It’s a simple question, but one that somebody you know needs to hear.
How are you doing? Really?
I’m not sure who it is you need to ask this. It might be at home, at school, at work. Just follow your instinct and ask the question.
Then listen. Full on listen, without judgment or a desire to share how you can relate. Just listen.
And if it’s you that needs to hear it, how are you doing?
Humans are divided into different clans and tribes, and belong to countries and towns. But I find myself a stranger to all communities and belong to no settlement. The universe is my country and the human family is my tribe. ~Kahlil Gibran
I shared this quote on Facebook 4 years ago today. It seemed timely with world events. I also shared a graphic I created to try to help two deeply divided groups see less of a divide between them. The image was grossly misunderstood and I ended up taking it off Facebook. The irony isn’t lost on me. I tried to show less divisiveness and I accidentally created something that exposed the differences and widened the gap that I was trying to reduce.
Think for a moment about how borders divide us; how cultures divide us; how religions divide us; how politics divides us. Yet diversity makes us stronger; it teaches us to be tolerant; it enriches our experience.
What if we invested time and energy into the idea that, ‘the human family is my tribe’?
I responded to a post on LinkedIn by Arun Jee, on the topic of “Justice is no less challenging to teach in the classroom” by saying:
“The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.” ~Plato
The world I see today has many people using the word justice… but in defence of unjust ideas.
This is the crazy world we live in.
People talk about defending their freedoms by doing things that undermine the communities they live in… the very communities that offer those freedoms!
No, enforcing a mask policy isn’t an infringement of your rights, it’s preventing a lockdown that will reduce your freedoms while we take care of our community.
No, stricter gun laws in the US are not infringing on your constitutional amendment rights, but they will reduce easy, dangerous, and deadly weapons access to unfit people that are likely to harm your community.
No, your flat earth or QAnon conspiracies based on pseudoscience and fake facts are not counter-arguments to actual science, and don’t get equal footing in an argument.
No, All Lives Matter is not an argument against Black Lives Matter, it’s actually an argument to support the Black Lives Matter movement, “If you truly care about living in an equitable and just world.”
No, right wingers are wrong to think left wing ideals are a path to a socialist controlling government that will strip away your rights. And no, left wingers, being violent against opposing views, because you disagree with them, isn’t a left wing ideal: It’s fascist and authoritarian to block free speech.
No, media outlets you should not be sensationalizing the news by polarizing ideas. You are not reporting news when you do this, you are selling out. You are sacrificing factual reporting for the price of views and clicks. You are not reporting, you are entertaining, angering, and dividing people with bias on the verge of being called propaganda.
Justice, rights, freedoms, and truth are no longer things that have the meaning they intended. They are empty words filled with polarized and rationalized meanings shared by less convincing and less reliable sources. Each ‘side’ believes these words belong to them. But words only have meaning when their definitions are shared.
It’s raining heavily and you are driving home. Windshield wipers are going as quickly as they can giving you the best view you can get given the weather conditions. You see car headlights heading your way and before you know it you are in a head on collision. Set aside who’s fault it is for a moment, just know your front bumper hit their front bumper, with both cars travelling at 65km/hr (40mph).
Cars today are designed to take a lot of the impact of a crash away from the people inside them. The front end of the car will buckle in front of the passenger cabin, and take the worst of the impact. That said, two things will help ensure greater safety for the drivers and passengers. First, there are seatbelts, and then there are airbags. But despite safety precautions, an impact like this could easily be fatal.
In this scenario, how safe would you want everyone to be? Would you like to know that both you and the person in the other car both had their seatbelt on, and that the airbags were present and deployed as expected?
Wouldn’t you want to know that you both did the best you could to protect yourselves?
Well, for all you anti-maskers out there, here is a simple analogy:
Poor weather = Pandemic, less than ideal conditions.
Car safety measures = Hospitals
Airbags = social distancing, protective distance between you and danger.
Seatbelt = Mask, personal protection.
The difference between a seatbelt and a mask is that your personal protection of a seatbelt in a car protects you, while a mask protects those in the community around you.
No one plans to get into a serious car accident, but they happen. When they do, the safety precautions you’ve taken might not be the same for the person or people in the other car. No one plans to spread a virus that might inconvenience some people, and kill others. No one wants an elderly family member or friend to die unnecessarily from something that could have been prevented, by something as simple as wearing a seatbelt or wearing a mask.
