Wisdom

Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?


This spring I made the very difficult decision to leave the school I was teaching at.
I had been very specific about wanting to teach in an underprivileged community. And I knew from the minute I walked in for my interview almost two years ago that this was where I wanted to teach. I had a pretty good hunch, too, after about 15 minutes into the interview, that the job was mine if I wanted it. What I didn’t realize was that sometimes when you tell people about yourself and your educational philosophy… they just don’t listen. Or maybe it was that she didn’t care. Or maybe she thought she could bully me and change my mind. After all, my principal had just hired nine other new teachers. Eight of which were brand-new, just out of college and SO young. The other preschool teacher and I were the only ones with any independent teaching experience and advanced degrees. I had been lucky enough though to spend the last two years in a philosophically strong “teaching school” as an intern and co-teacher at one of the most highly regarded Reggio-Emilia approach schools in the country.
So when my principal and I went head to head on a “rigorous, academic” schedule for three, four and five year olds, I wasn’t budging. I knew/ know… from spending years in my mom’s classroom, from two years of Master’s work in Early Childhood Education and from two years of putting theory into practice in toddler and preschool classrooms… that anything a child really needs to “learn” before the age of five can be learned through constructivist play. My principal didn’t want to hear it.
The children I taught are in some of the lowest socio-economic circumstances I’ve ever seen. Some of them live in homes with 4 other families- eight adults and countless children in a house with 3 bedrooms. Some have parents in prison or addicted to meth or spending their rent money on cigarettes and grain alcohol. Commerce City is about as far removed from Boulder as you can get and still be in Colorado. Admittedly, these kids are the kind of kids we can’t afford to lose.
(Someone asked me recently- “Who are the kids we can afford to lose?” because apparently my comment implies that there are some… there aren’t! But these kids in CC aren’t just going to screw around in HS and go work at McDonald’s… they’re more likely to end up being arrested as juveniles and dropping in the system. They’re more likely to experiment with hard drugs. We have to work twice as hard to not lose these kids because they’re coming from so much farther behind.)
The question becomes how do we not lose them? We have to get them excited about school. We have to make school cool and fun. We have to get them to take ownership of their own education. We have to teach skills like problem solving, logical thinking and sharing responsibility instead of just facts. And children have to feel successful not punished. In my opinion, especially in preschool, children have greater opportunity to learn and love learning in a constructivist style classroom. My principal disagreed. She wanted them sitting at tables with pencils in hand (seriously). And my life for the second half of the year was pretty miserable.
I had to make the decision to leave and see what else was out there instead of staying and being disregarded. I ended up job searching all summer long. Finally, I went into an interview with a brand-new principal from out of state. She has three boys and hates to walk into classrooms where everyone is sitting still at their desks and not talking. We spent a lot of time talking about what my classroom might look, sound and feel like if I were to teach with her.
It was still difficult for me to leave. I spent a lot time crying with parents and kids at our graduation party in May. I still feel so passionately about working with underprivileged children and making more of an impact in that community. However, I wisely trusted my heart and realized that I couldn’t be the teacher they needed if I wasn’t being supported.
And it couldn’t have turned out better. I love my class this year. I love that I have the opportunity to work with slightly older children. I love my parents and I love the community I teach in. If I had ignored my heart and listened to my head I might’ve stayed… and fought... and burned out. Today I love teaching more than ever and I’m renewed instead of exhausted.

The thing about wisdom is it comes from your heart not your head.
And if you follow your heart you become wiser every day…
in all the ways that really matter.