The dark arts that can conspire against a teacher typically manifest for me when the clocks are changing.
I start the year hyper-focused on knowing every student’s name by the second day because I want them to know that I genuinely care about them as individuals. I’ve set it up so that each day brings forth something I love. I begin by teaching my favorite poem, my 9-11 love story, and short stories that are dear to me. I have the honor of working with seniors on their college essays, getting to know them as people, not just students. At this time, my desk, my plan book, and my grades were all in apple-pie order. I continue to see the best in everything and everyone.
Eventually, the dark arts work their insidious magic, typically when daylight-savings arrives. All of a sudden, my students are begging to hand in eight weeks of missed work the day grades are due. I shove food in my mouth at my desk during my lunch period because I’m behind on grades, someone is stopping by to “catch up on the weekend,” or I’m scrambling as a club advisor to get all the permission slips for a field trip. It is always something.
This is also the time when a new article makes the rounds, playing games with my head, letting me know that the good students aren’t reading anymore, low expectations are destroying US public schools, and a teacher shortage is just the tip of the iceberg of an apocalyptic educational landscape.
As all this is happening, sunlight gives way to increasing darkness. The holidays loom, bearing stress, anxiety, and emotional fatigue.
It stops being fun and becomes work.
ONE THING EVERY TEACHER CAN DO
But there really is a simple defense to all this.
If I spend a ridiculously short amount of time each day – like five minutes – doing something for someone else, I keep the dark arts at bay.
It is not as much about what I do, it is about how I choose to live.
I know what you are saying inside your head. “BRIAN!! Teachers spend all day giving, giving, and giving. Now, you are telling us it is not good enough. You want us to give more????
I want you to see it a different way. Doing something genuine for someone else usually pays big dividends for the person doing it. Research proves it.
I spend five minutes a day drawing with my son. He gets off the bus, has a snack, does his homework, then right around 4:30, we take out our sketch pads and draw for five minutes. As you might guess, five minutes usually turns into 20 minutes or more. It is typically the best time of my day. In those minutes, nothing else matters. My mind is at peace, my soul is replenished. I’ve made a genuine connection.
Dave Stuart Jr., a Michigan high school teacher, takes the time – a few minutes each day – to build Moments of Genuine Connection with a handful of students. This is his attempt to communicate to a student that he values, knows, and/or respects them. He will reference things they’ve shared with him before and turn it into a small conversation. Or, he will say something specific that he appreciates about them. Sometimes he will let a student know that he thought about something they had said or done, long after the school day has ended, and expresses his gratitude for their presence in his room.
Even literature teaches us the benefits of helping others and how it can help the self. At the end of Volume I of Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet is alone, facing a bleak future. Her mother vows never to speak to her again after she rejects a marriage proposal from Mr. Collins. Her best friend, Charlotte Lucas, then marries the man (Collins) she just rejected, with Elizabeth condemning the union. Her closest sister, Jane, has fled to London with the dim hope of finding Mr. Bingley. Even Mr. Wickham, who has captured her attention and her heart, has left for the north of England.
But instead of throwing herself a pity party, instead of despairing, Lizzie makes an effort to do things for others. She travels to London to console her sister and her broken heart. She swallows her pride and visits Charlotte in Kent. Married life has given Charlotte a modicum of happiness that was absent in her life. Whereas Elizabeth once expressed extreme disappointment, she now admires Charlotte’s ability to manage her household and her husband. She encounters Mr. Darcy in Kent and some of her initial prejudices about him unravel.
It is the pivotal volume in the novel. Her focus on others allows for her own growth.
These are all small things – drawing, talking, visiting – but they are, in fact, everything.
You could buy coffee every Friday for co-workers and spend five minutes of your time connecting with them.
Maybe you will take your spouse to a school playoff game and spend five minutes screaming your head off.
You could make the effort to thank an unexpected person sincerely.
Maybe you join our little book club and you spend a small amount of time each day validating others’ ideas.
You could text your teacher friend the funny things your students say about the novel you are both teaching.
RESEARCH THAT BACKS IT UP
The International Journal of Behavioral Medicine did a review of 50+ studies and concluded that helping others is linked to:
- Lower depression
- Lower stress
- Higher life satisfaction
- Improved health outcomes
- Increased longevity
Another study revealed that people who performed five acts of kindness per week experienced significant increases in happiness compared to control groups. It was one of the first experimental demonstrations that deliberately helping others causes mood improvement, not just correlates with it.
By themselves, none of these acts will solve the problems I mentioned earlier. In five minutes, you are not going to turn elite students into compulsive readers nor reverse the national decline in expectations. But it will likely make someone’s day, probably your own.
The Correspondent, by Virginia Evans, taught me that sometimes we get so caught up in our own world that we are blind to the beauty that is closest to us. We think it exists “out there,” but we are ignorant when it is right next to us.
Every day at school is an opportunity to see beauty in others and to reflect it back. These opportunities are everywhere, every day. Five minutes makes a difference. They are the best defense against the dark arts.
*this post was inspired by a recent email from Ryan Holiday
