A Toast

Today the seniors were toasted to by the school and they in return gave a toast. Having only taught them for less than a year and knowing them WELL for less time than I have taught them, I still gave a toast. It’s a conflicting thing…

I want all the kids to do well and yet for some I want them to feel failure as a lesson. I’m a firm believer in hard work and only reaping the benefits of what you earn in this life and that’s what I wanted to teach the kids this year. There are kids in my classes that feel like they can work the minimum and the work will pay out trifold. They don’t feel the future burden of their present failings. Even when I try to teach them this lesson of hard work they turn around and do something stupid like they never heard me. What’s worse than seeing a child fail in your class is seeing a child fail and not care. Why do they not care? Because they think they’ll still get by. Like the world will do everything for them as long as they breathe.

As much as I want the satisfaction of saying “I told you so” when they figure out college life is challenging or the working life is tiring or just that surviving outside of the high school premises is a battle, I fear for them. I fear that all my warnings were not enough. That they really will not be able to bounce back and they’ll give up and quit.

So knowing that some of my kids will not make it, I gave a toast. A toast encouraging them in the future and praising them for trying their best this past year. Despite the doubt and fear for some, there are others that my toast fell truthfully on. Those few students that stayed up late at night, that came to me for help, that asked challenging questions, that understood my jokes because they did their homework, that learned for the sake of a good education instead of the means for a good grade and listened with their minds instead of just their ears- they made this year enjoyable past the brim. I came day in and day out for them. They are also the ones that I will come back for next year to teach because their success in the future is my success now. So while I wait for their names to be hailed from the newspapers or imprinted on the plaque of a company office or called by a coworker at a successful job, I’ll stay here and teach the next generation for them to boss around.