Thread 1 Yesterday I asked my small group what they would like to hear. The only serious response was, “do you have advice for students as we get ready to head out into the world.” If you listen carefully you may hear some advice.
Thread 2. A few years ago Dwight had the teachers and staff do an exercise in one of our in-service meetings called the colors exercise. We answered a bunch of questions, drew circles, did some math and used the chart to see if we were “orange, blue, green or gold.” If you wonder, I was green (appears more comfortable with topics not related to feelings…” followed closely by orange (welcomes diversions, enjoys the unexpected) . This prompted a discussion with my kids and their partners where they decided I was a quiet version of enneagram type 7
Enneagram type 7 Enneagram Type 7, often called the Enthusiast. They are optimistic, spontaneous, and versatile, but can also be scattered, undisciplined, and prone to impulsive behavior. At their best, they focus their energy on worthwhile goals, bringing joy and appreciation to their lives. At their worst they often avoid dealing with emotions and feelings.
To me this sounds like a great description of someone trying to teach social studies in a small high school. You are optimistic as you believe you can get teenagers interested in history, versatile because you need to teach three -five different subjects in a semester. The words spontaneous and versatile may just be positive versions of “scattered, undisciplined, and prone to impulsive behavior.” Also, my wife and others do tell me that I don’t do well with feelings and emotions, so I’m hoping I distract myself enough that I don’t get emotional during this talk.
Thread 3: Monday, Erin referred to verses in Matthew and the idea of not worrying about what the future holds as you seek to find God’s calling for you. It resonated with me as I felt much the same when I was a senior, and in some ways it's similar to how I’m feeling now.
Matthew 6: 25-34 19-21.
It was sort of a necessary attitude to IMS teachers to have because our salaries weren’t all that great, especially in my early years.
Over the years I’ve met people who have a five and ten year plan for their lives and periodically reevaluate those plans and their progress. That is not me.
When Erin mentioned being called it reminded me of how I ended up at IMS. I’ve always been reluctant to say God called me to teach here, because I could imagine about half of you sitting there saying, “yeah, right.”
Story of how i came to teach at IMS/Hillcrest
I dropped out of the education program at Eastern Mennonite because I didn’t enjoy the education classes. Instead I took all the history courses, plus economics, sociology, political science and a few others. This was actually helpful later when I got my Iowa Social Studies teaching endorsements.
My wife and I spent the summer after my junior year in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia working for the oldest Mennonite congregation in the country and a historical agency that owned the buildings. A year later, after graduating they hired me as their director. After ten years in that position, we moved back to Iowa, mostly because of my wife’s health. I found work as a carpenter and developed a large collection of rejection letters as I looked for work.
I went to commencement one year because I knew the speaker who was from New York City. Dwight said something to me afterwards, asking if I had ever thought about teaching because there had been a lot of turnover in the social studies position. Soon after I ran into Merv Birky, the pastor at West Union and a former teacher, who said maybe I should think about getting my teaching certificate, Firman Gingerich, a family friend and pastor at Iowa City Mennonite echoed that thought. I can be kind of dense sometimes but it felt like piling on when Dan Johnston, the pastor where we were going to church preached a sermon about Jonah and people who avoid their call. So one day, I took time off from work. I called the University of Iowa Education department and was told I was crazy. Iowa Wesleyan didn’t answer the phone so I tried William Penn in Oskaloosa. They asked if I could come over so I did and by that afternoon I was registered for the education classes I needed. A year and a half later, in the fall of 1993 I started teaching, technically without doing my student teaching, something I finished for them in the spring. In other words it worked out
I joined a group of experienced teachers who had been at the school for a while. I learned from them, and I also learned it didn’t work when I tried to teach the same ways they did. I had to develop my own style. Over the years I’ve been reminded that institutions live on, despite the faculty and staff who come and go. I’m leaving after 32 years but the school will continue and in a few years new students won’t know who I was. Marcus’s room will become Christopher’s room
To go back a step, When I was looking for work in the late 1980’s early 1990’s a friend had been trained to lead people through a book titled “What color is your parachute?” One of the things I remember from the book is the idea that we already know 95% of what God is calling us to do. To love your neighbor as yourself, to think of others as better than yourself, to live in humility, don’t grumble and argue. In short as Christians we know how we are called to live. Choosing a specific job or career is an option and luxury most of the world has never had.
