Photo by Alexander Andrews on Unsplash
It took me awhile to overcome the superhuman teacher myth. It is this idea that we all should be going 100 miles an hour every day of our lives or our students simply will not learn. They cannot not learn. They cannot be successful unless we give every ounce of our being. And we should. We HAVE TO. WE MUST. There is not a day to be off or a moment to lose.
Erin Gruwell,—the famed Freedom Writer’s teacher who wrote a book and had a movie about her and has been lauded as what all teachers should be— lasted… 4 years.
I am in no way knocking Erin Gruwell and her remarkable achievements. I’m just saying that sometimes shooting stars, going hundreds of thousands of miles an hour, burn out.
For those of us in it for the long game, and at nine years I can hardly qualify myself as one of those people, sometimes we have to accept good enough.
Today was a good enough day. As far as I can tell, I didn’t blow anyone’s mind. But I went in and I shared my lessons about public service campaigns, the lifecycle of a Hershey’s kiss, and transitions between yoga postures. My wellness class got a little too rowdy. My yoga class was very sleepy. I had a few pleasant exchanges with kids. I had a few difficult exchanges with others. And then I went home. And I’m getting ready to do it again tomorrow.
Sometimes we are just good enough. And it’s okay. And we will wake up and try again tomorrow. But for today, it’s good enough.