School is my natural rhythm. In my lifetime there have only been about eight years that I wasn't in rhythm with the school year. School has always afforded me with a way to garner another fresh start whether as a student or as a teacher or both.
So when I tell you that I'm excited to be starting school again, I hope you can understand how deeply entrenched that calendar is in my own life cycle. I still love gearing my mind up for the school year and thinking about the different ways I will reach the people I will intentionally and inadvertently educate.
Now, image, being excited for school to start. I think a lot of us once upon a time got bored during the dog days of summer and couldn't wait for that first day. Maybe we wanted to see our friends that we hadn't been able to hang out with during the summer, maybe we wondered who we would get for our home room teacher, maybe we wanted to see if we would actually learn something.
Now, let me help you imagine my first day back to school. Instructions went something like this:
I want to share with you some keys to your success here. We are retraining your brain to think differently and there are some thoughts you are going to have that are destructive. Those thoughts center around thinking 'what can I learn here' and 'this won't work for me'. Squelch them immediately.
Because you are learning a new way of thinking, you are going to get uncomfortable from time to time. That's okay. Embrace it. It means you are learning and stretching and growing.
So far so good, you may be thinking. Nothing wrong with setting certain expectations and realizations. The follow though was the real kicker.
Be kind.
No trash talk.
Be ethical and original
Don't spam, mass email or violate privacy.
Seriously?
Seriously you have to tell adults, in an adult classroom, how to behave?
This is not the fault of the instructor. The instructor has learned through years of teaching this content that there will be people in the classroom who will be mean, cause trouble, use the classroom as a forum for building their network marketing gig, and who copy someone else's work and ideas and claim it as theirs.
Now, I can't speak for a lot of people, but I know every kid in my sixth grade class knew these rules. I'm not sure exactly when they go out the window - maybe when we go to middle school or high school, but these were basic things we were taught along with, keep your hands to yourself, and don't push and shove.
Do we live such busy, self-centered lives that we don't teach our children some of these fundamentals at home? Are we so far gone from some of the absolute basics of civilization?
Perhaps I shouldn't be shocked, but I am. It's bad enough when kids exhibit some of these behaviors. As adults we can and should
Law, order, crime, punishment, reward. Even animals understand the basic tribal behaviors needed for survival. Nature is much more exacting and far less forgiving when hierarchical standards are not kept. And when they aren't, it usually involves a challenge to the leader of the group.
In writing, we say that you have to know what the rules are before you can break them. It is in our best interest to make sure our offspring know the basics of decent human civilized behavior.