Be Positive!

Today is going to be a rambling post...I'm sorry if these aren't the favorites...but I had an interesting experience today.  And to a certain extent it is something that I wonder if happens to a lot of teachers.  I ran into an old friend from work.  She and I knew each other about six months or so before she was let go by the company.  She did not and still does not agree with a lot of the decisions the company made. She was surprised to hear that I was still working for them, because of her negative feelings about it.  I was finally able to pull away from the conversation and get my grocery shopping done, but her words still bothered me.  And I have been thinking about it ever since...

People talk about how this and that needs to change in education. But I really think that of the biggest things that needs to change in education is the attitude of people about it.  We can't go beating up and putting  everyone down all the time--whether we agree on the decisions or not.  First of it is not healthy and second of all it is very toxic.  I felt just very yucky and disturbed by the whole conversation--and it is just not productive.

Sometimes it is hard to take the emotions out of the decisions that educators need to make, but I think that we need to say our piece and then deal with the problem rationally.  Because negativity, I think, will ruin some great teachers' careers.  I know for me the last few months with everything changing around me in the field, I have thought hard about leaving the field.  But I love teaching in my classroom, independent of everyone else, and honestly I don't know what I would do instead.

So I guess I send this cosmic thought out into the void....but I would challenge all of us to be a little bit more positive today, tomorrow, and the next day after that--because we sure need it around here.

I love daisies!! They are the happiest flower
Thank you www.smileyfaces.org for the pic

P.S. I made two "You've Got Mail" references...brownie points to who figures them out.