For the last ten years of my career, in spring, thinking about the longevity of my career, I mentally shut down in March or April. It’s about that time when everybody stops caring, so why should I care? If I am around a bunch of other people who stop caring and are merely crawling to the June finish line, why should I keep acting like I care?
When you do it that way, you add weeks to your summer. Instead of enjoying only ten weeks in the summer to rest and recharge, you double that amount of time to get ready for the fall. Just drag your body in and do the fake teaching thing and get the year over with.
It’s helped immensely.
So the next time you are tempted to brood and fret that your kids aren’t learning enough at this time of year, if it’s springtime, stop. If you have A Natural Approach to the Year, do some of the spring projects in there.
You know they’re not learning anything anyway. It’s just a big fake act that everyone is putting on for everyone else. A ship of fools.
That’s one topic that I could never figure out in teaching – how teachers act like – and some actually believe – that what they teach their kids, the assessment, all of that stuff that teachers put so much time and attention to, is actually real.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but most students don’t give a rip, and that’s not a spring thing but for at least half the kids it’s an all-year thing. So relax and try to take care of yourself first and not caring so much if they don’t all get A’s. The system is rigged and you know it.
Time for the big shift. It’s coming. Just make sure you’re around for it. You know what I mean, right? It’s time for the big paradigm shift where we actually start teaching for real, because the kids are involved in our instruction for real – all of them. You don’t know about the big shift? Wait. You’ll see. All this suffering is just preparation for a new era in our world of peace and harmony and things that are real. How can you know? Look into your heart and you will see.
For more on the thing that counts most in our field – mental health – search that topic in the search bar here and read some of the other mental health posts there.