I have this saying that I use every year and that is "The Slowest One Wins the Race." Because I find as my little friends walk into my third grade classroom, they do so with the impression that fast is better. And truthfully, this is not their faults. Everything around their little minds and souls runs around so fast. They are told to "tie their shoes fast" and "pick up their coat fast." I cannot tell you how many times I have heard this phrase "quickly, please" or sometimes just "quickly" with no please attached. I'm guilty of it, too. And so often I think it is the mere speed of society that prevents our little ones from learning "please" and "thank you" and for some, to even tie their shoes. Because truthfully these are skills that require one to stop. Think. Pause. Carefully Do. No one has the time for that.

A phrase I repeat about 1,000 times throughout the day is "The Slowest One Wins the Race." If there is anything I wish to teach my students it is that stopping to think is okay. So is pausing to take a break. Sometimes stopping and starting a problem creates a clear mind and an opportunity for a blank slate. Hard Work is not produced through rushing and great Art takes time and patience and more time. Beauty is not realized in a blur or a blink of a moment. The slowest one does indeed win the race.

I am often struck by this saying of "The Early Bird Gets the Worm" and I think to myself just how many  mistakes are wrapped up in this one phrase. I have a beautiful student this year and she just simply takes a longer time to process words. But her patience is unending. Her focus unmatched. Everyday she wins the race in her own thoughtful, beautiful, deep-thinker way. And you can tell when she is thinking deeply about a word because a little smile curls up on her lips as if to say, "I know the people around me may be faster...but boy are they missing out on the beauty of this passage. This sentence. This Phrase. This word." Because while others breathe past it without even seeing, she's carefully, slowly, breathing life and beauty back into skipped words and phrases and meanings of this world. If anything, she has taught me time and time again that there is beauty in slowing down. Afterall, the slowest one wins the race. And let me tell you-she's the one who is winning.