What does that title even mean?

Discovering something good…

Ahhh… it is that beautiful time of the year called “Back to School”. Our pencils are sharpened, hooks anxiously awaiting their new owner’s backpacks, and desks are neatly labeled (in cursive). We are breathless with hopeful expectations of a new school year.

And in those breathless moments of scurrying and labeling and bursting with excitement and anticipation, I have done some reflecting- and I have decided that this year, we are going to be on a quest to discover something good (hang with me…) And in this quest, two questions will drive us:

What did I learn about the world? And What did I learn about myself and what I have to offer this world?

Now, I don’t mean that we are only going to learn good things about this world- that there are only good things about this world. We will certainly stumble upon some bad things about this world (like our dependency on fossil fuels?). And I don’t mean that all we are going to learn is facts about the world, like that the earth is 75% water (it is) or that Rome is the capital of Italy (it is, and we do learn these things!) No, what I mean is, its time our students started relating EVERYTHING they learn back to … so what? Why am I learning this? Why is she teaching me this? What does multiplication and the economic principles of goods and services, what does good grammar and well structured stories, being able to read 110 words per minute and understand what I’m reading… what does this have to do with me? Why is this important to me? and what can I do with it… for good? Essentially, aren’t we all, even as adults, wondering what we have to offer the world? And why not start asking, well, now. And this is going to be the good thing that we are discovering. The idea that we can start to ask this question, even as third graders!

So, each week, it is my well intentioned hope that some luminous, energetic third grader (or deeply disillusioned third grader who has just learned that becoming a pilot somehow entails being proficient in ABC order) will sit at this computer and tell you, dear reader, what they learned about the world this week… and what they learned about what they can do with that knowledge in the world. And I, dear reader, am going to resist the temptation to tell them what they learned and what they can do with that knowledge in the world… in hopes and trust that I might just learn something form their little minds and they ways that they untangle what they just learned and transpose it into something relevant and tangible.

Now, as a disclaimer, we are all familiar with good intentions. It could be that by mid November, you don’t see any posts from us! Or that, we have reverted to teacher typed blogs… I know that you, dear reader, are familiar with the limitless possibilities of August and the realities of October! Dear colleague, you are also dreaming up many beautiful ways to start your school year, and you, dear mom of three back to school children, are dreaming up beautiful ways to keep your mornings chaos free with chore charts and lunches packed the night before… So, I give you these questions in August, hoping that we will take even what happens with our blog and ask ourselves… what dose this tell me about the world? And what does this tell me about myself in this world? Whether we stick to this blog or not, I believe that we will, by year’s end, discover some things that are very, very good…