I Love Loud Boys

I was so touched by Elder Yoon Hwan Choi's talk - "I Love Loud Boys" - from the Priesthood session of October's General Conference session. As the mother of a *loud boy*, I can really relate. Sometimes we are annoyed by loud boys (or girls). Because they do not sit still, because they fall off their chairs or leap off the cultural hall stage during den meetings, we fear that they are getting nothing. Heck, I leave Sacrament meeting as often as not wondering if any spiritual light has penetrated the silliness.

I am grateful for caring home teachers, Cub Scout leaders, Graham's primary teacher (who does double duty as one of our HTers), and other ward friends who reach out. It really does take a ward to raise a child.

Tonight, our cub scout den toured the police station. It was a top notch tour led partly by our ward's own Brother Power. He sure impressed the boys with his taser gun display and neck blow demonstration. I felt reassured that our city is in good hands. I was amused to see a rather disheveled pack of scouts (with my own Bear scout wearing a Wolf hat) listening intently. The police officers reminded the boys to be good citizens, and as we sat together in one of the meeting rooms together, I was glad for these police officers who 'love loud boys' too.

I know my loud boy was sent to me for specific reasons. Some of those reasons probably include what I can do for him (patiently scroll through the many wikipedia entries on Marvel characters, for example). Some of those reasons, however, include what he has done for me: help smooth my rough edges, force a healthy dose of patience down my throat, and teach me to be a better teacher.

I got this email from a student this week and it made me really pleased, not just because it's a compliment (who doesn't like those??) but because I felt like I had succeeded with this one student in my quest to be the kind of teacher I want Graham (and Annie) to have:

I had no problem uploading my essay. and i wanted to tell you thank you very much for helping me out when i lost my backpack. I really appreciate it a lot. By the way i wanted to tell you that you are probably the best english teacher i could have gotten. i feel like you really know how to teach the material to students and are good with students. just wanted to let you know :)

I don't know how much of what I'm actually teaching about effective word choices gets through? Did you notice that he didn't capitalize English? My students' writing uniformly needs more conciseness, but I can tell they're writing more persuasively, so that's good. However, I also want them to feel like I care about them as people, not just future word drones. Sometimes that requires the blackboard prayer ... where I turn around to write something on the board while simultaneously pleading for patience. I have to do this a lot ... but it helps.