Dear colleague,
One day I was walking down the hallway during my prep period, and I felt like a true-blue secret service agent. I picked up a piece of garbage. I had a brief moment of genuine connection (MGC) with a student I passed. I stopped in on a colleague and gave a word of encouragement. And though I'm kind of ruining it right now by sharing with you, I felt the good feeling that comes with doing what good we can with the circumstances the day-to-day job presents us with.
You and I are basically secret service agents. No, not the black suits and sunglasses kind who protect VIPs. But we do protect Very Important Principles: that learning is good; the schools are entry points into cosmoses; that teaching is the work of crafting tiny alterations in life trajectories that though often immediately undetectable are ultimately significant.
Amidst all the pressures and problems of the work of teaching, there are these small things we do that make the world just a bit brighter; small things that protect and uphold the principles we live and work for.
- When a student writes you a letter and you write one back? That's secret service. You won't get any awards for it. Probably no one else will know. But that student will feel special because your actions imply that they are.
- When you notice that a student is troubled and you pull them aside to check in? That's secret service, too. It may not even produce any noticeable effect. But don't mistake the appearance of no effect for the lack of one. After all: we really don't know what our actions do.
A lot of my writing focuses on methods we can use to get better as efficiently and reliably as possible at the work that matters most to good teaching and learning. But it's worth noting today that the little, non-systematic stuff we do is deeply important. And there can be a really good feeling that comes just from knowing in ourselves that we did some things that were good during lunch or after school or in the thick of hallway passing time.
Just something to look out for today — the good you do in secret. Secrecy is a spiritual discipline — it can strengthen our souls just as consistently as push-ups can strengthen our bodies.
Teaching right beside you,
DSJR
PS I gave my talk on The Will to Teach last night, and there are still 47 licenses available if you'd like to check it out. Check it out here.
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