What, How, Why, and What For

Q, a Latin teacher I’ve known for a number of years, had an important “How do I …?” question this morning in a Facebook group for Latin teachers, and she got some good “This is how” answers. I gave her a pretty detailed “This is how” response, which she appreciated. But I realized there was something deeper going on – something that will probably resonate with you whether you’re a teacher or a transitioning teacher or a homeschooling parent or an adult language learner or any combination of the above.

Like so many of us, Q knows what to do, and she knows how to show her students what to do. She also knows what to do if she runs into something she doesn’t know, and she knows how to do that. She asks the what or how question in a Facebook group where other teachers will see it, and she knows that someone will tell her what or how.

But Q, like so many of us, doesn’t necessarily know why we’re asking students to Do That, beyond “it’s on the exam” or “it’s on page 73 of the textbook” or “it’s in the curriculum guide.” And she doesn’t necessarily know what for – the bigger-picture desired result that This Thing is expected to lead to.

“Question mark made of puzzle pieces” by Horia Varlan is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Meanwhile, D and I have been working on the next-step program for her now that we’ve found (or at least started to find) the new flow for her classes. D had many things to celebrate and just a few concerns when we met the other day. Her biggest concern wasn’t about what she’s doing or even how she’s doing it; it was about making sure that she and her students were clear on the why and the what for. D isn’t just changing things about her classroom structure and procedures; she’s aiming for a much more fundamental shift where she gets to be the facilitator, not the controller, and her students move from consumers of information to something more like co-creators. D has a very clear sense of the why and the what for behind this change, and she can already see that her students are intrigued and curious. So our new program focuses on Flipping the Role Definitions – her own and that of her students – over the next three months or so. She’s eager to get started, and I’m eager to see what will emerge in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Q gets stuck when the why and what for aren’t clear to her. E has the seed of a great competency-building, interest-based, semi-independent strand of class for her students … but E is stuck with mountains of grading because there’s something in the why and what for that isn’t quite aligned with the current what and how.  M is stuck with an old-normal approach to teaching grammar that isn’t working for her students, but she can’t quite see how to change it … because there’s something in the why and what for of Latin grammar instruction that has never been clear to her, even though she’s a pro at the what and how.

I’ve been stuck. You may be stuck … and if you’re stuck, you may be stuck in that gap between what to do and how to do it (the things that Old Normal School and teaching focused on) and why and what for (the things Old Normal School really didn’t need to address because they seemed so obvious). 
Good news: you don’t have to stay Stuck, but it’s hard to get Unstuck by yourself. Let me know if you’d like some help getting Unstuck or finding and taking those Next RIght Steps.

Reframing Your Identity

So … let’s talk about resumes.

My friend N is a career coach and resume writer. “Why,” she asked me, “is it so hard for teachers to understand how to write a resume? Why do they need so much hand-holding from me when they come to me?”

And if we’ve connected through the Facebook groups for transitioning teachers, you know that one thing I often help those folks with is … how to write a resume. “Why am I not hearing back when I apply?” they ask. Or “Is there something wrong with my resume?” Or “How do I revamp my teacher resume to apply for a job as …?”

“Resume – Glasses” by flazingo_photos is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

If you’ve been a teacher, you know that a teacher resume lists every imaginable job duty and every possible extra thing … because (so we’re told) that’s what the Principal Who Will Hire you is looking for.

(Principal friends. is that actually what you’re looking for these days? Latin friends, do you appreciate the “lorem ipsum” text in that image? Non-teacher friends, did you know this about teacher resumes and the Story that teachers are told about them?)

But if you haven’t been a teacher, you may not know this about teacher resumes. You may assume that they’re pretty much like the resume that anyone would write in 2020, the kind that focuses on what makes you a great candidate for the role.

But teachers don’t really see the job as a role.

Teachers see the job as a calling and mission, and the job (as we observed yesterday) overlaps with the professional identity in a way that’s true of other calling and mission focused jobs (like ordained ministry in many religious traditions, or academics, especially in the humanities and social sciences, or some parts of the legal and medical professions). But most jobs aren’t like that. Most jobs are roles that you pick up at the beginning of your workday and leave behind at the end.

Of course you can have a calling and mission and a strong sense of professional identity in a role-job. Mr. N, the custodian in charge of the third floor at That Last School of mine, saw his work as part of his ministry – but he also saw the specific role (custodian for the third floor of That School) as distinct from his professional identity and his professional identity as only one facet of his overall identity. At church on Sunday, at the grocery store in the evening, he wasn’t “Mr N the custodian,” he was Mr N the person.

But for teachers, it’s so easy – so terribly easy – to get the role and the professional identity fused together. We talked about that yesterday, too.

With role-identity fusion, it makes sense to ask, “How do I apply for This Job as a Teacher with the following degrees and experiences?”

But you don’t! You don’t apply for This Job “as a Teacher” at all! You apply for this job as you, a person with this specific set of knowledge, skills, and experiences that will make you a great candidate for the role. You include the ones that are relevant to the needs of That Job Posting, and you don’t include the ones that aren’t.

But that is hard to hear when your professional identity is “Teacher with the following degrees and experiences” … or “Teacher of This Subject in This Room at This School.”

