Let Them Stand on Your Shoulders

I don't care how much they weigh.  Let them stand on your shoulders.  I don't care if you're so petite that you shop in the petite section and still have to get your pants hemmed.  Let them stand on your shoulders.  I don't care if you're tired and busy and have paperwork that needs, I don't know, filling and filing.  Let those precious children stand on your shoulders.  The world has taken their power and their platform, and they need some shoulders to stand on. 

You may not have the President's ear, or know people on Broadway or be a millionaire, but at least you have  a voice.  They don't even have that.  They're too young, too small, too inexperienced, too whatever.  Their ideas are discounted and put on hold until they "mature".   They are disqualified and disregarded… unless. 

Unless we let them stand on our shoulders.  Unless we stand in the gap for them.  Unless we are their advocates.  As teachers, we have the incredible chance to be the first person to listen to their ideas - some of which are really good.  We could be the first person to tell them they could be a great writer or engineer or marketing exec some day.  We could be the first person to tell them they matter or we're happy to see them.  We could be the first person to unlock a talent or a passion or a skill they didn't know existed.  We could be the first person to show them how to lose gracefully. 

Chances are statistically solid that they don't sit down to meals with their parents.  That means they not only don't know how to use a knife and fork, but they don't know how to ask for the butter or make appropriate small talk with adults.  With school, homework, soccer, violin, swimming, dance, chess, and Cub Scouts, who has time to talk anyway? 

We are raising a whole generation of orphans.  They aren't the rag tag bread thieves of previous centuries.  They are scarred by divorce, relegated to the babysitting of technology.  They are perhaps the first generation of orphans made so by the choice of their parents.  When sex becomes recreational as opposed to procreational, children become inconvenient byproducts. 

Some days, they might not need to stand on your shoulders as much as stand in your shadow.  Life doesn't always dole out heavy loads to strong shoulders.  Sometimes children bear things they were never meant to, and they just need a little shade to rest in, or someone to hide behind when life seems downright terrifying.  We could be the only person standing between them and the carnivorous forces that would tear them apart.  We could be the only person on their team.  They might have busy or indifferent parents, no friends, no siblings who care about them.  We could be the one human being who stands up for them, who helps them get their first job or teaches them to look someone in the eye and shake their hand.  We could be the difference between defeat and victory in that child's life.

So please, before you get back to teaching them about square roots or what a gerund is - heaven knows that's important - remember to stand up for them, to plead their case, to let them stand on your shoulders.

Love,

Little Miss Sunshine