The Substitute Teacher (Part 1.)

I am not a real teacher at all, my real job has nothing to do with education, I am just a substitute teacher. Today I am a substitute teacher at Springhill High School, a local high school in a suburb of Houston, Texas.  At this very moment twenty-six boys and girls are under my supervision in an Advisory period which lasts from 9:40 a.m. till 11:15 a.m. An Advisory period is not a class for learning at all. It is like a study hall period where you park students for awhile ostensibly to give them study time for tests or to do homework. Naturally none of this gang of twenty-six is doing anything like studying. So in essence I am just an Advisory Policeman. Here just to keep order and to prevent them from hurting each other. 

The demographic make up of this school is 90% African American and 10% white or Hispanic. Springhill High it is not an inner city school in a slum or ghetto sometimes known as Soulsville. I have only heard of a ghetto referred to as “Soulsville” one time, and that was on an Isaac Hayes album.  The album was called “Theme from Shaft” and there is a song on the album called “Soulsville” that I like very much.

The kids may talk here in this Advisory Period and so they talk, drum on their desks, rap (sing) and joke around a lot because they have been given an inch of freedom and so they take a yard. The TV is on showing a largely ignored historical program about Malcolm, Martin and Meredith. I glance at it some while my eyes rove up and down the aisles of desks observing my charges. Just before the black history program came on there was a student produced music program on. The student program featured students from this high school singing popular songs. They sounded quite good for lip singers and the class gave them their rapt attention and even required me to turn the volume way up. It is nice to see these sons and daughters of people my age at school albeit at play. They are young, energetic, social, enthusiastic and striving to be fly.  Was I ever like that, fly? Or was I always reserved, serious, studious, pragmatic, stoic and intensely boring all of my life.

So far I have had to speak to three boys and one girl in the classroom about their over social behavior. One girl I had been warned about by another teacher. I was warned to not give her a hall pass under any circumstances and to not let her outside of the classroom without an escort. The other teacher didn’t mention the reason why.

The Patience of Solomon

Alright so your waiting in line at the grocery store and the customer two places ahead of you is holding up the line because of a price check.  You on other hand have just three items to pay for and you are annoyed at the clown holding up the line. Never mind that it’s not their fault the price is missing,  you still think it’s their fault so your impatience remains.

Or you are in a clothing store call it Ross (Dress for Less) and this time there is a lady ahead of you in line just taking her sweet time talking away about her granddaughters with the checkout clerk.  Any minute now you are expecting her to pull out the photos and just destroy the rest of your day.  You feel a seething anger building up inside you but if only you could see your face it would not be pretty.

Both of these situations and others like these or driving situations require you to control yourself right? The following is a simple memory jog to nudge you into the right kind of thinking.  When I am losing my patience, it helps me to lightheartedly tell myself “I shall have the patience of Solomon!”



You know the biblical king, son of King David. Almost instantly afterwards I can be well and patient again and feel kingly for being so patient.

“What are you talking about?” You’ll ask me in a scornful tone that suggests  that I’m an idiot. “Everybody knows that King Solomon was renowned for his wisdom, not for his patience. He may have been a very impatient guy in his day!” To this I shall calmly reply, “I know, right? But perhaps, you have forgotten what the bible  says. Look into it, you’ll see for yourself that patience is wisdom and wisdom is patience.”  

“No!  It doesn't say that." By now you'll be raising your voice and waiving your arms in the air like you just don’t care.  In a patient reply to your rant I’ll say further, "Read 1 Kings 3:1-28 and Proverbs1:1 and what follows. Then, maybe the next time you're inconvenienced to wait you can tell  yourself with a smile that, "I shall have the patience of Solomon!"   Then you will be able to act wisely and feel kingly by doing so." May this be a whole new start for you.

Have a blessed day

People often say to me “have a blessed day” as a nice social Christian thing to say in parting. I completely agree that we are blessed in more ways than we even know of on a daily basis. On some days however we can have an exceptionally blessed day.  I remember a particular blessed day that happened during Mardi Gras, in New Orleans in 1981. This was the day our daughter was conceived.  My wife and I had loose plans for having our first child after law school but our daughter was born during my second year of law school. We jokingly said that she was an accident but that was not true.  It was only our ignorance of the spiritual truths in the bible speaking.  Now we know that God incredibly blessed our day by ordaining our daughter’s birth date; Psalm 139:13-16 and Jeremiah 1:5. We also know that God determined the very time for our daughter to be born and where she would live; Acts17:26. 

We rejoiced and have loved our baby from the very beginning even before she was born. We are such lucky people to have been blessed with our daughter and also with our son who was born a few years later. It is my hope and prayer that people everywhere will be strong enough to handle the blessing of parenthood. But should you lack the strength God will generously provide all the strength you need. Thank you and  have a blessed day.

Overcoming adversity -Part 1

Okay we are born, we have a childhood, go to school, get older and then it becomes time for us to make choices. Could a mistake made in high school keep you from reaching your goals in life? Yes it can. Suppose you were arrested for shoplifting or some other petty criminal offense. The arrest record and the court record can become a black mark against your future. Anyone’s past criminal record can affect their ability to get a job, rent an apartment, gain credit, obtain student loans and prevent them from obtaining a professional license.  Not all types of criminal records are eligible so you should talk to a lawyer to see if you qualify for what we call in Texas an expungement (your record is erased) or  a non-disclosure (your record is sealed). It is a wise thing to do and it will feel great to finally get your record cleared.