Today, I had a bus meeting in Hanley. I decided that while I was at Hanley, I would take the time to teach the grade 4/5/6 class how to play ukulele. We had a marvelous time. Seeing students play an instrument and take pride in playing even the simplest songs is a great joy. Another joy was having the students come up to me, without prompting, to say how much they enjoyed the experience. Spread joy...goal achieved for today.
As you will surmise, the following message was written during my last year of teaching.
Principal’s Message
The hardest thing we have to do
in life is make decisions and I have had to make one of the hardest decisions
of my life this month. I have decided to
superannuate. Handing in my resignation
letter was as terrifying as bungee jumping, but I have garnered the courage and
decided to leap.
There are so many things I would
like to say to the parents, teachers, and children of Prairie View School. The first thing I want to say is that
everyone associated with the Prairie View School community has made leaving a
difficult decision. We have a great
thing going here with incredibly talented and creative staff members who love
to come to work. Furthermore, we are
blessed with a supportive community who are incredibly proud of their schools
and their children.
Last autumn, an administrator
colleague asked whether this was going to be my last year and I told him I was
quite sure this would be my “swan song”.
He said, “Why would you retire?
You still have something to offer.”
My colleague shared how his daughter still talks affectionately about
when I taught her in Grade Four during the 1981-1982 school year. I didn’t have a ready answer for why I would
retire when I still had something to offer, but just to give you an idea of how
slow my mind works, I came up with the answer much later. I do not want to “check out” when I have to
be “wheeled out” – when I am spent. It
is comforting to know I am still wanted and it is flattering when I hear people
say, “Don’t go.” I don’t want to stay on
until I am no longer needed.
Farley Mowat wrote a book
describing his life as a platoon commander in the Canadian Armed Forces during
WWII. He led a platoon of men who fought
together up the boot of Italy. They were
close and believed they would be in close contact as long as they lived, then
out of the blue he was transferred to another platoon. As you can guess, his new platoon became a
close unit as they fought together.
Alas, he ran into his old platoon after a number of weeks and the
relationship had changed. Both sides
moved on. Mowat realized what the
importance of the here and now and who you are with. Today is special. Make the most of it. Love the people you are with, but don’t ever
expect things to stay the same. I have enjoyed my last five years in Dalmeny. The staff, students, parents, and community
will live in my heart. I will remember
you and my time with you for as long as I live because I have a terrific
memory.
I will remember the beautiful
faces of the children, funny things that happened every day I came to work,
listening ears that made me feel valued, practical jokes, voices lifted in
song, and lives being changed by loving guidance.
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