Last weekend I went skiing.
I always have a romanticized view of what my ski day will look like. I see myself gliding down the hill, smiling as I whoosh by the other skiers. Then lounging in the lodge with a cold drink looking wind-swept, yet healthy and robust.
Instead, my ski day often looks like it did this past weekend: stand in line for rentals while people cut in line in front of me, making me irritated and annoyed before I’ve even put on my boots.
Then, wait in line for what seems like forever before getting on the chair lift to take me to the top of the mountain, which suddenly seems humongous.
I start to panic the closer to the top I get and I’m terrified to get off the chair lift for fear that my poles will get stuck or that I’ll fall on my face or god forbid, get dragged back down the hill by my belt-loops.
My fear only escalates when I realize I have to go down the hill wearing these stupid toboggans on my feet. The entire time I am skiing, I am talking to myself, “You can do it. You can do it. Not going to die today. Nope. Not today.”
I am terrified probably 90% of the day when I am skiing.
I can only liken it to giving birth – it’s a horrible,messy, terrifying experience, only made bearable by the exhilaration you feel when you finish successfully.
But despite my fears, I keep pushing myself to do it.
Why?
As adults, we rarely do things of our own free will that terrify us. We work very hard to build lives that are comfortable, that allow us to do things that we are good at, and we generally avoid those things that have not proven to be our strong suits.
Kids don’t have that option in school.
They are forced to take all subjects…whether they have an aptitude for them or not.
Reading is hard for you? Oh well! You better buckle down and just do it.
Math makes you break out into a cold sweat? Too bad! Everybody has to do math. Get a move on!
I think sometimes we, as teachers, forget that it’s hard to do things that are…well…hard.
When we force ourselves to do something outside of our comfort zone, I think it gives us a little more empathy and understanding for the child who is terrified of presenting in front of the class or the teen who refuses to read aloud because it’s just too embarrassing.
One time, when I was teaching English as a Second Language to university students who were almost unilingually French, I decided to take a French course.
Now, my French is…autrocious. It really is. It’s awful. But I took the course once a week at night and then during the day, I taught my French students English.
Understandably they did not want to speak aloud because they were afraid that others would make fun of their poor English.
So, one day, I stepped outside of my English-immersion-only philosophy, and I asked the students if they would help me with the oral presentation I had to do in French that night.
They all watched as I struggled to make it through my presentation. Some of them laughed (not maliciously, they just couldn’t help it…I was that bad), most winced, and some smiled encouragingly. When I was all done, they jumped on the opportunity to help me with my grammar and pronunciation.
The mood of the class changed after that day. My students saw that it was OK to make mistakes. They saw that I wasn’t perfect and that I certainly didn’t expect them to be either.
If we want our students to take risks, then we need to be prepared to do so ourselves.
So, take a Spanish class, ski down a hill, jump of a cliff (into the water, of course…don’t be an idiot). Take a chance. Risk looking silly.
Remember what it feels like to be scared
and then
be
brave.
suburbanprincessteacher 
Good advice for even us non-educators
thanks.
This is such a great post and a good lesson for everyone. What a wonderful perspective you have. I bet you are a fantastic teacher. It’s teachers like you that make all the difference.
Thank you. I always tell my students that we are all good at some things and we all struggle with others. It’s called being human!
Yes, we can’t get rid of the human part. That’s for sure 😉 I was trying to help my daughter with her Chemistry homework the other night. I’ve had plenty of Chem being a nurse and it looked like a foreign language to me….lol! I was no help at all
I agree. I think we ask so many things of kids that we wouldn’t want to do ourselves. I remember being chewed out by an admin (who was crazy, by the way…shocker), and realizing that this is exactly what it must feel like to kids when we chew them out. And then, so many times, we do it in front of their peers. It’s no wonder they tell us to eff off. Before we ask things of our kids, it’s so important to put ourselves in their shoes.
Great post!
Thanks! Sometimes we need to feel icky and uncomfortable so we can be more empathetic. My sympathies on the crazy admin. They can truly ruin a school, can’t they?
They can… Luckily, I LOVE me current admin.
In NJ, outside the comfort zone is the name of the game in education. It’s a constant struggle just to break even with fear. Politics has my husband ( high school supervisor) changing schools again, and teaching to the test is all the powers that be want done. He’s incredible at his job, but I don’t know how much more we can take. They want to kill public school in favor of private and charter schools, and the the state gov’t is going about it is by waging war on teachers (encouraging the public to call them babysitters, claiming that teachers make six figures and only work six hours a day with summers off, stirring up hatred of teachers among the public) and cutting funding to education by huge amounts. Things look bleak for NJ.
My heart goes out to American teachers like your husband. I swear, your governments are trying to destroy the public education system. They will rue the day, mark my words. Things in Canada aren’t great but we aren’t obsessed with testing…yet.
Nice message