Miss Neuenkirche welcomed her new set of third-grade students with a smile. She had high hopes for the class—while it wouldn’t be easy for all of them to get good grades, she felt confident she could help them all get there.
She quickly discovered how far from easy it would be.
One child, Dietrich, came to school most days exhausted and sleepy. As a result, he had difficulty focusing and would fall asleep when she read to the class during penmanship practice. Miss Neuenkirche found ways to live things up and get Dietrich excited, which benefited the whole class. In patent-teacher conferences, she spoke with the boy’s parents and learned his dad worked late, and the family stayed up to spend a little time with him before going to bed. Every once in a while, Dietrich still put his head down and fell asleep, and Miss Neuenkirche would leave him alone for 15 minutes before waking him up again so he could regain some energy.
Dorothea, another member of Miss Neuenkirche’s class, had a learning disability and struggled in reading. The teacher learned all she could about this particular disability and worked one on one with Dorothea, putting in extra hours after school and getting help from school aides.
One particular day, Theobald, who was normally quiet and reserved, let loose a loud outburst over the math problems he was working on. Miss Neuenkirche walked over and knelt next to him. She found his paper covered with partially-erased numbers and tally marks. Theobald held his head in his hands, and a tear dropped onto the paper. When she softly asked him what was wrong, he told her he had tried solving a particular problem every way he could think of. Miss Neuenkirche calmly talked him through how to solve it. When Theobald arrived at the right answer, he grinned and beamed at her.
Not all of the help the kids needed was about their schoolwork.
One day, a girl in her class fell during recess and scraped up one leg on the asphalt. Miss Neuenkirche was on duty in the schoolyard that day and ran to help. The girl, Regina, was sobbing and couldn’t get up, so Miss Neuenkirche lifted Regina in her arms and walked her back to class, tended to her scrapes, and sat her on a softer chair with her leg up for the rest of the day.
Another girl, Leni, came back to class early from lunch. She looked troubled, which was strange because Miss Neuenkirche had always known her to be cheery, and she also was one of the highest-achieving students in the class. With her eyes averted, Leni told her about some problems that she was going through with some of her friends. Miss Neuenkirche listened closely and talked with Leni like she were an equal and helped her think through the situation. She offered a suggestion or two. Leni wiped away a tear, brightened, and bounded out of the class with a thank-you.
At the end of the school year, as she looked over the students’ grades, Miss Neuenkirche breathed a sigh of relief. Each of them had begun in a different place, and each had even been in a different place from one day to the next. But ultimately, with her help, they had progressed to each earn As and were in a strong position to be successful next year. She felt a sense of pride for each of them because of their progress and accomplishments.
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The Weekly Parable 