Recently, I attended Camp Ohr Lanu, a program of Camp Ramah in California for families with children who have special needs. I learned a wonderful text from veteran family educator, Vicki Kelman, as part of the counselor training. Rabbi Kalonymous Kalman Schapira wrote in the introduction to his book The Students’ Obligation:
A teacher is a gardener in the Garden of Hashem, assigned to cultivate it and guard it from harm. Even if some of the children seem rebellious or flawed in their character, the teacher must know that the nature of soul-seeds, or unripe angels, is to taste bitter as they are ripening and to be filled with nectar in their maturity.
This image of the educator as being a gardener in the garden of Hashem spoke to me as one of nurturing the growth in our learners. The idea renews me as we get ready to start our new year of teaching and learning. Thinking about those we teach as “soul-seeds or unripe angels” restores my belief that we all change and grow. When we get frustrated with a student, how can thinking of her as an unripe angel help us try one more time to reach her? If every member of our class is a soul-seed, their soul waiting to bloom, then our job as educators is to care for each child, provide him with nourishment, and support him as he blossoms. We have the power to help souls to grow and angels to develop. Wow.
Summer is a time for many of us to take time to refresh- whether it’s a vacation, a lighter schedule, or simply extra hours of daylight. As we turn to the start of a new academic year, my hope for each of us is that we see ourselves as gardeners in the garden of Hashem whose role it is to help soul-seeds ripen and fill with sweet nectar.