Don’t be an idiot. Buckle up. Mask up. Do it for your family, for those you love, and for those in the community that you live in. It’s your community. Do you want to be a good community member who shows that you care for those that are less fortunate than you? Or do you want to be thought of as reckless and stubborn? What kind of neighbour do you want to be?
Yesterday after work I went for a walk with a buddy. It was damp and a little cold out, but I overdressed and was comfortably warm with a couple layers open/unzipped. I’ve always been someone more comfortable warm than cold, and believe that there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing for the weather.
One of the topics we discussed was that while on the outside everyone is coping and doing the best they can, the long game of dealing with Covid-19, which probably isn’t even half over, and the social effects of dealing with a pandemic are wearing people down. Pretending we are ok isn’t enough, when so many of us are struggling for such a long time.
I spoke to a firefighter recently and asked him what keeps him most busy at work right now. He said 3 things: Car accidents, overdoses, and suicides. Overdoses and suicides have gotten a lot worse since the pandemic started.
And we aren’t close to things getting better. Yesterday there were almost a half million (recorded) new cases of Covid.
I believe this was the worst one-day increase we’ve ever seen!
This is a depressing statistic that flies in the face of people who downplay the seriousness of the pandemic we are facing.
So things are not getting better, and people are struggling. What can we do?
First, take Vitamin D.
Next, check in with friends or family that might be really struggling. I saw this Facebook post from a friend today,
“Phone is always on, and coffee can easily be brewed. I’m doing a brother/sister check in. Especially this time of year. Showing support for one another…”
And one more thing I strongly suggest is getting outside with a friend. My walk yesterday was rejuvenating. My buddy and I talked openly and honestly about how we are doing, what we are struggling with, and what we just needed to vent about. But it didn’t feel like a rant. It was an opportunity to be honest about how we really feel right now. It was better than a phone call, although a phone call or video call can be good too. Meeting and doing something active was wonderful.
When I wrote “It’s just this” a few days ago I said,
We might have made these adjustments fairly quickly on the outside, but ‘this’ is still not normal, and so it’s draining, and requires more effort than usual. ‘This’ will take a bit more time to fully adjust to… We will get used to ‘this’ eventually, and when we do, we will find ways to thrive.
If we want to find ways to thrive, we need to first take care of ourselves. Go do something active with family or friends (within your bubble). Find reasons to be outside. Walk and talk. Connect with someone who you can be honest with about how you are really doing. Lean on those who can support you and let others lean on you if they need the same.
In Canadian fashion I will apologies for this, but I don’t agree to disagree. Sorry.
No I won’t say it’s ok for you to have a different opinion about Covid-19, it is not just a flu. It’s also not an infringement on your rights to wear a mask any more than it is to insist you wear a seatbelt, or not enter a store naked from the waist down… and no, this is not a ridiculous comparison.
No, it’s not ok for you to spread QAnon conspiracies any more than it’s not ok to share religious reasons to infringe on the rights of others. These are both wrong in an open, free, and democratic society.
Do you have a right to expunge stupidity in this open, free, and democratic society? Yes. Yes, you do… but I don’t have to accept it as something deserving an equal stance to science and facts. I don’t have to see it as an opposing view worthy of debate. You are wrong.
I don’t agree to disagree, not at all. Your sources are not reliable, your opinions are not facts. I’m not agreeing to disagree. To do so, I would be weighing fact to fiction like they somehow are the same thing. They are not.
The economy can stay open if people wear masks, socially distance themselves and sanitize appropriately. Some people might disagree with me, and on a topic like this we can agree to disagree.
However, with 40,000,000+ cases worldwide 1,118,443 deaths, and over 9,000,000 known active cases worldwide this is not just a bad flu, it’s a pandemic. And if you want to disagree with that well then sorry… you are wrong.
Put a mask on, and thank those around you for being respectful and doing the same.
Dear anti-masker,
Go ahead and call me sheeple. You might think of me as easily influenced or docile. You might think I’m willing to give up my rights to follow the crowd. Sheep find comfort in community, and the herd helps others to be safe, not just themselves… kinda like masks do.
At least I’m not lemming, running off a dangerous cliff because others are doing the same. I’m not willing to endanger others with my choice of behaviour.
Now in reality lemmings aren’t really suicidal, and people thinking about their community doesn’t make them sheeple. In fact, most communal animals are very community minded and they do their part to keep their community safe.
It pains me to see something like this happening in Toronto. This isn’t community minded, it isn’t considerate of others. It’s metaphorical lemmings, except they aren’t just jumping off the edge, they are pulling the weakest and most vulnerable along with them.
