EXPECTATIONS [W, 10-28-20]

 CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

EXPECTATIONS                  [W, 10-28-20]

When the little first grade boy fell off his chair in the reading circle, just to get attention, Mrs. Edith Hufford laughed harder than the kids. She was in her early 60s. She had been teaching only two years. She wasn’t just their teacher; she was their grandmother. She thought that everything they did was cute.

So when she said, “Read,” all those kids said was “How far and how fast?” They wanted to please her. If she wanted them to learn, they were going to learn. That’s the way a kid is with a grandma who thinks they’re cute.

Both our daughters were gifted with Mrs. Hufford as their first-grade teacher at Oakdale School. At the end of first grade, they were both reading at 8^th grade level.

We were just lucky, for she didn’t teach long, only 5 years. She had started classes at ILSU when she was in her 50s and her sons were students there. She wanted to learn along with them. Of course, with a husband and a bunch of sons to take care of, she could take only one course at a time, so it required a long while to get her degree and begin to teach. When her husband hit 65, he retired, and so she did, much to the dismay of parents, and children, and a principal, who wanted her to teach forever.

In Katie’s YA book, What Goes Up, she includes a woman, who is just like her teacher, Mrs. Hufford. Even calls her Mrs. Hufford. That may be one thing Mrs. Hufford didn’t expect.

It was Mrs. Hufford’s expectations that made those children learn, not her exhortations or pedagogical skills. She expected them to learn, and she loved them into meeting her expectations.

Today is Katie’s birthday. As I think about our years of trying to help our children grow, I’m especially grateful to those who helped us in that task. We don’t do that alone. I give thanks for Mrs. Hufford, and her expectations.

Looking back now on the people who influenced me, it was their expectations that made the difference. They didn’t demand my best, they just expected it. When I fell off the chair, either by accident or in an attempt at humor, they laughed. I shall forever be grateful for those who expected more of me than I expected of myself.

John Robert McFarland