The Bridge – Why I Teach
One of my staff pinned this up in the staffroom last term. I did not give much notice to it until today as I was clearing things out busily preparing for the coming term. It really struck a chord with me as it pretty much sums up why I do what I do and why I am so passionate about leading others to do the same. Enjoy!
The Bridge
An old man going along a lone highway
Came at the evening cold and gray
To a chasm vast and deep and wide
Through which was flowing a swollen tide.
The old man crossed in the twilight dim
That swollen stream held no fears for him
But he paused when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here.
Your journey will end with the ending day;
You never again must pass this way.
You have crossed the chasm deep and wide;
Why build you the bridge at the eventide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head,
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There follows after me today
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This swollen stream which was naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be.
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim.
Good friend, I am building the bridge for him.”
- Anonymous















