THE ENGLISH CLASS BANK

This morning my school starts, once again, to allow its students and teachers to get the gifts of wisdom, and I only hope that we can all keep in our minds the mighty power of that wisdom -- the wealth and prosperity it brings, the overflowing affluence and satisfaction.  Many of us parents and teachers start this day with concerns about finances – whether our lives are furnished with the funds we will need to be safe and secure – and those concerns are sometimes reasonable, but I hope we can see, at the same time, the security that waits for us and the students in the easygoing but persistent pursuit of wisdom. Money appears and then disappears in a flash, but wisdom will stay for all the years of our lives. Money makes its case with gold and glitz that comes and then always goes, but wisdom just waits forever for us to see and use it. My students, when they enter my classroom this morning, will carry with them the wealth of their young wisdom, wealth that makes them, in my mind, richer than princesses and princes – and my commonplace, unspectacular English class will create more wealth for us, day after day after day. New and prosperous ideas will dance in our pockets like coins. Flashy thoughts will wind themselves around us like necklaces and bracelets.  It will be a classroom of abundance. We may as well bring bags to gather up the wisdom we will find.  I might make a sign for the door: “English Class Wisdom Bank. Withdraw As Much As You Like”.