What Was I Thinking?

I chose this particular word to be the title of this entry, because the song of the same name says, "If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious." Precocious comes from a Latin word that means "to ripen early," which is why it is used to describe a child who exhibits maturity in some area at a young age.   I have met some precocious boys and girls this week in my office. These whippersnappers sat in the chair beside my desk and answered my interview questions like miniature adults on a television talk show with squirmy sitting behaviors. Some literally slid out of the chair onto the floor in mid-sentence, never missing a beat. Others wandered throughout the room taking in every detail of my office, sometimes noticing things that I had forgotten were there, like the postcard showing the flower painted by an elephant in Thailand. Some competed with younger siblings to be the center of attention. One appeared to have practiced her poise and behavior an...

Boy, oh boy. Some days it doesn't take much to knock the wind right out of my sails. I woke up this morning with the hymn "Heaven Came Down (and Glory Filled My Soul)" playing in my head. Where that tune came from, heaven only knows (yeah, probably it was heaven sent). I came to school with that song in my heart and actually sang a verse and a chorus with some of the teachers in our morning meeting. What a way to start the day! Everything was going just swell until I got some news that saddened me about a couple of students, and all the glory that had filled my soul since the morning flew right out the window. After lunch, I was not much good at the church staff meeting, because the news had my head spinning. As I walked up the sidewalk back to my office around 2 o'clock, I tried to recapture the joy that song had given me in the morning. I prayed one of those "Help me, Jesus!" prayers since there was really nobody else to dump my burden on, and what came to...

I won't have time to finish this posting before I have to shower and leave for church, but I thought I may as well start writing since it has been over a week now since my last posting. I have thought about writing, but though I have had much to write about, there was nothing of great importance. I do not know what people expect from me when they sit down to read my blog. Are they looking for something profoundly spiritual? Educational wisdom? Personal ruminations? I don't know, so this will likely be one of those entries that starts off in one direction, meanders here and there, and finally ends up with something meaningful by the end - at least I hope it will end up that way so you don't feel as though you have wasted your time. I do tend to write a lot... I just finished mowing my little patch of lawn. The sun came out today and dried the grass, so there was no excuse not to do it but sheer laziness, and I couldn't live with the moniker "Lazy Dan" hanging i...

Surprise! Surprise! I have been reading again. This time the publication that caught my attention was an article about why boys are having more difficulty in school these days. It used to be that all the gender related education articles were about girls lagging behind in math and science and how to help girls achieve educational equity in schools. Well, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, and now the boys are the ones people are worrying about in school. Girls are doing very well in school, with higher G.P.A.'s in high school, higher standardized test scores, and more high school diplomas and college degrees than boys. The reason why? The article I read said that our world has become a much more verbal place to live in, meaning that reading and writing skills are far more important in today's world than they used to be, and boys have a harder time mastering literacy skills. This is another reason why I am glad that we are trying to improve the teaching of literac...

So, here we are in Baltimore working on the annual Easter play. How many years have I done this now? I don't know. I can hardly remember some of the plays at all, only certain moments in them. People talk about their favorite versions of the Easter play; the 9/11 play and the play set in Hell come up a lot.   I liked the 9/11 play for many reasons. It was the first play that I pretty much wrote on my own and some of the characters in it were based on real people from my life. It also had some great performers who sang in it - Josh Sliva and Ruut Sallinen to name two. The play also featured my good friend Ben Tanguay as the young man trapped in one of the Twin Towers who called his friends and loved ones and shared the gospel and his love during his last minutes on earth. This play was the first time I played Jesus, and my favorite scene in the play was when the audience sees Ben's character, Dave Jensen, meeting Jesus in heaven while his sister, played by Ruut, sings a beautifu...

I like thinking about Jesus as a teacher. Perhaps a pastor likes to think about Jesus as a preacher, but since I am a teacher, I like to think about him in teaching terms. Why? Because it gives me hope, especially when I get down on myself as a teacher, when I think of myself as being ineffective. Jesus was perfect in all that he did, but it seemed like he didn't get perfect results. Phew! If the perfect teacher didn't get perfect results, why would I expect to do any better when I am an imperfect human being? My goodness! If the Son of God - God Almighty clothed in human flesh - could not reach all of his students despite living among them for three straight years, is it realistic for me to expect to reach all my students when I see them for only 6 hours a day for 180 days, at best? I may give my very best effort and not succeed. This is not an excuse to give up or, God forbid, not even try to reach every student. No! Ephesians 6:13 says, "having done all," and as Sp...

I have a lot on my mind today that I could write about and I am not certain where writing this blog will take me, so be patient, dear reader, and come along with me as we discover where God directs my thoughts. I had a lot of time to think while I was away in Hungary for two weeks. I was out of my familiar surroundings and away from the people I usually see, sleeping in hotel beds, eating different foods, observing different routines, and largely unconnected via phone or computer to my regular network of contacts. It was a time to read education books, listen to God as He spoke in the conference sessions, and make new connections with people that I either had not known before or had only a passing acquaintance with. I discovered that I am basically the same person no matter where I go, but time away with God showed me things about myself that I might never have realized if I had stayed home those two weeks. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned was the power of modeling. No, not ...