I always liked reading Greek mythology when I was young. Edith Hamilton’s Mythology was a well-worn companion of mine in middle school. I liked the way the stories wove morals and explanations around common and routine occurrences.
The six rivers of Hades (the Underworld) included the Styx (the most famous) and five far less well known rivers...the Acheron (the River of Pain), the Lethe (the River of Forgetfulness), the Phelgethon (the River of Fire), the Cocylus (the River of Wailing), and Oceanus (the All-Encircling River...think ocean).
I think we now have chosen to make Hades on Earth and the rivers are thrown in as consolation prizes. We seem now to live in a defensive, divisive, and defiant day and time. People steer far clear of compromise and strike camp along any one of the aforementioned rivers...taking canteens full of water with them daily.
I love working with students. In fact, the students are the reason I do what I do. I see students as shapeable, malleable, optimistic, even naive but most certainly aware and alert.
I wished adults could be too. Somewhere between childhood, adolescence, and adulthood many stop to drink from the River Lethes. The exuberance of learning and the optimism of opportunity lose their voice and people regress to a more childish, and not childlike way of being.
Just read the news or watch the television. We now choose “our flavor” of political pandering and grow increasingly skeptical of those unlike us.
A few weeks ago there was a most unfortunate video of two girls spewing some unabashedly hateful, hurtful, and harmful language replete with racial epithets. Someway, somehow, our district and school seemed to come into the crosshairs of national outrage. We began receiving calls from all across the country apparently believing we supported or permitted such a poor choice of behavior.
Somehow we were “tagged” in the video and although one of the students had attended our school, this student had withdrawn and moved to another school in a non-adjoining county. Yet people would not listen to the truth, No matter how much we acknowledged their indignation, they remained insistent we were sheltering the students. We also received some very harsh profanity who claimed we were liars.
The truth was and remains the student was in our school at one point in time but not at the time of this poorly thought out outburst.
It seems people have made up their minds before ever really getting down to the details or sourcing a story. I teach my AP World History class to Source a document (look at historical situation, intended audience, purpose, and author’s point of view) and Situate that document into an appropriate context. Everything really is part of a greater context. You just have to look hard to find it sometimes.
Our state now stands at odds with the governor saying students need not wear masks any longer; the state superintendent of education says we are to follow the DHEC guidelines. This tension is made more complicated by the fact the governor signed the COVID Immunity Bill, greatly reducing the likelihood of a lawsuit being filed against a district PROVIDED the district does all it can to protect the students. Any overt, flagrant,violation of these DHEC=approved actions negates the protection the governor provided with the legislation.
Granted, I HATE wearing a mask. I have asthma, it’s pollen season, and I truly hate to feel I’m smothering (I did that too much as a child, before I knew of Bronkaid Mist or Primatene Mist) but I wear one. What’s more? The students are a whole lot better at wearing them than the adults.
I most assuredly hope we go back to a normal, plexiglass-free environment next year. But not all of the lessons learned this year are bad. We went back face-to-face the day after Labor Day and we will be in school until June 18. We really “put to see” last September when the daily case count was much higher than it is now.
We made the best decision we could at the time. Now is the time we wished we didn’t make that decision but it was the best and only one we had for a five-day-back-to-school plan and we trucked along until November before a serious outbreak. State law requires students to go to school 180-days. We are just honoring our part of the contract.
The “to vax or not to vax” question still divides families and friends. Pick one of the rivers from Hades and find its application here. “Pain, Wailing, Forgetfulness, Fire, or Encircling Gloom” all rear their heads in this conversation.
Terri, Katie, Maggie, and I all received the vaccine. We had typical second shot responses and we realize it isn’t a bullet-proof solution but it is far better odds than remaining without the vaccine. We never required our teachers to get it but many did as well as many of our staff.
To conclude this month’s rambling, we have to decide we are far more alike than we like to admit...Republicans love their country; so do Democrats. We may not agree on (m)any thing(s) but we must resume listening to one another and not talking over each other. Our preacher at Broad Street often says, “Lean in and listen.”
So, “lean in and listen,” we can choose to make Hades on earth if we want and we presently are doing a fine job of it...but I want to ask: is anyone willing to make it Heaven on earth instead?
