It is my sincere wish that you have many, many things in your life for which you are thankful.
As we gather next week for Thanksgiving in the United States, our thoughts, hopefully, turn to those things for which we are grateful: family, friends, good health, good jobs… It is my sincere wish that you have many, many things in your life for which you are thankful and that they come to mind readily and easily.
Today, I would like to challenge us to be thankful for some other things, things that do not readily come to mind, things that we might, more likely, rather disdain than praise.
I would like to challenge us to be thankful for:
…the difficult parent conversation because many of these conversations lead us to reassessing how we do our work. In my experience, not all but most of these conversations happen because the parents love their kids and want to support them. Even the most difficult talks can (and often do) teach us something. Think back. Have you changed your approach, your policies, your demeanor because of a conversation like this? Give thanks.
…the challenging student because I would rather have a student challenge me than simply sit there. I would rather have a student fired up about something than a room full of disaffected ones. I would rather have a student make me consider how I deal with challenging students in the first place. We work with kids, they are going to challenge us. More often than not, their challenges can be channeled (if we are skilled) into positive results. Give thanks.
…the unreasonable colleague because most of the people with whom I work only seem unreasonable until I understand from where they are coming. When I work with a colleague whose opinions are outside my own, I have an opportunity to learn something about that colleague and, perhaps, something about myself. If I simply avoid people because I find them “unreasonable” I wonder how many people I will end up having to avoid… Give thanks.
…the inconvenient and inappropriate question because sometimes the out-of-left-field, how-could-you-possibly-have-asked-that-question is exactly the question that needs to be asked. As teachers and leaders, we are sometimes so goal oriented, we forget to slow down and ask outside-the-box questions. We avoid delaying to ask big questions. Someone should ask those and we should give space for them to be asked. Give thanks.
…the times when time runs out because, as leaders, we often impose deadlines. When the deadlines imposed upon us run out and we are late, we sometimes think those deadlines we missed were unreasonable. How about the deadlines we, ourselves, impose? How reasonable are they? Give thanks.
…the dismissal because every dismissal, of a student, staff member or teacher, grants us the opportunity to ask: “did I do everything I could to keep this person around? Did the school do all it could?” Those are terrific questions to ask. Give thanks.
…the late-night cry because getting emotional about our work, getting upset, breaking down, reminds us that we care. Give thanks.
Give thanks for the work. Give thanks for the kids. Give thanks for your colleagues. Give thanks for the challenges.
Give thanks.