They call it “The Curse.” Kids started begging me not to attend their games. Me! Their one fan. We didn’t get a lot of fans in those days because we’re regional and we didn’t win.
“Casey! You’re cursed. Don’t come, it’s a big game.” I began to test “The Curse” with baseball games. I’d pass by. Dropped ball. I’d stay home. Victory. I’d hide behind a tree. Triple play–other team. I’d stay away, home runs.
The Curse applied to basketball, too. Ever the skeptic, I tested it again. Sure enough, if I went, more turnovers than an Italian bakery. I collected more and more data–as anyone in education knows, the more data the better. Sadly, my scientific study proved The Curse real.
Little did I know The Curse extends to other things, like trips and events. Invite me–your event will be canceled, postponed or a disaster. The Curse controls weather, too. Hurricanes and snowstorms may seem like acts of God, but if I’m on your roster, they’re not. They’re The Curse. One event figured this out and said, “Sorry, stay home.” They’re lucky they caught it in time. Their event was global. If I’d gone for real, world peace would’ve been off the table for good.
Today I was supposed to participate in an awesome event, so the National Weather Service predicted several feet of snow in a radius of 1000 yards around my car. The event’s 35 minutes from me if I speed and seven days away if every Rhode Islander suddenly gets their bread, milk, and Dunkin Donuts coffee in the storm. Rhode Islanders can’t drive on a good day, let alone snow.
The event is called Choose2Matter. The point is this: Kids think school sucks. School sucks because it “doesn’t matter.” I surveyed about 50 of my students both before and after listening to parts of Seth Godin’s and Sir Ken Robinson’s TEDx. Exactly two told me “School’s awesome. Especially this class.” My future Yes Men. The rest wanted something more from their education. They wanted “it to connect–to matter.” They cited “Genius Hour” as the thing that “made it real.” Genius Hour’s based on Google’s concept that downtime makes for productive ideas. Creativity generates value. Employees get 20% of their time to work on whatever they want–provided it could potentially benefit Google. Gmail was created this way.
Good idea! I squashed five days of work into four and cleared the slate on Fridays. They’re actually doing 20% more work–not Google’s intent. But heck, I’m in education. I can bastardize anything I want as long as I mix in some math.
Kids love it. Much more than I thought. They work outside of class. “We can use this in real life!” Kids doing extra work? For no additional credit? Hmmm… Could be onto something here.
“Hey, Kid! Why wait four years before you make your ideas real?” Showing students they have the power to convert knowledge to action–that’s magic.
School matters when we make it matter. Choose2Matter asks this, “What breaks your heart?” Kids solve those problems. When kids matter, they’ll change the world.
Turns out, adults will, too. We want to feel we’re not replaceable cogs, easily retrofit with the next guy down the road. When we matter, we transform things, too.
“There aren’t many history jobs out there these days…You’re lucky to have one,” someone said to me.
I should’ve replied, “You’re wrong. There’s only one of me out there these days…They’re lucky to have me.” Maybe if I’d said stuff like that earlier in life, I could have converted “The Curse” into “Magic.”
That’s what I want for my kids.
Still, there’s no denying the weather. The event’s postponed. I’ll be teaching tomorrow, so I can’t go. I’m disappointed. Anytime kids stay up praying there won’t be a snow day, a snow day’s a sad thing. Don’t worry, guys, you still matter. You’ll matter tomorrow, the show must go on.
Here’s the secret–you’ll matter for the rest of your life, too. Maybe a little snow makes everyone all the more determined to make a difference when the work starts tomorrow? Maybe it’s not a curse after all.
Maybe–just maybe–it’s the start of magic.
[image: digitaltrends.com]
Great idea! I did something similar with my fifth graders called “Project Time”. They had 20 – 30 minutes after lunch to work on anything they wanted – write a story, perform an experiment, build a model, create a work of art, write and perform a play, anything really. They could work alone or in a group. The only expectation was that it had to be presented to the class when finished. My kids looked forward to Project Time every day, and I was always excited and amazed by the things they created. I worry, if and when I return to teaching, will test prep monopolize my time and crowd out the opportunity for free thinking and creativity for students? We all lose if that happens.
It will. But don’t let that dissuade you. There are ways to get around that. The best of us do. I was clinically depressed about the whole thing, actually, but the whole mentality’s one of stagnation. I can’t live like that. Makes me physically ill. So, now I do what I do for them, they’re learning at a higher level and the rest can go pound sand. I teach skills that they need to learn to be successful in life not parrot back. And I will continue to do so. For me, also, I front load a bit of work to clear the docket for projects. So, they’re effectively doing more work, don’t tell them. I’m free to be flexible and not do that so much this year because I’m teaching electives, but when I teach a course where I have to match to the other teacher, they’ll simply do more work M-R to clear out F… And they like that work.
I’m not using my school blog enough, tweeting enough for them or getting them to collaborate online enough. Next steps…