By Ann Petersen, SBA Columnist | 05/14/26
(SBA) - This is an exciting time of year for many students. Graduation is on the minds of the high school seniors in our midst and for students still in school, the end of the year is coming quickly. This is also a tough time for teachers as they plan to say goodbye to students that they have nurtured, sometimes for a single year, but often for many years as these children grow towards adulthood. I have enjoyed my year volunteering in first grade, and I admit that I will miss these children who have every week grown and flourished and will soon begin another school year with a different teacher. I have learned so much working with these five- and six-year-olds.
When I was in college, I knew that I didn’t want to teach elementary school, frankly because I was afraid that I would screw up one or more elements of their learning. I figured that by the time I encountered students at the college level, all of the mistakes in their education would have been behind them and my role would be to “guide” them in a way that would make them better readers and writers. I think my assessment was correct and I spent many hours trying to “fix” mistakes made by their earlier teachers, but I realized that there are so many rewards working with the little sponges that describe children as they complete the grades prior to college. I must add that many of the students that I taught had learned many good things from their earlier teachers, as well. The children with whom I have worked this year have been blessed with an amazing teacher who is calm, kind and loving as well as incredibly gifted as an instructor. Every child should have a “Mrs. Brown” as a teacher!
My volunteer assignment this year has been to work with students on word recognition, definition and the ability to read, first words, then sentences (with appropriate punctuation) and finally full paragraphs. Nothing brings both of them (and me) more delight when they recognize humor in a selection or when they read sentences using the appropriate parts of speech. (They love question marks and exclamation points and often can’t wait to show off their understanding of a sentence that implies expression.) For the last two weeks, I have been timing them to see how many words they can read correctly in one minute. There are 100 words on a sheet and so many of them can read ninety or more words during that sixty second period of time. I give out smiley stickers liberally and praise their accomplishments, although I think I am even more excited than they are because I know that having basic reading skills, the classes that follow will be so much easier for them. I did have a girl last Friday ask me if I had read CHARLOTTE’S WEB, a book with a readability far higher than first grade, but still a book she was reading with her mother. I hope that all of the children in the class will find books to enjoy over the summer.
At the other end of the spectrum are the graduating seniors. My oldest grandchild, Oliver Moon Wilson, graduates from high school this month. He will attend the University of Florida to study architecture in the fall. I spent some time pondering what would be a good graduation gift for him (his other grandparents will fund all of his college costs and I can’t hope to compete with them) and I finally decided on THE COLLEGE SURVIVAL GIFT CARD BOOK that I will fill with gift cards based on the variety of prompts listed in the book from “For when you want a movie night”—a gift card for a theater in the area to “For when you want to travel”—anything from a card for gas to a plane ticket.
I also found a book that I will send him, although the profanity bothers me on a visceral level, called GO THE F--- TO COLLEGE. There are many tender reflections on how a parent or grandparent feels when a beloved child will soon leave the nest. The opening lines read “I don’t know where the time went. Just yesterday you were a pup. Back then you wouldn’t go to sleep. Now you won’t wake up.” Snippets of other lines resonate with me especially—“We’re not lobsters. We grow from the inside out.” And “The school you go to doesn’t define you. You’re more than what you achieve. And up or down, succeed or fail, you’re more loved than you’d believe.”
The book concludes with some important lines, “Be safe, but don’t be comfortable. Make friends that are caring and clever. And for f---sake, put your phone down, but call me literally whenever.” And “Your world is about to get beautifully big. And it’s time now to get busy living. So go the f---to college but remember to come home at Thanksgiving.” If you have children or grandchildren who will soon make a leap into the giant world, hug them, pray for them and remember all that you have done to prepare them for their futures!
