He was five years old and did not want to go back to kindergarten. I don’t want to read to the class while the teacher teaches the green color to the other kids. I don’t want to read the baby books he said because he was already reading higher grades by himself. The teacher was using him as a teacher’s aide because he read fluently. And I was commiserating with the principal about discontinuing the trial of the homogeneous grouping, even though the first grade was doing 3rd grade work and loving it. Their teacher in conversation extolled her enthusiasm as first she taught years ago and could hardly wait for the day to begin to race the children to class. The excitement, she said!!
And the principal held his head in his hands and told of the call at midnight from the irate father who wanted to know why his kid was in the dumb class. How will he learn he shouted, if he doesn’t see what he might do? But do we have the right to relegate the eager and bright to a slow pace to justify the process of the less able? And can we expect growth from the less able when we withhold potential for achievement from them? It will take a Solomon to disentangle the arguments which justify evolution for everyone.
The Universes depend on the progress of the able to set the standards for all. Because what is done for one is done for all. And our younger brothers in evolution deserve the chance to augment their chances for growth by aspiring to emulate the ones who set the pace. What is the fair thing to do and can we depend on the good graces of the swift to hide their light beneath a bushel to allow a moment in the sun for the less able? Can we keep the larger picture in view while we work toward greater purposes of growth of all Beings?
Can we inject the virus of learning to ensure evolution and see progress? Or stagnate the process for all? It is crucial for newness of thought at some point to find response in one’s peers or the impetus for its birth dies. And the chance for growth is lost. The only change that makes a difference is change in the value system carried by the time. The Universe gauges the growth of its worlds by this best of all learning places. Comfortable people do not like to have the boat rock.
Toward Greater Life. . .
The heart searches parameters
for openings unto worlds
not torn by those intent
on limiting knowledge. . .
always searching
for those to willingly embrace
the differences challenging
the hesitant heart. . .
We look toward the union
of heart and mind
with litigious veins
of knowledge, pushing like sludge
thickly through rock. . .
eager to consign edges
toward greater life. . .
knowing always the
least demanding would be
the most sought for.
Even the tardy would give
evolution a jump start.
Never insulting the slower envoy,
always grateful for the god participants,
the larger reality scoops forever
the narrow focus. . .
giving eternity’s starters new life and hope. . . .