Maybe we are the stuff of fairy tales. In so many fairy tales, there is one overiding leitmotif – that of becoming real, of stepping out of sleep to wake up to what is real. Examples abound: Pinnochio, Sleeping Beauty, Rip Van Winkle, The Wizard of Oz and on and on.
In each of these examples, people who are asleep, made of wood, trapped in a black and white world go through some kind of transformation to become real. Will it happen with us? Because there is no doubt that this leitmotif of becoming real is a very on point descriptor of what we are going through professionally right now. Against immeasurable odds and massive ignorance around us.
It is a good thing to remember what an adventure this is, and the value that there is in the struggle. I know that what I have done for kids over the years in which I have been wrestling with this method is far superior to the years when 65% of my kids each year passed the AP exam, which meant nothing, and I am thankful for the new struggle.
Maybe we should be thankful more, even for the big splat fails we are experiencing now. For all the big splat fails on this ride up the mountain – just falling off and going splat – as we try to get up the mountain of using comprehension based instruction in our work – even that is better than staying with the boring way. Hell yes.