Teaching - Special Day

It is not so special just to teach in an elementary school, but to teach special ed is a very different experience. The kids are just so physically normal for 4th or 5th grades, and you show them some simple words and they can't sound them out or say them -- should, there, even-- and to add they must count, there is no place in their minds to just put two numbers together. Its hard to understand their limitations, but easy to reward their effort with praise.
Contrast that to Tuesday when I taught industrial drafting, and the kids were struggling with their own motivation to just do their work and study even though they had been given average or better intelligences, and as a result they were falling behind without even knowing it.
Wednesday evening I went to a meditation group at the UU church, and without sharing many words with those people, it was possible to sense a common spirit and make a bond of mutual seriousness and Right Thought.



The elements of this photo may seem mysterious to someone who doesn't know what is behind the icons and the metaphorical nature of the symbols. These are teaching aids and reminders for those who recognize the flowers as symbol of the beauty and impermanence of life and the teachings. The other symbols are likewise "mundane" once you understand them, but once you accept their teachings they become special again. This is a Taoist (Chinese) shrine we encountered in Australia. And I understand that Taoism was at least in part derived from the teachings of very early Buddhist traditions, with such similarities as the tao being related to the concept of "emptiness" in Buddhism.