I checked something off my bucket list today! When I was in grade school the ropes hanging from the gym ceiling would taunt me. They were installed but unusable. Maybe my teachers were afraid--as a teacher I can see why--liability is huge for any teacher, but especially for those who allow danger as part of the cirriculum.
I climbed the rope in our school's gym with my students. The funny and beautiful thing was none of them thought it strange to see me up there.
It was fulfilling for me to get every one of my students aloft today. I held the rope as their small (and not so small) feet tried to find a grip, and then made my fists the higher knots for them to step on. Three of the moms climbed as well. Some two-year-old sisters sat on the rope's bottom knot and swung gently. Even the children with special needs gave this challenge a try. One mother lifted her autistic fourth-grade son as he climbed. She supported him as high as her own shoulders.
She is the kind of person, the kind of teacher and the kind of mother I want to be. To look at my own dreams and see ways to meet them, but also to be the one lifting others as high as I am able to reach. We will both be a bit achy tomorrow. The shining eyes of those children are well worth it. It was a beautiful day.
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