My mother called me Sarah Bernhardt when I was ‘in a mood.’ I was a tad emotional as a child. “Woe is me” was my ‘thing.’ I had a flair for the dramatic. Not much has changed. I just learned several self-regulation strategies. And yet, the Y.B. Yeats line, “the centre cannot hold” from The Second Coming keeps coming back to me against the backdrop of the ‘macro.’
In my ‘micro’ world, when I get ‘too too,’ I get metaphorical and feel that things are ‘coming apart’ as well. My watch battery died. My dry cleaner went out of business. Someone came up to me asking where I got my hair cut as her hairdresser retired. Hairdresser and retired in the same sentence is a big deal! For me, and I imagine for many others, the little things have to be taken care of so that when the big changes happen at least something is on solid ground.
And, we know things have been changing since the beginning. Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher said, ‘Panta Rhei,’ which many of us have translated to ‘the only thing that is constant is change.’ Yet still, with so much of it happening so often, change ain’t easy. David Rock, one of my cognitive crushes and author of Your Brain at Work talks about a sense of uncertainty creating a strong threat response in one’s brain and with it one’s ability to focus on other things diminishes. Our brains don’t like uncertainty. For us it is a type of pain. Ouch.
Yet every day coaches and administrators push/encourage/cajole/demand that adults in schools adapt, modify and accommodate. And, that isn’t wrong to ask of educators. It’s just not easy. My ‘drama queen’ self is thinking that my dry cleaner going out of business really messes up my routine. What would happen if I was asked to change up my whole unit planning design or told that as of next year I needed to work with a co-teacher or move my classroom or teach a new subject or grade level? Or become an advisor when I was used to just teaching math, the subject I know and feel comfortable with? Or begin doing project-based learning or standards based grading or blended teaching? It’s a lot! Again, moving in these directions isn’t wrong. It just isn’t easy. John Vasconcellos, the former California State Senator, said of those who are leading and asking others to move forward into a better future that “we must become both hospice workers to support the peaceful dying and letting go of our traditional culture…, and midwives to gently usher in our emerging culture…”
I share with the participants, the teacher leaders and administrators in my workshops, that I bet they didn’t get into education to also become hospice workers and midwives, but as we need to change for the betterment of our schools and the growth of our students, there are times when we need to take on those roles as well. Change needs to take place. How can we support each other as best we can through through those changes? This is where my new book, Swimming in the Deep End: Four Foundational Skills for Leading Successful School Initiatives comes in. It comes out March 29th, 2019. More on how to pre-order below. See you in the water.
If you have any questions, comments or topic suggestions, please feel free to email me at Jennifer@jenniferabrams.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
*Jennifer Abrams, “See You In The Water", March 1, 2019,https://jenniferabrams.com/see-you-in-the-water/
