At the end of every year, I select five students who I have had a profound connection to and give them a copy of Letters To A Young Poet by Rilke. I know the book is over most of their heads, as I usually teach Middle School; I didn’t discover the book myself  until I was well into my twenties, but there is something about the simple passages that I feel resonate with the big ideas I try to convey in my classes. If you are not familiar with the book, here is what Wikipedia has to say:

The letters were originally written to Franz Kappus, a 19-year-old student at the Military Academy of Vienna, of which Rilke was an alumnus. Discouraged by the prospect of military life, Kappus began to send his poetry to the 27-year-old Rilke, seeking both literary criticism and career advice. Their correspondence lasted from 1902 to 1908. In 1929, three years after Rilke’s death, Kappus assembled and published the ten letters.

I share this book with the five kids who have shown some appreciation for art, learning, and living life to the fullest. They are not necessarily the “best” students or the most academically successful, but they get “it.” I think it takes a special person to understand passages like this:

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”

I woke up today to a very pleasant email. One of the students who received a book from me last year was James. James is an interesting story. Let’s just say he had/has a difficult time being a “good” student. He reads well beyond his grade level and can contribute some of the most insightful ideas I have ever heard at his age in class discussions, but ask him to sit still, write something down, work on one thing for a long period of time, or to simply calm down-forget about it. He is all over the place, off the wall; if you are into letter clarifications he probably has a few A’s, D’s and H’s somewhere in his file.

At the beginning of last year, I saw something in James. I saw that he was smart, curious, and hungry to learn. His problem was that school was not the place where he could do these things. I knew instantly that his inability to play the school game would be a challenge for him and his teachers. I sat him down early and talked to him about what the year might look like.

Throughout the year James would come into my room to chat during break, we sometimes had lunch; he would tell me personal details about his life and what he was thinking. In short, we built a relationship based on trust and respect.

I was open, honest and frank when it came to my frustrations when he got in a fight over a girl, but I also commended him on getting the lead in the school play. James had a fantastic year in my class. But what did that mean?

Did he score well on assessments? Not really, he continued to skate by with mediocre work. Did he learn a list of skills and new knowledge? Maybe, but nothing compared to how some of his peers performed throughout the year. So how I can I claim he had a great year? Because he went from being a socially awkward seventh grader who couldn’t care less about school or grades to a person who wrote me this:

Hi Sir,

First week of school is done and i am ready to go on holiday. You know that book that you gave me last year i have fingered out what “it” is. Well to start “it” is different in every person. So “it” is the driving force of life your soul your DNA the molecules the seed that starts your life. “it” is with you your whole life even after and before life. You will never find out what “it” is. “it” can hide itself in you forever in your body. But “it” will be somewhere so simple you will just look over it. Now i know that this is a very simple description but i am going to find where “it” is and what “it” is and tell you cause i see this as a mission, a mission that i will complete whatever it takes. this is cause i want to know i want the world to know. And most of all cause you gave me the idea and i am thankful to every thing that you gave me last year and will give me in later on in my life.

Buy for now hope to hear from you soon.

You may be asking yourself, who this kid’s English teacher was. Sure the paragraph could use some love and editing. Yes it would score very low on a rubric, but my point is that sometimes school should be a place to ignite the lingering passion in young people. So many times we extinguish every ounce of excitement these kids have with our curriculum and assessments and grades, when all they really want is for someone to listen to them, respect who they are, and help them find “it.”

I have shared this post with James, and want to ask him at this time- if you are here and reading James, let me say thank you. I am so glad that you are here and alive and connected and curious and searching. That was the whole point of the book, my class, my life. Life is beautiful and perfect and always looking for people like you to join and move the parade forward. Please remember that, I am an email or a blog post away. Let me know how else I can help you. The classroom is not the only place we can learn from each other; we have the whole world. Have a great year and keep in touch. How is our garden doing by the way? You may need to start a new plot! Do it now before it gets too hot. There is interest, but ideas need leaders, and there is no reason why that can’t be you.