How to Teach a Class at Homewood

By Toni Townsend

Put the worksheets away.

Put your heart on your sleeve, 

but wrap it up in thick skin.

Let them see you,

your history,

the reason you wore a key as a necklace when you were 14,

the reason you haven’t spoken to your brother in 5 years,

the reason you chose this school.

Tell them it’s okay to hate reading,

writing,

math,

running,

drawing,

cooking,

and building.

Tell them, “you’ll find what you’re good at,

the thing that makes you want to wake up in the morning,

until then

keep waking up anyway.”

Tell them I love you.

Tell them be safe.

Tell them, “It’s your choice,

but I hope you make the decision we both know is the right one.”

Then, watch them make the wrong one anyway.

Wait

for them to figure it out for themselves.

Let them yell at you on a hard day

then hug them anyway.

Let them talk to you,

really talk to you.

Decide,

once you really know them,

what you can teach them that will actually mean something.

Then do it.