WILL #2

What I Learned Lately (WILL 13/14 #2) by Dr. Josh Garcia (@Garciaj9Josh)

What drives us individually and/or collectively? As we enter a new school year, I enjoy learning the new slogans, missions, and visions of schools across the world. However, I am often stuck by the difference between the school’s words and the community’s words. What is our collective mantra for our youth? A mantra is a personal message that inspires oneself or a group to do more. It is different than a mission or a vision. It is a statement that sticks with you when you are struggling the most. A mantra is a few words that breathes life in when you are struggling to find air.

Personally, I enjoy learning new mantras that push me. However, I think I have begun to really understand my drive. For me, the drive feels like I am pushing my heart out of my chest. It is a boom of rich emotions that shakes my soul. It is the mella drum in my brain that is no longer a mystery. Through this reflection, I become to know myself as a natural wanderer. By being in touch of breathing environment that surrounds me, I have come to thrill the opportunity to inspire student results and draw out shared values that bind us together. There is a new high to being lost, for now there is clarity that “opportunity” is surrounding. Being lost is really knowing where you are...

Although many may say mantras are a dime dozen, very few are operationalized to change lives. When mantras do stick they spread like fire. What are the mantras for our shared work? How are they grounded in something greater than a single test score? How do we use data as a mirror to have an honest and accurate reflection of whether we are living out our mantra?

Although mantras are extremely personal, we can't make the mistake of isolating ourselves in our journey. Nor can we afford to not allow anyone to get close enough to see our naked truths for surely we will lose sight of the battle for which we are protesting to fight for. There is opportunity for students in the air. If you stop - you can feel it, breathe it, see it, hear it and smell it. Starting Now -find what drives you personally and collectively, capture it, share it and live it.

Finally by Tony Hoagland - "Personal"
Don’t take it personal, they said;
but I did, I took it all quite personal—
the breeze and the river and the color of the fields; the price of grapefruit and stamps, the wet hair of women in the rain—
And I cursed what hurt me
and I praised what gave me joy, the most simple-minded of possible responses.
The government reminded me of my father, with its deafness and its laws,
and the weather reminded me of my mom, with her tropical squalls.
Enjoy it while you can, they said of Happiness Think first, they said of Talk
Get over it, they said at the School of Broken Hearts
but I couldn’t and I didn’t and I don’t believe in the clean break;
I believe in the compound fracture served with a sauce of dirty regret,
I believe in saying it all and taking it all back
and saying it again for good measure
while the air fills up with I’m-Sorries
like wheeling birds and the trees look seasick in the wind.
Oh life! Can you blame me for making a scene?
You were that yellow caboose, the moon disappearing over a ridge of cloud.
I was the dog, chained in some fool’s backyard; barking and barking:
trying to convince everything else to take it personal too.

Cross posted: http://edge.ascd.org/_WILL-1314-2/blog/6548432/127586.html?b=