School test day

​This weekend, I saw a reunion between a 23 year old and his 6th grade school teacher.  Maybe 6th grade was too young to feel this way, but I would have wanted to impress her—or at least not disappoint her.  I often wonder about some of my teachers, especially English teachers, who interact with their former students in the age of social media.  Are they disappointed? Impressed?  Do they feel like it reflects on them at all?
All this is in focus for us this week because our mentor farmers are coming for a visit.  Suddenly, we’re eyeing up every escaped weed, every evidence of disorganization, every problem and needed repair with laser vision like those things might take precedence over this week’s planting schedule.  They won’t, but we might kick in a few extra hours in the evenings to at least hide them 😊.

​I mean, we’re proud of how far we’ve come with the knowledge our elders passed along to us, but can’t help but want to impress them with all we’ve learned from them and where we took their ideas and systems and ran with them.  We want to reflect well on them.  We want them to be impressed by their own teaching skills.  And so we find ourselves once again, like nail biting school children on test day—did we learn it well enough to get that coveted sticker from the teacher??

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