“I’m throwing out these seeds of knowledge and hoping that they take root in the fertile soil of your brains”
-Mr. Bacchus
I wish I could sit here and tell you that every student walks away with a greater knowledge of history, a joy of learning, or transforms into a better person after a year of 8th grade history with Mr. Bacchus. I definitely can’t. However, I can say that some do and share how I’ve learned to be at peace with that.
Every year, I get new students and athletes that I get a chance to interact with on a daily basis. Each one of these students or athletes comes to me from different places, going through different things, and are at different points in their lives. Some are ready to take in every bit of 8th great history/freshman football/track, etc with Mr. Bacchus and some are not.
I have no control on where they are and no control over what they are going to take from my class, practices or our interactions. Yes, it would be nice if I could say exactly what each student will get from my class, when they will get it, and how it will be used in the future. For example…
John during the second 9 weeks of the school year will gain a love for politics and go on to be a future state senator.
However, that’s definitely not how it works and I’ve realized the best approach is that of a planter, who just throws out the seeds understanding that….
Some seeds will fall along the path
Some seeds will fall among rocky places
Some seeds will fall among thorns
Some seeds will fall on good soil
Of course, I want every seed to fall on good soil and produce a crop that is a hundred times greater than what was sown but I have no say in where the seed lands. All I can do is throw them out and hope it grows into something like the note below that I received from a former student, now a Penn State Graduate, before they graduated high school.
I just wanted to let you know that I wrote about you in my essay for the DMS Scholarship and the impact that you had on my DMS experience and after. Thanks for everything you’ve done for me over the years, I really appreciate it! You made 8th grade Social Studies a lot more interesting than any other History class I’ve taken, even in high school. Looking back on it, talking about the current events every Wednesday was one of the most important things I learned to keep up with in 8th grade (and I still do!).
Former Student/Penn State Grad
*1H/6W
PeaceofAB 