It was Parent Teacher Conference time this past week. Lindy doesn't get too hyped up about it but I really enjoy going. This year, unfortunately, I only had one conference to go to out of three kids. Jac's in high school and my guess is that they don't have Parent Teacher Conference in high school unless there's an issue. Ethan never shared any information with me about his middle school conferences OR I completely overlooked the email that came to me about it. That's a pretty good possibility. Anyway, they are both doing well in all their classes and aren't having issues in high school or middle school so I wasn't too concerned about them.
The Gav, though, is still only a second grader so I was excited to go to his conference and hear what his teacher had to say. Amazingly, after having three kids go through the same elementary school we have only experienced one year where one of them had the same teacher as another. Gavin had Jac's kindergarten teacher and she spent half the year calling him Jac because she said he looked so much like Jac in kindergarten that it was uncanny. (That was true, for sure). Gavin has a teacher for 2nd grade who has taught at the school for many years but I had never met her up until a couple weeks ago. So, I went to the conference expecting to hear a few things:
--Gav catches on to things really quickly--check!
--Gav is one of the best readers in his class--check!
--Gav is really good at math--check!
He has done really well in school since the beginning of kindergarten--no thanks to preschool of any kind, only thanks to Grammy School which he attended three days each week since birth. We have been amazed at how well he has caught on to all things academic. Of course, his teacher also told me that Gavin has great "comedic timing." Oh boy. That's no big surprise. He also writes books for fun and takes it very literally when she tells the class to write a sentence using a particular word. In fact, a couple times already she has said something like "Write a sentence that includes the word "as" in the body of the sentence." And, little wise guy Gav writes the sentence verbatim just as she has quoted it. "Write a sentence that includes...." Yeah. She had to put a stop to that.
But, even though I was expecting to hear all the things I listed above I wasn't expecting to hear the following: Not long after I arrived at the conference his teacher told me that she was sitting in his desk. The students' desks are set up in pods of four with the four children facing each other. She asked me if Gavin had mentioned a boy named Sam (not his real name) who sits to Gavin's left. I told her I wasn't sure about this but if he had it wasn't anything that I remembered. She said that Sam is pretty disruptive in class and can be very loud and pretty much "wild." But, she said the thing that she has been most impressed with is Gavin's interaction with Sam. Gavin is very patient and calm and laid back and just takes Sam in stride. She said that even if Sam is right there in Gavin's face that he is always just kind and caring toward Sam. As a result, Sam has attached himself to Gavin and views Gavin as his friend when many of the other kids in class aren't sure how to act around Sam.
Honestly, I just sat there stunned into silence. You see, Gavin can be very sweet and has no problem at all sitting still when it's required of him, but "calm," "patient," and "laid back" aren't necessarily words I would use to describe him. I just wanted to cry because I was bursting with pride. Hearing how well he's doing academically pales in comparison to hearing that our 7-year-old is showing grace and compassion to another little boy. This means more to me than anything else. I always pray that my boys would shine the light of Jesus to everyone around them. They go to public school and, truthfully, there's not a lot of "light" in public schools anymore. Lindy and I have made a choice to allow our kids to attend public school where the light is so desperately needed in this world of darkness. It once again reaffirms our decision because Gav might be the only source of light in this little boy's life. He doesn't have to preach to him to show him the love of Jesus. He just has to be himself and practice kindness and patience. What a beautiful thing.
