Christmas Songs

The top 10 Christmas songs of all time are, according to no one in particular, in descending order:  Sleigh Ride, It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas, The Little Drummer Boy, The First Noel, A Holly Jolly Christmas, White Christmas, O Holy Night, It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Do You Hear What I Hear?, and The Christmas Song.  What?  No Silent Night? No Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer?  How about The Twelve Days of Christmas?  Go ahead – sing a few bars of that for a minute –“ On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree”…Did you ever think just how expensive buying/renting all of the items mentioned  in the 12 days would be?  Didn’t think so.  I did.  The cost of the partridge, a pear tree, two turtledoves, three French hens, four calling birds, five golden rings, six geese on the nest, seven swans, eight maids milking something, nine ladies dancing (hopefully appropriately), ten lords, eleven pipers, and twelve drummers is, in today’s dollars approximately $116,000!!!!!!!  Heck, the three hens alone are just under $200!  The song really isn’t about the cost.  It’s about the lengths that one person will go to bring joy to someone else.  It’s not about the money; it’s about the effort.  It’s not about the gift, it’s about the giver. 

There are, in my view, a lot of similarities between this theme and education in general.  Think about how classroom equipment has changed over your career.  Okay, maybe that’s not fair for younger teachers.  But for those of us who started with a blackboard and a box of chalk, the evolution is astounding.  We can buy all of the nifty tools that are so commonplace today in classrooms around the country.  We can have all of the computers, smart boards, visual presenters, personal electronic devices, the latest app, and 32 different dry erase markers but none of them mean a thing if the students don’t have the teachers.  It’s not about what is given, it is about the giver – the teacher.  Kids want that outstanding personal relationship with their teachers.  They want to know that they matter to their teacher more than they want the latest craze…seriously. The human element cannot be overstated.  It takes a wonderful person to truly be an effective teacher.  A huge part of that is being the teacher that enjoys their students and the students enjoy them.  That doesn’t mean that you cannot challenge them.  What is does mean is the lengths that you go to for each of your students to bring them a great joy – your very best.  Merry Christmas.