Faith without works is dead.
– James 2:17
I looked up “bat mitzvah” yesterday.
I’m headed to my first tonight and thought I should at least know what it means.
Loosely and in my googled understanding, “daughter of the commandments.”
Tonight, my godmother’s youngest daughter Katie will take on the task of upholding the commandments of her faith.
It is a beautiful and solemn thing. Though I am not Jewish, it is holy to me.
That certain things are sacred, I understand.
There are trusts and covenants that transcend human frailties.
The closest thing I have is being a teacher and working for the good of my students.
I realize it falls well short of the threads of history into which Katie is interweaving her life tonight, but it is what I have.
Whenever Chris talks to the parents of SLA, he thanks them. He thanks them for trusting us with their most precious possessions.
School is difficult. Learning is messy. Teaching is intense.
For all of the science and research and discussion, teaching is an act of faith.
TFA calls it grit.
Faith has more hope.
Faith, religious or otherwise, asks us to take up certain commandments.
For me, one of those commandments is seeing potential – seeing the best.
It’s the commandment Natalie Munroe broke when she posted her first blog entry denigrating or criticizing her students.
Munroe was wrong.
She hurt children.
We don’t talk about kids that way.
Somewhere in my mind tonight, as Katie reads from the Torah, I’ll be considering the commandments by which I teach. I’ll be thinking of how I can better act out my faith.