-to-school needs this summer.

One congregation I know has a “foster feet” ministry which provides brand new shoes and socks for kids. My church is gifting backpacks and school supplies to our kids, and folks are praying over these items. Backto-school is an important time in kids lives. We want to make the learning process an exciting and positive experience for kids. Finally, let’s lift up our teachers, school staff, and the school kids and their families in prayer. Holy One, you know the challenges kids are facing this year. You love them more than we can imagine. We lift up students that are heading to school, hoping to make friends, especially kids who struggle with social interaction. We pray for kids to find a warm welcome in their learning environments. Holy One, be present with the children who have had to be removed from their “normal” school environments and who feel anxious to resume school as they once knew it. May we all learn to love and care for this beautiful Creation. Amen. n THE CORRIDOR MAGAZINE / AUGUST 2021 21