At the beginning

I still remember the day when I was tutoring one of my early morning math students and it finally clicked for him. Multiplication was not his thing. So I had a box of beans and for every problem he’d make his groups and count each bean individually. Gradually I made the groups bigger and made more groups for him. Then one morning he turned to me and asked if there wasn’t an easier way to solve those problems than to count all those darn beans.

Being a teacher is being present at the creation, when the clay begins to breathe. Nothing is more exciting than being nearby when breathing begins. I teach because being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find myself catching my breath with them.
– Ann Madsen
“Being Present at the Beginning,” McKay Today News, 16 December 2013

I loved being their for those beginning moments with my elementary students. I even had those moments while I was teaching college. Those might have actually been bigger because the students would recognize them more for what they were too. It was a great blessing in my life to be a teacher in that way.

I consider it one of my greatest blessings that it works for our family for me to be home with Iddo all day long. To be there at the creation of her knowledge, when her mind takes a new breath. I don’t know how much I’m actually teaching her right now or if I’m just providing an environment for her to do more learning on her own. Either way, it’s a privilege to be there for those moments.