Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 07:39:04 -0400 (EDT)
Random Thought: That "High Five" Word

I was dozing on and off on the car ride back from Jacksonville last Saturday. It was nearing midnight and I had just attended an upbeat four hours of seminars for a business my Susan is entering. The entire four hours centered on that exhilaring word, hope. Negatives were not given tickets for admission. It was an encouraging and supporting high five gathering.

As I went in and out of consciousness, I was thinking about how I had defined hope. I had said that I thought hope really meant that this moment is not the end. But, what does that really mean. I kind of let it pass in the days that passed, but a conversation in class last night rekindled that question. And, I walked on the wet streets this pre-dawn morning looking for an answer. This is what I came up with. Probably nothing original.

It means if we educators only think of ourselves, if we let the students only think of themselves, if we only think of the students as the persons we and they are right now, all of us will remain who we are and where we are. But, if we educators think of ourselves, if we can get each students to think of him/herself, if we think of each student as the person we and they can be, we all will strive to become and most likely will become the persons we all can be and go where we can be.

Hope means that if we don't get better tomorrow, if we don't grow tomorrow, today is pretty dull. It is those improving and growing tomorrows that make the todays exciting, for each student and for us each of us.