Sometimes it’s difficult to know how to begin these posts. The extraordinary time we’re living through is demanding in its relentless intensity. This past month brought unimaginable devastation to the western side of Maui and nearly wiped out the beach town of Lahaina. Then came an intense heat dome that settled over nearly the entire middle section of the United States and brought yet more record-breaking temperatures from Minnesota to Texas. There was Hurricane Hilary, which cruised north along the western edge of the Baja in Mexico, then hit Southern California and into Nevada with more rain in 24 hours than typically falls in an entire year in some places. It’s pretty challenging to try to keep up with the news cycle of extreme weather events here in the US, and what about the rest of the world?
It can feel hard to stay grounded and simply carry on in the midst of such huge waves of energy. The electro-magnetic streams hitting Earth from the cosmos have been off the charts this summer. Old structures are shaking loose and crumbling. It can be difficult to cope with this level of change, death of the old and shifting of energies.
The 23-24 school year is now in full swing and at my public charter school we just finished the first two weeks of school. All the welcome back rituals and activities happened, and it felt like a strong and successful start to our year. As a Special Education teacher for our elementary school, I have some grace with students as they ease into their general classroom and get to know their teacher (or reacquainted, since teachers carry their classes through grades 1-5). We’ve already had meltdowns and work refusals by some of our kids. The children are also feeling the world’s intensity in their own unique ways. Parents report that their child “holds it together” during the school day, only to fall apart once they are back home. Mental health supports are more important than ever for many, from the little ones all the way through grade 8. It’s a constant dance between upholding our expectations for academic rigor and social behavior norms, and the reality of what a child can or can’t actually accomplish on a given day or period. Parents are also stretched and stressed, and as educators we always walk the fine balance beam between students, parents and our own desires for growth and learning.
One teacher colleague was in tears at the end of a particularly stressful day recently. She took refuge in my room for a few minutes, remarking that teaching is the only profession that never gets easier with time. Reluctantly, I agreed with her. One becomes better at teaching the more it is practiced, and yet it’s true that children are unpredictable, often irrational, erratic and overly dramatic. It’s a recipe for stress. Some teachers deal with it with a remedy of running and wine, others might go home and sit in the dark watching crime shows all night. Still others pick up the parental duties as soon as they walk in the door, trading one kind of teaching and caregiving for another without much (or any) time for themselves.
It’s not easy to keep the big picture uppermost in one’s mind, the reason why we became teachers, why we get up each day and go into the classroom. But it is critical that we do so. The young humans that we teach, love and care for each day are the Future of Humanity. In only a couple of short decades, they will take the reins of caring for our planet, the animals and plants, and for each other in ways large and small. The work we do each day, as exhausting as it can be, could not be more important. Tomorrow’s adults will only be as compassionate, peaceful, kind, loving and high-minded as we teach and model for them to be. They will face situations on a global scale that makes what we are facing in the summer of ‘23 seem very mild in comparison. And it’s not only the teachers and support staff’s job, it’s EVERYONE’S job to teach and guide our children towards a positive and healthy future society. Please take this responsibility seriously, dear Readers. The future world depends on our current thoughts, beliefs and actions.
interrelated planet 