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Hey girl. You remember that adage “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink”?
Yeah, it’s a truth. It’s a good metaphor.
Think of it another way. I know you have a lot of issues with the curriculum and culture/philosophy of your current school. But one thing that can be really helpful here? Think about the phrase from the mission statement: it is the schools’ responsibility to provide the conditions for success.
Provide conditions for success. Not success itself. It’s our responsibility to make a space for students to learn and grow. We have learned over the last few weeks that it is difficult to provide these conditions working wholly online. Difficult, but not impossible. You are doing your very best to create assignments that give your students the opportunity to practice important skills and to share what they have learned and know. You are reaching out, even to the students who appear to have turned their back. Think about that word “appear.” You don’t have any way of knowing what conditions your kiddos are living and working in right now. Your kiddos aren’t assholes, at least, not any more than teenagers tend to be. They aren’t deliberately rejecting You. They are making choices based on conditions you cannot see and cannot control. Are some of them making what you consider poor choices? Probably. But they do that even when you are in the classroom with them.
So. You have the responsibility to do your best under weird and difficult circumstances. You’ve done it so far, you know you have, even if you don’t have much feedback. Of everything in your life, you are most confident in your skills as a teacher, in your choice of career, your worth and value here, so hold onto that. Keep your heart and email open. Don’t get mad at the kids because it never ever ever works. It never achieves any of your goals. The kids are not doing this to hurt you. I know it hurts to see how poor choices hurt the kids and I know it hurts that you can’t make kiddos understand this. They have to make their choices. We all have to make a choice and then another choice and then another, step by step.
But hey, you know what you can do? Take time to work on that fluffy fic, get pizza for lunch, read something and leave comments and spread a little joy.
Oh, and maybe — maybe— take a break from listening to Hadestown. There are a lot of Feelings there, and I kind of think you need a little break from so many Feelings. Go back to your peppy KPop playlist. There are probably Feelings there, sure, but you don’t speak Korean, so you can just enjoy the beat.
Yeah, it’s a truth. It’s a good metaphor.
Think of it another way. I know you have a lot of issues with the curriculum and culture/philosophy of your current school. But one thing that can be really helpful here? Think about the phrase from the mission statement: it is the schools’ responsibility to provide the conditions for success.
Provide conditions for success. Not success itself. It’s our responsibility to make a space for students to learn and grow. We have learned over the last few weeks that it is difficult to provide these conditions working wholly online. Difficult, but not impossible. You are doing your very best to create assignments that give your students the opportunity to practice important skills and to share what they have learned and know. You are reaching out, even to the students who appear to have turned their back. Think about that word “appear.” You don’t have any way of knowing what conditions your kiddos are living and working in right now. Your kiddos aren’t assholes, at least, not any more than teenagers tend to be. They aren’t deliberately rejecting You. They are making choices based on conditions you cannot see and cannot control. Are some of them making what you consider poor choices? Probably. But they do that even when you are in the classroom with them.
So. You have the responsibility to do your best under weird and difficult circumstances. You’ve done it so far, you know you have, even if you don’t have much feedback. Of everything in your life, you are most confident in your skills as a teacher, in your choice of career, your worth and value here, so hold onto that. Keep your heart and email open. Don’t get mad at the kids because it never ever ever works. It never achieves any of your goals. The kids are not doing this to hurt you. I know it hurts to see how poor choices hurt the kids and I know it hurts that you can’t make kiddos understand this. They have to make their choices. We all have to make a choice and then another choice and then another, step by step.
But hey, you know what you can do? Take time to work on that fluffy fic, get pizza for lunch, read something and leave comments and spread a little joy.
Oh, and maybe — maybe— take a break from listening to Hadestown. There are a lot of Feelings there, and I kind of think you need a little break from so many Feelings. Go back to your peppy KPop playlist. There are probably Feelings there, sure, but you don’t speak Korean, so you can just enjoy the beat.
