Holiday Sprint

Halloween has always felt like the unofficial beginning of the holiday season to me. Maybe it is the decorations. Maybe it is the change in weather. Maybe it is simply because once Halloween arrives, everything seems to move a little faster.

Think about where we are right now. From Halloween, we have roughly three weeks until Thanksgiving Break. Then we come back, blink a couple of times, and there are roughly three more weeks until Winter Break. That is not much time.

For schools, those six weeks become something of a sprint. We have curriculum to teach, assessments to give, interventions to provide, projects to finish, activities to coordinate, celebrations to enjoy, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, we are hoping students retain enough of what we taught that January does not feel like starting over.

No pressure. And while all of that is happening at school, life outside of school does not slow down either. Families are planning Thanksgiving. People are traveling. There are Christmas programs, shopping lists, practices, concerts, parties, family obligations, and schedules that seem to become more complicated by the day.

Students feel it too. They are excited. They are distracted. Some are counting down the days until break. Others may be approaching a season that is not nearly as joyful as we sometimes assume it is. That is something worth remembering. This time of year can bring out the best in people. It can also test our patience. 

Maybe that is why something Marcus Aurelius wrote almost 2,000 years ago seems especially appropriate right now. He wrote, “It’s courtesy and kindness that define a human being. That’s who possesses strength and nerves and guts, not the angry whiners.” I love that idea.

We often think strength means being tougher. Holding the line of winning the argument. Having the last word. Marcus Aurelius suggests something different. Strength is keeping your composure when it would be easier to lose it. Strength is remaining kind when somebody else is having a bad day. Strength is pausing before reacting. Strength is remembering that the student testing your patience may need your patience more than anyone else in the room.

That does not mean lowering expectations. It does not mean ignoring behavior. It does not mean allowing people to treat others poorly. Patience and accountability can exist in the same place. So can kindness and high expectations. In fact, I would argue that the strongest educators understand that better than anyone.

Over these next several weeks, there will be moments when we are tired. Students will be tired too. Someone will forget something. Someone will interrupt at exactly the wrong moment. A lesson will not go the way we planned. A student will make a choice that leaves us wondering what in the world they were thinking.

Pause. Take a breath. Remember the human being standing in front of you. We have a lot to accomplish between now and Winter Break. We should absolutely make the most of every instructional day we have. But the goal cannot simply be to survive the calendar. We also have to take care of the people moving through it with us. Maybe that means giving a student another minute to explain. Maybe it means checking on the colleague who seems quieter than usual. Maybe it means recognizing when we are the ones whose patience meter is running dangerously low. 

There is a lot coming. Thanksgiving will be here quickly. Winter Break will arrive even faster. The holiday sprint has begun. Teach hard. Expect much. Keep moving forward. But in the middle of all that urgency, remember that courtesy and kindness are not signs of weakness. 

They may be some of the strongest things we bring into the room.

Until next time...