Back to School: The Shifting Mindset

It’s late August, and the feeling of summer running low is very real. There’s less time to sit and read for pleasure, or carelessly binge-watch television, or surrender to random afternoon naps. The sun is noticeably lower in the sky when my dog Freddie and I take our evening walk. Most (not all, of course) of the jobs on my summer to-do list have been completed. It isn’t much longer until the world around here will all be about back to school.

I’m officially back on Monday, the 27th, with a week to prepare before my students arrive. I learned only days ago I've been assigned to teach a different grade, for complicated reasons I won’t explain in detail, sparing you from enduring the professional vocabulary necessary to describe how this particular variety of educational sausage is made. Instead of making mental lists to determine whether the pros about this change outweigh the cons, I’m choosing to accept it both as the compliment that it is, and the presentation of a surmountable and engaging challenge that will define much of my school year. And ultimately, the situation I’ll be in will only be for this year anyway; regardless of what happens during the next ten months, there are guarantees that even more dramatic changes will happen in the school year to follow. 

In a lot of ways, the beginning of the school year for teachers has a feel of surrendering much about the life we’d ideally make for ourselves in favor of the greater good. Having been in education as long as I have now, I’m absolutely sure I’m not alone in feeling this way. It’s a job that has everything to do with the lives and welfare of children and families and community, with teachers being in a critical position to make positive or negative differences, often without even realizing we’re doing it. It’s both an opportunity and a burden. I won’t go as far to say that it’s the most important job in our society, but if there are any other jobs more important, there aren’t many, and education is as much of a cornerstone as anything else. 

Knowing this — not just believing it but knowing the truth of it — puts me in a mindset to start a new school year prepared to, for lack of a better word, attack it. Which I have to; teaching is not something that can be approached with any passivity if it’s going to be done successfully. For better or for worse, I have to own that being a teacher is not just a job but a dominant part of the life I’ve decided to have. 

At the same time though, being a dominant part of life (at least for the next ten months) does not, and should not, mean the job takes over everything. It becomes even more important to defend a sense of self separated from school, if only to reach for maintaining a healthy balance. Not all thought and emotion can be turned over to the job, which is sometimes much easier said than done.

Today I’m enjoying the peace of my last afternoon of the summer, knowing my feet will need to hit the ground running tomorrow morning and I’ll probably feel hopelessly behind on all I need to do before I get home tomorrow evening. I’ve had this gig for awhile though, and I know it doesn’t pay to manufacture added stress about so many of the things that will happen throughout the year, since those issues will eventually be resolved, one way or another. 

All I can do is respect how much influence my efforts and decisions can have on the students and colleagues around me, to remember that each day begins with a chance to start anew, and to acknowledge there will be limits to what I can accomplish. Trying my reasonable best and keeping a healthy balance in my life seem like good first steps in that direction.