We Are Yogis

“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance.”

-Jodi Picoult

There is no way around it. Being an educator is almost synonomous with being flexible. I know most people probably don't list flexibility at the top of traits for being a good teacher, and I'm not saying that flexibility is more important that content knowledge or an ability to connect with kids. Those are the traits that will make you great in the classroom, but even if you are a rockstar in those two areas, if you are not flexible, you will not last long in this profession. Great, veteran teachers are like yoga masters, bending and contorting themselves in ways that make the rest of us cringe while maitaining a totally serene demeanor. They don't even breath heavy. 

Being an educator means balancing the demands of a diverse array of stakeholders. We know that we have to be aware of the expectations of parents, students, colleagues, administrators, and the school board, but even those groups splinter into smaller groups: the parents who think you are too hard, the ones who think you are too soft, the colleagues who seem to have it all together, the ones who don't, administrators who support, those who don't, the students who are doing the right things, the ones who aren't. Even that much longer list oversimplifies it. Throw in constantly changing mandates, alternate schedules for testing, student absences, field trips, assemblies, fire drills, etc., and you just about pull a muscle even thinking about it.

Not to beat a dead horse, but we are on the front edge of some very dramatic changes, and while I am doing my best to be as deliberate and meticulous as possible about implementing these changes to minimize changing the changes, it is inevitable that some things will change more than once before they finally change, so we are all going to have to put on our yogi hats, manage our breathing and get Gumby-level flexible to make it work.