In my case teaching at a small school feels like it has suited my temperament, my skills and my interests along with my foibles and what one former student called “my neurodivergency.” Teaching has given me, or allowed me the
Opportunity to try and do different things
Assistant baseball coach twice”
Twice I helped with the instrumental program for a couple of weeks. The last time I tried to help Jeremiah learn to play a trumpet.
Somewhere between 15-20 class trips
Interterm or SALT groups that I took to Des Moines, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Jackson, Mississippi, and several times to Markham, a poor suburb south of Chicago. This last time I helped plan the spirituality of soccer group and along with soccer learned about drones, and AI, things that didn’t exist 32 years ago.
Being in random plays or skits
Enjoying the times I got to sub for the art teacher but dreading the times I subbed in a math class.
Friday night lights in the fall along with Capture the flag games
Being part of a group asked to provide some entertainment for Junior Senior Banquet after the meal and before other activities started. The mens quartet sang a 50’s doo-wop song and we brought the house down with our rendition of the Backstreet Boys “I want it that way”
The annual events such as frying fritters, shredding apples, helping with the chili supper.
Countless hours of discussion about dress codes including length or width of sleeves, length of shorts,
Countless hours of discussions about phones and computer usage
The chance to travel to China for a month with all expenses paid.
Two trips to Costa Rica with Spanish classes
A month in Poland with five students.
A month in western North Carolina where I was paid to learn about the Eastern Band of the Cherokee
A trip to the West Bank and Israel.
Soccer brings more memories
My first year where I learned on the fly.
Going to the state championship match and losing in penalty kicks as it was snowing
Returning to state the next year, winning the first game in overtime on a Marshall Swartzendruber goal, then winning easily in the championship game over Fort Madison
Years where we struggled record wise but in terms of improvement and maturity doing well
Going to state in 2018 and 2019
Sleeping on gym floors and weekend trips to Des Moines,
It’s easy to be nostalgic about events of the past 32 years. When I was taking education classes 33 years ago, they still taught us how to thread a movie projector, and talked about how VCR’s & VHS tapes might change the classroom. When I started, my room was the only one with a television which received any channels and IMS opened its first computer lab but there was no internet. For a short time all the teachers shared the same email address.
The big scandal was Bill Clinton’s relationship with Monica Lewinsky and many wondered how we could let such an immoral man be President. I was sitting in a fastfood restaurant with my Interterm group when we heard the news about the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma. It’s easy to remember all the feelings from the morning of 9-11, 2001 and the turmoil it brought as a tidal wave of patriotism and nationalism washed over the area.
There were unpleasant and uncomfortable moments;
Discussions in the principal's office about something I had said or done in class or a lesson on a subject someone didn’t appreciate.
Learning on a day that we started late because of snow, that two students had died and one injured in a car wreck
A mother screaming at me during parent-teacher conferences
Getting a call one Friday night asking if I could come to the school since a student had fallen and was being rushed to the hospital. Theresa later died.
Having former students die of cancer, accidents or suicide. And as I told my soccer guys, please, if you need to talk or check in with someone, I’m sure any of the adults in the room would be happy to talk or text with you. I’m always happy when former students check in, or even more so when they come back and join the school community. It’s good to work with Nate, Corben, Ledru, Laurie and Marshall
I learned to teach via zoom during Covid. Teachers went from watching out for band t-shirts to looking for cell phones.
To hopefully bring the threads together and to answer my small group's request - Take care of the basics, read, pray, do your homework, help your parents around the house, learn how to talk to others even if you are shy and quiet.
Learn to know yourself, learn to feel comfortable in your own skin.
Do the things you enjoy doing, be curious, get your head out of a screen and learn new things.
Live some place other than Iowa for at least awhile. The ten years I spent in Philadelphia were life changing.
Just like I felt called to teach here, I sensed it was time to move on, or said another way the call to leave this year. Back in the Fall I told Dwight he should start looking for a replacement for me. I don’t know what is next but hope that I continue to fulfill God’s purpose for my life.
I do hope to spend more time with my granddaughters in Virginia, and there are projects I hope to work on but beyond that I don’t have definite plans
The uncertainty I face and maybe you seniors face, is reflected in this prayer of Thomas Merton which has spoken to me over the years.
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
Being here for the last 32 years has been a blast.
