Practical Paideia

Lindsey Ralls (Summit Christian Academy)

During lunch today, a few of us were noticing the seventh graders. Seventh graders are loud. They are full of energy. They run everywhere (even if it’s just to the bathroom and they have 15 minutes left of lunch). They argue a lot. They don’t necessarily know how to work well together. They don’t always listen super well. They aren’t terribly concerned with taking notes. One of the juniors I was sitting with asked us if his class had been like that in 7th grade. My colleague paused for a brief second and then said; “yes, all seventh grade classes are pretty similar. It’s just the nature of being in seventh grade.” 

This afternoon I popped into a senior Spanish class. The teacher was in the middle of a Jeopardy game with three teams competing. The topic had to do with the history of Argentina and the students were completely into it. Twelfth graders are competitive, but in moderation. The only time they were loud was when they were passionate about knowing an answer. No one was running anywhere. Their teamwork was spot on. They were all taking notes and at one point asked their teacher to not change slides so that they could write the entire definition down. As I sat there taking it all in, I couldn’t help but think that it was just the nature of being a twelfth grade student at Summit. 

While I haven’t taught at the Grammar School, I would imagine a similar story could be told when comparing a K4 student to a sixth grader. 

While it’s true that seniors everywhere are simply older and more mature than seventh graders, I like to think that a portion of that growth is a testament to their time with us. Our task is to cultivate students who act with prudence, show temperance, display courage, and advocate for justice. My lunchtime conversation was a good reminder that these things don’t happen overnight. It’s the in-between that matters. Sometimes, during these long winter months, it can be easy to look at our students and feel like there is so much more growth that is needed. My lunchtime conversation reminded me of two things: growth is happening, and growth is not immediate. Those same seventh graders know so much more than they did back in August and sometimes that’s easy to forget. Strides have been made; we just need to be intentional about recognizing them. Similarly, growth will not happen overnight. If every seventh grader came to us like a senior we wouldn’t need to be here. It’s the in-between years that matter. It’s the in-between years that make a difference.