But until that happens, until our school schedules are changed to better honor the humanity of both students and educators, we need to find a way to be OK. To be more than OK. To be at peace.
Don’t Miss it Wishing for It
Children Become Adults Who Remember
Children become adults who carry how we made them feel in their hearts for the rest of their lives. That's powerful. To matter that deeply in the lives of others. To matter that deeply in someone's future. We can be daunted by that or we can see it has an opportunity to be the good.
Discipline vs. Motivation
Kids are watching us, and if they see us trying and growing and loving ourselves through that process, they are more likely to do the same.
The Flow of Emotion
Whereever you need to go to sit with it, make space. Make space for your feelings flow. So you can see yourself and the world more clearly. So you can make space for others. So you can get out there and make this world better.
Messages of Our Spaces
It would be interesting to do a walk through our schools as if we were seeing these spaces for the first time and to ask ourselves what messages our environment is sending to our students.
When People Feel like More Work
As educators, when we nourish others in reaching their fullest potential, we are one step closer to reaching our fullest potential. We are one step closer to reaching our highest professional purpose.
The Choices Within and Around Us
We must find ways to confront very difficult realities without letting it consume us, mind, body, and spirit.
Everything to Everybody
We don't have to make ourselves small to make other people more comfortable. And we don't have to make our work small either. We can choose. We can choose how we show up for ourselves and for others and for our work.
Your Call is Important to Us
However, sometimes in schools, we hide behind phone extensions and closed doors. Afraid of the unpredictable landscape of the school day, it's easy for us to also hide behind our rules and procedures. While procedures are a helpful way to keep the work orderly and as a safe as possible, when someone is in distress, talking about the procedures is one of the last things they need in that moment.
Tripping Over the Truth
When you're motivated to do the right thing for kids for the right reasons, you can move big work and you can move it more quickly than you might think. It is almost always scary and difficult, but it's also worth it. It is a good kind of satisfying exhaustion. I live that for that kind of exhaustion.
