the hidden curriculum of your life

Its cold, it's cold, it's COLD! ... But thanks, God for the rain!

To escape this cold weather, I am getting right outta the state. Monday, I am going home. And I'm kind of happy, because I hate Bendigo right now. Perhaps going to somewhere with 'a little less civilisation' will make me feel a whole heap better.

My fish is dead.

I'm waiting the day when I'll be normal, when I can quit being cynical, when I can shake off the feelings that seem to hit my mind. "Oh but Sammy, you're just being discerning!"

It has now been a week since I finished prac. When I first got off it, I thought I'd be a mess, but I'm surprised as to how well I've adapted back into uni life. It certainly has been better having less contact-hours, although, I've been up at 6 nearly every morning anyway to try and get assignments done (I'm a morning person).

Although I've done well getting back into it, today was exceptionally hard. I went back to kids4life much, and to tell you the truth, I struggled to get through the doors. This along with a heap of crankiness caused by stress and no sleep didn't help. The whole time all I could think was about my kids on prac, how you just knew that kids were hurting there. It breaks my heart, and I feel guilty about it.

I felt as though that God was drifting a bit of my attention towards the window, where outside were all the kids that werent at the program (as it is up to the parents as to whether they can participate or not), that He cares about them too! There's so much hurt and hunger that these children are feeling that don't get the chance to be impacted by our program.

But with that I felt that God was telling me that I have a remarkable position as a teacher - I can reach the unreachable. Just because I am not under an official mission or because I am in a public rather than private school, this does not mean I am not doing God's work. Now don't think my life goal now is to go into schools and corrupt students, let me introduce you to a term I have learnt about this semester: The Hidden Curriculum.

The hidden curriculum is basically the unplanned learning, the values that a teacher gives forth to ones students.

Although this is a teacher term, I've been thinking about it a lot lately in how this concept is applied in every day life. We have our curriculum - what we need to get done and achieve, people we need to see, things we need to do. But how we go about it is the important part. What values and 'unplanned learning' happens extended to what we already do? (I hope this makes sense)

These kids trapped in a struggle and
Don't know where they're heading, no
A head full of trouble is all they're getting
And nobody knows the suffering they go through
And you wouldn't believe 'em if they told you

- These kids, Joel Turner and the Modern Day Poets

... and don't tell me off for posting music that isn't J-Pod, because this is reality.

Kids are hurting in the exact same ways I have, if not worse, and I don't think I'm doing enough to reach them...