We’re in week 9 of a Summer-to-Fall challenge. It’s Laugh-Out-Loud week and it’s also Back-to-School week. [goodness look at all those hyphens!]
The idea of the challenge was to help school employees enjoy a healthy summer with friends and family and then transition back to school with their own powerful stress management tools in their back pocket. In short, to keep their wits! Ha!
It’s not that going back to school is awful. In fact, one of our wellness leaders who is a classroom teacher (Donna you know who you are), posted her beautiful classroom the night before the kids arrived and said she might not be able to sleep that night. I read that to my 11-year old friend Bianca and she said, “Oh my gosh, me neither! Cool that teachers feel that way too!”
Surprised, I asked, “What? Did you think they were dreading it?”
It’s funny how perspective skews our thinking. If I think back objectively on my education, back to school was a supremely exciting time. Fall sports, crisp air but still some warm sunshine, Labor Day parades, bonfires, seeing friends again, sharing summer memories, and new learning… It’s all good. Oh and, if we’re lucky, a new outfit and some shiny new pencils. Do we ever outgrow the new supplies whim?
So why do we feel a collective grown from people when it’s time to for school employees to go back to work. Two reasons… 1) Change and transition of any kind requires mustering momentum from scratch; and 2) Bureaucracy is a big buttinsky. Momentum they can do. These are some of the most creative and caring people on the planet who always find a way to make learning exceptional. The hardest things for teachers are paperwork, outdated policies, unfunded mandates, parents, and colleagues who ought to retire or at least not be in leadership positions. The kids, generally speaking, are the easier part. We hear this time and time again.
Keeping our school employees well, thus, requires that we help them laugh off the stress, hold on to their freewheeling summer side in the face of adversity, and rationally problem solve with their peers as the communities they serve throw them one curve after another.
We salute you all in your back-to-school transition and thank you for the above-and-beyond work you’ll do in the coming year to make Vermont one of the best places to raise a family in the world.
To prove it… Here’s my favorite Facebook status of all the back-to-school posts I’ve seen this week: Our friend Kate (also an educator) said: “So, this morning as [my son] put on his sneakers, I overheard him say to himself, ‘I can’t even believe I’m in Kindergarten. This is so amazing.'”
As Summer edges into Fall, the hope and dreams of our nation’s future are in your hands and, again, we can’t thank you enough. We’re cheering you on from the Thriving with PATH sidelines so write us if you need anything!
Finally, in the plain old Laugh-Out-Loud category, to leave with a little chuckle, here’s a fun image. If you weren’t helping Vermont kids every day, you could be doing this:
My friend Sheri, a zoologist and zookeeper on a work trip to Africa made lifelong friends with a giraffe. All in a day’s work — imagine that pupil’s appetite and etc?!
See you on the PATH Ahead!