Sunday, March 30, 2014

What is important

28/03
What is important

Remembering what is important is important. Sometimes we lose track of the big picture, the point of it all, the reason we do the things we do. It’s important to remember. And to remind each other. Because when things get hard, or tiring, or discouraging, or just plain painful, it is easy to forget and to give up. And then nothing can happen, nothing at all, if we lose sight of what’s important.

Staying true to what’s important is important. And it’s hard to do. I feel like sometimes the world and everyone in it is actually trying to make you forget – it bombards you and assaults you and throws nasty spikey things at you until you can’t stand it anymore and you’re ready to just curl up and sleep into numb oblivion.

That’s when we have to remember what’s important. We have to dodge, and throw back, and sometimes just let things hit us. Because if we curl up and sleep our dreams will not be of things that are important. They will be of nothing. And then, hope is gone.

***

I wrote this as a free write with my AS Language class today. It has been a long, hard term. Perhaps the hardest in my short teaching career. No doubt there will be harder ones (happy thought) but my some of core beliefs of how I should relate to students and what it means to be a teacher – and the limits and borders of that – have been deeply shaken. I feel so drained and battered. And I needed the truth of today’s free write. I need to remind myself what’s important.

What is important:
·         my students & their well-being
·         the truth & telling it when necessary
·         justice & making things better
·         safe spaces & allowing voices to be heard, safely
·         love