As I listen to people around me, many are transitioning into school. Some are feeling excited. Some are feeling anxious. Some are feeling dread. Some are pretending that it’s not really happening. I’m recognizing that my schedule is about to radically change. And I’m bracing myself for getting referrals to help the kids who are disrupting class.
When I was a kid, I hated going back to school. I couldn’t focus or sit still long enough to learn. I had to read things 4-5 times, and I couldn’t sustain my attention long enough to comprehend anything I read. When kids tell me, “I hate school,” or “I hate reading,” I understand them. I survived school by flirting with the girls, turning everything into a laugh or a game, or finding every excuse I could to go the gym or the woodshop.
I think we all want to fit in, and we all want to succeed. We want to do anything we can to get out of situations where we don’t fit in, we feel unsafe, or we fear failure. The woodshop and gym were places where I could be free, be me, be creative, and succeed.
Going back to school means something different for each person. Administrators arrive early getting everything ready for the staff and students. Teachers are thrilled to meet their new students and create safe spaces to teach and practice truth. Other teachers are dreading giving up their free time and having to deal with pressures, risks, and students who don’t want to learn. Parents are thrilled to get their kids out of house and regain some freedom. Other parents are so worried about bad things happening to their kids that they create unnecessary anxiety in their kids. Some kids can’t wait to get back to school to see their friends and to learn new things. Some kids can’t wait to just get out of their homes and get some sense of normalcy again. Some kids hate going to school because they don’t have any friends, don’t know how to make friends, fear getting picked on or bullied, or failing like they did last year.
Leaving for college brings on a new set of challenges. Leaving home can be exciting and scary. Learning to make decisions independent of parents can be easy if kids have spent their childhood making decisions. When parents parent in ways that grows confidence, trust, and freedom, going to college can be a wonderful transition into adulthood. When parents control and overprotect, going to college can be wonderful and also anxiety producing. I went fourteen hours from home to college to spread my wings. It was just what I needed. My four sons have all said to me, “Dad, you don’t really grow up until you leave home.” I tend to agree with them.
Life is about learning. What if we view life as a school of learning? Each day we get to interact with people younger and older than us. We get to face new challenges and solve problems. We get to use our knowledge and experience and talents and share them with others. And we get to learn from all the people, situations, and challenges we encounter.
What if we adopt the mindset that everything we encounter in life is an experiment? If you’re a scientist and you do an experiment, you learn what works and what doesn’t work, and it shapes your next research. If we try something new and we fail, we quit. If we succeed, we try it again. That’s not very good life research. It’s one way we teach ourselves to avoid discomfort at all cost. And it teaches us to shrink back from learning and failing forward and becoming better after we have experienced failure. I want to encourage you to lean into new learning opportunities learning from all your successes and failures.
I’ll close this blog with one of my favorite verses from the Bible. King David wrote these words. “Teach us to make the most of our time that we may grow in wisdom.”
When do you believe you are making the most of your time?
How are you passing on what you’ve learned to the next generations?
How are you creating safe spaces where you pass on and teach truth?
How would you describe your school of learning?
Who are your teachers, and who are your students?