Today is the first Professional Development Day of the school year. It is an opportunity for educators to pause and reflect on their own learning journey.
When I started my career, I got to work at a school where 14 of the 30 teachers were teaching for their first year, another 2 had only a partial year under their belt, and still 2 more were in their second year of teaching. We were both struggling and thriving as we muddled through our early years of teaching. We had a handful of teachers that, with just a few tears under their belt, we brilliant and very supportive. We had a leader who encouraged us to focus on students and gave us opportunities to lead. But more than anything, we had each other.
Our school based pro-d days were so special. One of my favourites was the October retreat we would go on. It was always themed and we would arrive at the retreat all dressed up the night before our day of learning. We were grouped into sitcom characters from tv shows, we were dressed for the 80’s, we we rock stars. The night would be filled with activities and games that made us feel like kids.
Then the next day we would come together and co-run the day’s events, filled with ideas to engage our minds and the minds of our students when we went back to school.
Those early experiences helped me realize that people need to be part of their own learning journey. Learning is most enriching when participants help create the journey. When we realize who owns the learning, that’s when learning really happens.
I’ve seen incredible understanding, kindness, and patience in schools this year. I’m a bit worried about the kids who worry, and I wish classes could mix, but it seems everyone is being so considerate.
Maybe it’s just the honeymoon stage, but I’m impressed with the gratitude and thoughtfulness of digital communication I’m seeing. I’m noticing appreciation from families for what is happening… even if it isn’t ideal, or what could have been possible without so many restrictions.
This doesn’t show up in the news. This isn’t what makes headlines. Schools are resilient places. Educators are caring people. Students want to do well.
Everyone is stepping up.
It’s only the start of the journey, and it may be a bit of a bumpy trip… but everyone is doing the best they can (students, educators, and families) and that is making a noticeable and positive difference.
Is it just me, or are others noticing this too?
I got this ad on Facebook today:
So, Facebook knows I’m an educator and is saying, ‘Hey, use our billion dollar company to ask your friends to fund public education.’ – I didn’t click the link, but I wonder if FB takes a cut?
When I go to Twitter, almost daily I see #clearthelists hashtags with tweets like this:
And
Another billion dollar company, Amazon, profiting from people trying to support public education out of their own pockets.
Let me be clear, I have nothing against teachers asking for help to get things they want for their classroom. Most of the educators I see using this hashtag are American, and because most educational funding is from local taxpayers in the US, there are gross discrepancies in funding available to schools based on zip code. Some schools and teachers in those schools really have to work with very little resources.
The reality is that wherever you live public education is publicly funded and there are always limits on what can be afforded. I’d love to get an expensive new 3D printer for our school to replace our aging one, but I also don’t see that as a priority this year compared to other things that I’ll use my budget on. That doesn’t mean that we are poorly funded, that means we need to be fiscally responsible with our budgets.
The thing is, it bugs me that educators, who tend to be connected mostly to other educators, are asking their network of friends to help fund public education, while billion dollar companies profit. That’s messed up.
Locally, there is a company, Finger Food, that has donated considerable amounts of technology to schools to help get kids interested in coding and STEM projects. They see a direct benefit to supporting public education in their/our community and they work closely with district leadership to make sure they are getting the most bang for their donated buck. This is a great relationship, which benefits our community.
Why don’t more companies look at education this way? When educator and family friends of educators ‘clear the lists’ of items a teacher wants for their classrooms, how much does Amazon make?
I remember years ago a big sports company wanted to put their logo on a high school gym floor for a sizeable donation. There was an uproar in the community about advertising invading our schools. My opinion on the matter was not popular. I thought, kids are bombarded by ads all the time, a logo without a tag line is not a big deal… so this is what I’d do:
Yes, for $—— you can put the logo on our gym floor for 5 years, then we re-sign a new contract or you redo our floors to remove the logo. Don’t like that idea? That’s fine, let us know if you change your mind. So, our schools or district sets the terms and companies abide or not, rather than pandering for any money and settling on company terms. Come into our building on our terms.
Anyway, that’s a separate idea to my original thought… and a bit controversial. What’s not controversial is that while teachers are asking friends to support public education, large corporations are doing little to support public education while also profiting. I think there needs to be more companies thinking about how they can contribute to the education of young people. If just 5-10% of major companies were to find ways to donate less than 0.05% – 1/20 of 1 percent- of their profits (that would be $500 on a million dollar profit), think about how well public education could be funded!
