“The breeze of God’s grace is blowing continually. You have to set your sail to catch that breeze.” (Swami Prabhavananda)

I’m probably going to jinx myself but I can’t resist the urge to write about the best week yet, in my new teaching career. I spent the last two days working in a high school special education classroom with kids who really needed my help. I got to work side by side with some of the best educators I have ever met and I can’t begin to thank them enough for everything they do each day with these kids. I came home each afternoon feeling blessed and now I get to share that feeling with all of you who read this blog.

It amazes me that the school district can find people to do this job. It takes a level of dedication that I have only seen a few times in my entire life and that was mostly in hospitals. All of my years in the foster care system pale in comparison to the work these people do every day. I only had a few kids in foster care that required what these kids need from their caregivers. I don’t remember ever having to change a diaper on a teenage boy but that’s a daily occurence for these people. I only hope they’re getting paid accordingly.

After almost six years of dealing with every conceivable problem that can happen in a grocery store during a pandemic, I was ready for a change of scenery but I had no idea that I would find it in a special education classroom. Now I’m starting to wonder why I waited so long to try something new. The unknown is always a challenge but more often than not it’s worth taking the risk. Now I get to be around young people who are eager for my help and happy to see me. That’s a huge improvement and my sense of hopefulness is beginning to be restored.

Frankly, I have been worried a lot about the next generation’s lack of social skills and their dependence on smartphones. I still see that head down, ear buds in, scrolling while walking around habit but then I walked into a classroom yesterday where the kids were just sitting around talking to each other. Apparently we have something called peer mentoring where the kids who are considered to be part of the general education population get to work with the special education kids. I had a roomful of great kids who spent the better part of an hour encouraging those less fortunate. At one point, one young girl wanted to sing along with Katy Perry. When she finished, they all cheered and clapped for her best effort and it felt entirely genuine. I can’t begin to tell you how happy that made me feel. Nobody was on their phone, everybody was talking and the vibe was overwhelmingly positive.

After that group left, one young lady stayed with me as a classroom assistant. She’s there every day for an hour and she just helps in the classroom with the special kids. As I was sitting at the desk reading the notes the teacher left for me, I noticed a sign on the desk that read, “Every little thing is gonna be alright.” I immediately recognized that as the signature verse from Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds, which happens to be my favorite song. At the same moment I heard my young assistant talking to a paraprofessional about getting a tattoo with three little birds. I couldn’t help but wonder if we were on the same page, so I asked her if she was referring to the song. She said yes because her dad loves Bob Marley. I pointed at the sign on the desk and she just smiled and nodded in agreement with me. That was a moment I will never forget.

Now today, I worked with kids who just started learning English. I don’t speak any other languages so we kind of took turns teaching each other. My Spanish is slowly improving and their English is improving rather quickly. They get all the credit for that. I’m just the old man who listens patiently. The part I find the most enjoyable is watchng their faces light up when I compliment them on their effort. It’s been my experience that giving effusive praise for trying almost always leads to better achievement and at this stage of their development they need to keep trying. Again, I feel blessed to be in their young lives and I will do everything I can to help them become functional adults.

I guess the lesson I learned again this week is the importance of resilience. My nine years in foster care gave me the ability to work with kids of all ages and backgrounds. And this time, it’s much more positive and rewarding but I don’t think I would have taken this leap of faith if I hadn’t worked so hard with thousands of foster children. It probably also helps that I spent almost six years solving problems at customer service with hundreds of face-to-face encounters. It wasn’t much fun but at least it prepared me for my latest opportunity. My advice to all those who read this is simple – never give up. Every day is just another chance to improve yourself and make a difference for the world in general. I’m seventy years old and looking forward to smiling and laughing with more new kids tomorrow. I don’t think it can get much better than that. I think I finally caught God’s breeze.

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