Sumter is BIG...and a Change of Heart

It has taken me a few days to process this enough to even know how to share it with you, but I think I’m ready, and I think the message is one that everyone who works in our field (or in any field for that matter) needs to hear. On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of being in the audience for Sumter School District’s district-wide opening, and it was like something I’d never experienced before. In case you’ve never visited Johnsonville, SC, Home of the Golden Flashes, let me provide you with our district breakdown: one elementary school, one middle school, and one high school. We are small, and it is wonderful. I love our little school district and firmly believe that it is one of the greatest in the world. When Jason let me know he would be arriving about 30 minutes early to the event in Sumter to make sure he had parking, I snickered a tad. Then when I waited in a line of cars with left blinkers just a-goin’, I realized I should have followed his lead. I doubt this will be the last time this year I have to say those words.

After circling the Civic Center parking lot multiple times and almost parking at Family Dollar, Jason may or may not have illegally moved a cone in the midst of an executive decision to allow me to park in a spot for which I would have gladly paid money…or hoped Sumter School District had a debit card machine. I tell you all this to say that Sumter’s district is huge, especially compared to mine in Johnsonville. They have over 30 schools, and they fill up the Civic Center!

The spirit in the place was contagious. They began with a summary of the previous school year and celebrated their achievements. They celebrated student talent as the combined high school show choir took the stage. Jason delivered a speech that made me want to go to a classroom on Monday and teach my heart out, and y’all, the marching band was phenomenal to the point I wouldn’t mind driving 45 minutes to Sumter for a football game just to hear them again. It was like nothing I’d ever seen.

I tell you all that to tell you this…at this event, I got to sit with Laura Lyles, my colleague who served as Sumter’s District Teacher of the Year last year. Because this is the event at which the new District Teacher of the Year was named, Laura gave a moving speech in which she recapped her year. It was wonderful, and I could tell from the passion with which she spoke about her students that she is a phenomenal teacher, but then Laura talked about one of her own colleagues, a woman who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer who, only because she is not physically able, will not be returning to the classroom this year. My heart broke. How many times have I adopted a “how many days until Friday?” attitude or complained about grading papers or writing lesson plans? How many times have I heard others start each year with their gleeful countdown to retirement? How many times have I wanted to roll over in my bed and not report for morning duty at the unfortunate time of 7:30 a.m.? Yes, I know these things are natural. We get burned out and tired and fed up and bewildered and overwhelmed, and there are days when we’ve had absolutely enough. This year, my classroom will change, and I’ll be on the road with CERRA. When I get back to my classroom next year, before I start to complain about the day or my students or how a unit just didn’t work the way I wanted it to, I hope I will stop myself and think of a teacher from Sumter whose physical limitations took her out of the classroom far before she was ready. And I hope that will make me thankful for the student who just blurted out for the twentieth time, thankful for the papers I still get to read and grade, and thankful to be working one more day in a profession that is very much my calling. Thank you, Laura, for sharing the story and touching my heart.

See that massive James Dean poster? That's another reason I love going to work so much.