Having to vacate one’s office after 18 years of accumulating grade books, old term papers, syllabi from courses long forgotten, old tests, cards filled with signatures of students you don’t remember and out of date textbooks can be a daunting task. Today will be day number five of taking hundreds of pounds of paper to the college dumpster. I am so thankful for a hand-truck. The person who invented that marvelous two-wheeled transporter should be awarded a Nobel Prize. I feel a bit strange tossing away boxes of term papers. If they were done correctly each one represents an enormous amount of work. Truthfully, most of them were banged out as rapidly as the student could type. Very little information that could change the world is being sent to the world of paper recycling. All that will remain from those hours in the classroom and sleepless nights cramming for an exam will be a single grade in the registrar’s office.
But wait. It wasn’t really about assignments and grades. It was about education. It was about changing lives and preparing people for service. The most important thing wasn’t a grade, it was ideas. It was about understanding one’s self, others and how the world works. It was finding Jesus and making Him the Lord of one’s life. It was about eternity and class reunions and alumni meetings thousands of years from now. It was about character building and helping high school graduates transition into adults who will raise families and become meaningful contributors to their local communities. If all those lectures, all those hours grading boring papers (most of them really weren’t very interesting) can be translated into outstanding human beings then many trips to the college dumpster is worth it all.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 5, 2011
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org