Dear colleague,
Yesterday I was speaking with some teacher-author friends about what teachers need right now. I found it a disorienting question because when I think about what I need right now, I feel disappointed. What I need is pretty normal for this time of year: energy, invigoration, a renewed sense of zest for the work. That's disappointing to me because even though I'm nearly two decades into my career, I still have this same old tired sense in early March, this sense of being in a tunnel.
The tunnel: it's dimly lit with no view. You're moving, but it doesn't feel like it. It's monotonous. You're expending fuel to keep moving through it, but Mile 7 in the tunnel looks the same as Mile 2. There's no tangible reward.
What's a teacher like you or me to do when we find ourselves in the tunnel?
Here's one thing: look for beauty.
When I talk to teachers about the Rainbow of Why and we get to beauty, I work hard to not define beauty very carefully.
Beauty is this aesthetic sense of goodness. It's a moment where you feel like a small but connected part of a large and wondrous picture. It's where you long for the thing you're beholding, and so you keep beholding it.
It's how you feel when having an honest conversation with your friends about what teachers need right now. Or when you're walking a wooded path that curves and curves. Or watching a student who is lost in their work, wondering what thoughts they're having.
It's hugely subjective, isn't it? But that's exactly the way in. Something being subjective means that we can influence our experience of it. And what I find today as I make note of small moments of beauty is that the more I look for them, the more I find them.
And that's a pretty helpful thing when you find yourself in the tunnel.
Best,
DSJR
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