But it is also an occasion of celebration, denoting the beginning of a new chapter in his life, a new chapter in my own career (also now in its final years), and a new chapter for Cecil Floyd Elementary School. Soon a new body will occupy Mr. Culbertson's chair, fresh marker in hand. A new energy will fill the space, but an energy that will never fill Mr. Culbertson's shoes. That is as it should be as the new teacher strives to make her own impact on students for many years to come. | I wrote about Mr. Culbertson's retirement a few days ago, and yes, many, many people have said it made them cry. That writing drew around 750 likes on this website and more likes and shares on social media, but this sign really made me take pause. After a moment of silence to think about what the sign's presence in my own classroom means, I took another moment to visit Mr. Culbertson's classroom next door. There, in the center of the room, on a table, were boxes of some of his personal belongings - items and trinkets of a 3-year career, packed into corrugated containers for transport home, things I've been staring at for the last 25 years. It was another moment of pause and reflection. Is this a passing of a baton, a continuation of a legacy? |
Of course, there was another message waiting for me at the school. Posted at our outside wall was the sign that always resided in Mr. Culbertson's room. For as long as I remember this has been Mr. C's motto: "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." And there it was, staring me in the face when I opened my classroom door (Can you find the mistake on the sign? Can you say ironic?).
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