Recently some of my 8th graders were really getting into playing the old Oregon Trail simulation game for their social studies class. They were checking their progress before my English class began and comparing tallies of deaths within their imaginary groups by snake bite and dysentery.
I remarked that I am amazed when I stop to think of the absolute bravery of those early pioneers - travelling into unfamiliar territory fraught with hidden dangers.
Then I said something like, "It's amazing when you stop to think about how much easier life is now."
One of the boys immediately protested, "Life isn't easier today! If anything it's harder!"
I believe it was the Spirit who checked my mouth before I could let loose with a "Oh, come ON. Harder!?"
It took me just half a second longer to realize that he was talking about emotional rather than physical hardships.
It's been a tough year and many of the students at my school are incredibly fragile at this point. I cannot even imagine boarding the teen-years-roller-coaster just at the time an unprecedented pandemic hits the planet. And for too many, any family safety net was shredded long before the onset of Covid-19.
At least the original Oregon Trail pioneers had the comfort, protection, and community of the wagon train. Some of my kids are travelling through unfamiliar and dangerous emotional territory on their own.
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