Yesterday’s truth was that being busy is an antidote pro-active prevention for loneliness. Saying it like that makes it sound like I planned it this way, when really, I didn’t. It’s just my personality. I’m a busy person. I like to be active.
However, sometimes, being over-the-top active is just too much. Yes, I’m talking about balance.
Today was insanely busy at school. I’m realizing now, 3 weeks into our year, that every Tuesday will be like this. I tweeted that my Tuesdays are becoming “no time to eat” days, and I wasn’t kidding. I didn’t find time to eat lunch today until nearly 2:30pm. Considering breakfast is at 7:15 or 7:30am, that’s a bloody long time. (Special shoutout to Naomi for her sympathy response, btw.)
But this is my reality. It sucks. Our school is insanely busy. And not always in a good way, either. I sincerely believe that a good portion of that busy-ness is just treading water. It is just busy work, not action that moves us forward, closer to goals. Much of the time it’s busy because processes are not in place, or are broken altogether, or antiquated. This makes us incredibly busy — and our students too.
Now, I know schools are busy places. I’ve worked in plenty of them to know. No school is not busy. But what if schools were less frantic? What if schools were calm? What if there was music playing on the loudspeaker in between classes? What if we weren’t rushing to classes — teachers included — but meandering to a room to learn with others when the need arose? What if we could be busy but calm? Is that possible?
I spent some time tonight trying to re-imagine what schools would be like if they were calmer. I came to the conclusion that things like yoga and meditation should be mandatory parts of education. I’m not talking about religious or spiritual instruction here, but self-management and meta-cognitive instruction combined with the physical strategies to keep stress at bay. When do we teach that stuff? Looking at my students’ timetables, I’m guessing the answer is “Never.”
Today’s truth is this: I want active and calm schools for myself and our students — for our sanity and our ability to solve problems and reason without unnecessary stress. Yes, this is true, and I think it is possible, too.
