Episode Details

Happy Friday!

Thanks for all you have done this week to improve our district goals. Of the three goals we have, we are making strides in two areas of emphasis - behavior, and reading. Attendance is still lagging. We reported these results to the board at Wednesday night’s meeting and you may read more details in the board minutes that Mr. Hobson released yesterday.

The spring semester is well underway and so is our 94th General Assembly of legislators in Little Rock. I would like to use this Wrap-up to set some tone for the semester and provide you with some insight into the happenings at our state capitol.

Three Constants

There is a documentary on Netflix titled Stutz. It is a documentary by Jonah Hill about his therapist, Dr. Phil Stutz. I have not finished the entire production but I have gleaned some good things from what I have watched and the best of what I have seen is Dr. Stutz’s three constants in life - the things we cannot escape: pain, uncertainty, and constant work. He explains that acceptance of these constants will help us deal with problems and I found them to be simple and profound in how we deal with the problems we face when working in the school business.

Pain

We understand this in the physical sense, especially as we get older and physical activity and age begin to work against each other. But in our roles as educators, emotional pain is definitely a constant. Whether it is from the struggle of maintaining positive relationships with coworkers, students, and parents or dealing with the disappointment of witnessing the failure of our students, pain is with us always. There has been much reported lately on the science of stress and how teachers vicariously experience the pain of their students and carry it with them in their personal lives.

We have to recognize this as a constant and that it does not go away. But we counter that constant with the joys of education to keep balance in our lives. This is why it is important to use our PLC time to celebrate successes in the classroom and to talk about disappointments or problems and how to overcome them as our common enemy. We cannot use pain as an excuse to avoid solutions or a way to place blame on others. We call it out for what it is and face it. Just by doing that, we diminish its impact.

Uncertainty

No one knows the future and this is why we find comfort in predictable routines. However, nothing is certain and routines can lull us into complacency and even create more pain when the results of routines are not productive. Knowing and accepting that uncertainty is always present is a good tool for dealing with surprises.

We want to know what will happen before it happens. This is the primary reason you all ask for communication from your administrators. We can never communicate enough but that is because with our communication there is always uncertainty. We can never express ourselves with full confidence because of uncertainty and neither can you. By embracing and accepting this constant, we can improve our relationships and improve our understanding of each other. This constant also reinforces the need for a mission and vision. We may not be able to predict the future but we all should agree on the reasons we do what we do.

Constant Work

Most of us will admit that this is a given throughout our lives but there is a part of each of us who expects to reach a point in our careers where everything is easy. I am afraid that that will never come to pass. I think that this is best explained by Kara Lawson, the Women’s Bask