We Sow and Don’t Know

SOW WHAT?

I have always been intrigued by the things that agrarian life used to teach us, that we now have lost.  I’m fascinated by the natural intelligence that comes from life on a farm, and the kind of innate wisdom in naturalists.  One part of that world is the wisdom that emerges from living with the earth.  Planting principles teach us all about how life flows, and many of the proverbs that have guided people for thousands of years come from that world.

Such is the case with “sowing and reaping”—this idea that what we put into the ground is what grows up for us. It’s more than a cute idea.  It is a universal law, like gravity.  It applies not just to planting, though, but to every area of our lives.

I feel like as adults, and as teachers, we know this innately.  It’s why we talk to our kids about the law of kindness, and how powerful it is to be a good friend, to show empathy and to help when we can.  It’s why we tell them, in today’s parlance, to ignore their “haters,” because the hater’s day is coming.  But I think we don’t believe that the law of sowing and reaping applies to us in our own professional dealings as educators, and this seeming disconnect FASCINATES me.  Let me explain.

TEACHERS, WE CAN BE THE WORST...

Have you ever been in a staff meeting or professional development gathering where information is being shared and someone is in front of the group talking---but a million sidebars are happening, too? People may be taking care to whisper, or may be so bold as to talk in loud tones above the speaker.  I have been in meetings like this for years, in utter disbelief at the brazenness of adults who know better.  How do I know they know better? These very same adults would have their students’ HIDES if they did the very same thing to them!   Usually the teachers with THE strongest “respect me” ethic are the worst offenders in this way! Why is that?   If you ask me, those teachers are literally setting the stage for their students to treat them in exactly the same way.  So even though I do address it in my own ways when I’m the presenter—and I discourage people from talking to ME over the speaker through subtle redirections if I’m in the audience--I’m thoroughly convinced that their day really is coming.  Not just a day of reaping this kind of behavior in their own domains, but a day of realization, where they wake up to their ways and change them.

Just yesterday, I observed another category of ironic boldness where sowing is happening unawares.  The office had announced that we would be having indoor recess.  We all heard it, as clear as anything.  Yet about 10 minutes later, I saw one grade level of teachers taking their students outside.  They’d decided for some reason to be exempt from the directive.  I stood amazed.  (This happens to also be a set of teachers who experienced a great deal of chaos in their rooms this year due to behavior and had challenges establishing community.) 

GETTING CURIOUS

Of course, the curious social scientist in me is now trying to find a way to ask the teachers about this in a way that can give insight into their thinking.  I think I want to our talk to go like this:

What do you believe your most defiant students believe about following the rules and falling in line with classroom expectations—even when they don’t want to?

When their teacher does the opposite of what the administration has asked the whole school to do, what message do you think they’ll take away from that?

Does that message support or detract from the mindset you want those students to live out in your room and beyond?

It’s not that I see myself as the compliance police. Truly, I don’t.   It’s just that I think we have to hold ourselves to at least the same standard we give our kids.  Otherwise, we are clanging cymbals, empty noise in their search for trustworthy and admirable adults.  Someone would say I’m completely going overboard.  But it really is the little things that set the stage for what we get from people.  So, I just thought it was worth saying out loud:  sowing and reaping is still in full effect, whether we acknowledge it or not.  It is what it is.  Might as well plant some good seeds…

Yours in the struggle,