John Freshwater

My eighth grade science teacher was a one-of-a-kind guy. He was one of those teachers you admired not only because his class was always interesting, fun and witty, but even just because he was a good person, through and through. He was a track coach and faculty mentor for FCA when I got to high school, too. I can remember on several occasions going back home to visit, and stopping by MVMS specifically to pop in and say hi to one of my favorite teachers and mentors. I remember clearly just sitting behind his desk while he taught a new wave of eighth graders, and recalling all of those times I was faced with wacky questions about hissing cockroaches and the psi required to break a bridge constructed from popsicle sticks. He was a blast to hear even then. 
Welp, John Freshwater was fired a few years back for refusing to remove a Bible from his desk. He wasn't teaching from it to his classroom students, and he wasn't imposing any of its principles upon them. It was simply sitting on his desk: a token of his personal life and a reminder to all who would come by that his faith superceded anything and everything. 
There was such an uproar in my tiny little hometown; it was unbelievable. For a few months, it felt like the entire town was divided straight down the center over this one thing. I was hours away in Cincinnati when it happened, but I remember following the coverage and feeling nothing but genuine sadness. I was sad for a system whose focus on a book that had been sitting on the same desk, in the same classroom for over 15 years was so fervent that it drove that man out of the system altogether. I remember thinking of all the other, far more relevent issues we could've been addressing, and just ... feeling... sad. 
I won't ask you to watch this video in its entirety; the first time I saw it, I thought perhaps FresH20 would be in it somewhere [he's not], but I do want to post this if for noone else's benefit and later recollection than my own. 

Anyway, that's my rant for today. Like I said, I won't ask any of you to watch that full video, but I also am not asking for any of you to pick sides. I just think it's a bigger pity when we can't come together to recognize what's going on in the world around us.... even in the small towns. 
Mr. Freshwater, this goes out to you. Thank you for everything you ever did for me, for my class, for our track team, and for FCA. You are truly a well-rounded example of a teacher, mentor, coach and leader. 
See you blogbots tomorrow (: 
xo | cmd