How to Make a Difference

For the past few weeks, I've been thinking about and writing about grades and grading. It's been on my mind, and I use this space to think and then write out loud. Then, on Saturday, this photograph popped up in my Facebook Memories: 

Photo courtesy of Travis Jordan (@supt_jordan)

And I remembered why I got into teaching. 

I did so to make a difference in the lives of children. Never, not for one second, did I think that I would be a superintendent. A principal, maybe. But not a superintendent. At that time, I thought superintendents were too far removed from the classrooms, where the actual teaching and learning occurs. Where the real lightbulb moments happen. Where the critical relationships are formed, where students feel safe, welcomed, and included so they can learn to the best of their ability. Where they can feel brave enough to make mistakes, which is a part of our learning process. 

I loved the classroom. The last time I was a full-time teacher, I taught first grade. The reality is that when first graders show up on day one, they are simply kindergartners who leave for the summer. The joys and frustrations of helping six-year-olds navigate through first grade was something that I simply loved doing. 

There were so many critical moments that I got to be a part of in the lives of those first graders. Turn-taking, kindness, sharing, were all woven into threads of reading, math, and writing. The life lessons that we rely on today as adults were taught to us implicitly and explicitly in our years of formal and informal education. One of my favorite first-grade moments to explore was working through the notion of compassion and forgiveness, which is not an easy one for six-year-olds to master. And yet, those were the times I remember most from my time in room 608 at 250 Stuart Street in Boston. Face to face with two little ones, helping to see the other's perspective and to give some grace. 

As my educational journey evolved from the classroom into leadership, I found myself doing more with compassion and forgiveness for adults. While I was further away from the specifics of teaching and learning with a class full of students, I found myself working through similar moments in the lives of adults and hoping that they would then share that with the students in their own classrooms. I was no longer negotiating who belonged to a specific pencil, and instead, I was trying to offer compassion to grown-ups who may have been stuck in their own thinking. 

The truth is, I was still making a difference in the lives of children. By making a difference in the lives of the adults, who try daily to make a difference in the lives of children. We do that through grace, compassion, empathy, and love. While grades have their place and are important, we make a difference when we focus on relationships. And let that be our legacy.