Bringing in the Harvest

About this time of the year, when the moisture content is just right, the farmers start to bring in their harvest of soybeans.  If you have never watched a combine moving over the field separating the seed from the chaff, well, you’ve missed out on a spectacle.  Maybe I am in the minority, but I really enjoy seeing this done.  As I passed a field on the way home the other day, I again was treated to a farmer bringing in his harvest.   I pulled my truck over and just watched for a while as the sun began to set.  The crop dust flying as the combine churned and spit the seeds in the hopper.  Then it hit me – this man put a lot of time into tilling, planting, fertilizing, and praying for just the right amount of rain long before he got on that combine. You reap what you sow.  That is, unless you have one of the worst droughts in history as we did this past summer.  Remember those multiple 100 degree+ days?  One day was so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog.  But I digress.   Despite all his prior work, the harvest doesn’t happen on its own.  Nope, you have to bring in the harvest.  It doesn’t come to you.  You have to go out and get it. 

Throughout the school year, you have been and will continue to sow into a lot of kids.  Our harvest will come, but like the farmer, we will have to go out and get it.  It will not happen automatically.  We must plant seeds of expectation and learning along the way.  We must provide the right climate in the classroom.  We must be sharp to teach them to be sharp.  We must plow our way through even when you don’t feel much like taking the reins.  We must cast aside all that may entangle us and run the race set before us.  We all want a good harvest.  You want your kids to get smarter about the objectives.  You want your kids to pass the ISTEP.  You want your kids to move to Pass+ status.  You want your kids to move from a red dot to a yellow dot and from a yellow dot to a green dot.  Guess what?  None of that happens on its own.  If it did, there would be no reason for any of us to be here. We put a great deal into this long before the ISTEP harvest. We can make the difference.  Like the harvest, we have to go out and get it.  

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The Browns play the New York Giants on Sunday.  Why are they called the “New York” Giants if they actually play in New Jersey?  It’s kind of like walking through a Sears store and wondering what they did with Roebuck.