T and I connected recently, and we’re meeting soon to reframe her professional identity as she develops a resume and cover letter for a Job After Teaching that caught her eye. One important thing we’ve already done – even though the position is adjacent to education in important ways – is to name, frame, and claim the Story of what drew her to teaching, the Story of why it seems like time to leave, the “IT” that has her pretty sure that the time is near, and the Spark that wants to blaze back up into flame in her next right job. With that foundation, N can step out – at least temporarily – from the professional identity of Teacher and write a resume that isn’t “all about me as a teacher” but “all about the things that make me a great candidate for this particular role.” And N will be learning a process, too – a process she can use as she applies for other jobs and, eventually, when she finds herself called to create a role for herself.

What do you think? And do you find that you’re suffering from identity-role fusion at all?

Guarding Your Identity

In yesterday’s post, we talked about how teaching tends to be an identity-level job f – not just a role that I have (the way so many non-teaching jobs are) but who I am professionally. And in many cases, especially the frustrated teachers I’m serving these days, the professional identity becomes a larger and larger part of the personal identity. Sometimes our specific role (“I’m the Latin teacher at XYZ School” or “I’m the fifth grade teacher in Room 209 at ABC School”) gets fused with our professional identity and with our personal identity. I call it identity-role fusion, and it’s really common and it’s nobody’s fault and it’s the root of all kinds of problems. It makes it really hard to guard your identity and protect it from the Stuff that’s going on around you … stuff that probably isn’t even about you. But when you have identity-role fusion, almost everything feels like it is about you. It feels like it’s all about you … and not in a good way!

“All About Me” by cardinalskate is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Sometimes life happens and there’s a change in your role or the context of the role … and sometimes it really isn’t personal. “We’re moving you from Room 209 to Room 212 next year,” That Administrator says, or “Enrollment is down, and we need you to teach a section of World History.” That’s never fun to hear! But when you have identity-role fusion, it can be totally overwhelming. “But I’m the teacher in Room 209, not 212! Room 209 is part of who I am!” says your fused identity. And it feels like you’re under identity-level attack. No matter what That Administrator’s actual intentions were, it feels like a deeply personal attack.

“I’m almost ready to retire,” said my friend W, almost 30 years ago, “but not quite. I think I’ll do one more year, maybe two.” In a quiet moment, she added this: “I need to figure out who I’m going to be when I retire.” W took things very personally – things that students and parents and colleagues and administrators said and did, even when they weren’t directed personally at W at all. That’s what happens when you find yourself in role-identity fusion. Even retirement, which W was genuinely looking forward to, felt like a personal attack sometimes.

But it doesn’t have to be that way! W’s friend M – but let’s call her Ms N – never suffered from role-identity fusion. And Ms N taught me an way to have space and grace (as she would put it) between your professional identity and your role.

She had built a professional persona, the “Ms N” version of herself. “Ms N” was the teacher version of M that allowed her to do what people in role-jobs do naturally: she could put on the teaching role when she arrived at work and take it off at the end of the day. “Ms N” wasn’t different from the M she was to her family and friends, but “Ms N” was a distinct version of her. “Ms N” was the secret behind her thriving for the twenty eight (“and a half”) years she taught, even when her teaching role and her specific context changed. Even when there was personal tragedy. And “Ms N” was the secret behind her ability to walk away when she knew it was time.

“Justin,” she said, “I’m retiring at the end of the month. I looked at that textbook, I thought about taking students through that textbook for three more semesters, and I realized I’m done. I talked to the retirement system people and they told me it would be $50 less a month if I retire now. And I can live with that.”

M was able to put aside her Ms N teaching persona when she knew the time was right. And, years before, M was able to leverage her Ms N teaching persona when her role changed – when That Principal asked her to teach some Spanish along with the English classes, and then, a few years later, when he asked her to teach Spanish exclusively. When That Other Principal moved her from Room ABC to Room DEF to Room XYZ.

Do you want the space and grace and comfort and ease that M had? Then you probably need some space between your professional identity and your specific role. You may need a professional persona, or you may just need to get out of identity-role fusion. We can work on that, or you can do it yourself – you know what’s best for you!

Roles and Identities

There’s a thing about teaching – a thing that teachers know, but don’t necessarily have the words for. For many teachers, teaching isn’t just a job role or “what I do” the way so many jobs are. For many, maybe even most, teaching is a professional identity, “a big part of who I am.” For some, the professional identity becomes the personal identity – “I don’t even know what else I could be. All I ever wanted to do was be a teacher.”

But your role is smaller than your identity, just like these theatrical masks are smaller than the actors who wore them. The Latin word for that mask is persona, and we’ll have more to say about it soon.

“Mosaic depicting theatrical masks of Tragedy and Comedy, 2nd century AD, from Rome Thermae Decianae (?), Palazzo Nuovo, Capitoline Museums” by Following Hadrian is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

What do you do when the world changes and your professional identity is no longer possible? If your job was just a role, you could leave and seek a different role – one that was a better fit for your professional identity – like the ancient actor taking off one mask and putting on a new one. But when professional identity and personal identity are fused together the way they are for so many teachers, that’s a daunting task. It feels like tearing off part of yourself rather than changing a mask. No wonder you’re hesitating! No wonder you feel so Stuck and frustrated, so full of anxiety and maybe even despair! No wonder you’ve been hoping for some kind of shortcut.

Remember U? He came to me last week because he knows he can’t be the teacher he used to want to be anymore. He knows he needs to change roles somehow… but what does that mean? Does he seek a totally different role outside of education, building a whole new professional identity to support it? Does he seek a teaching role in a new context, one that’s more aligned and more congruent with the professional identity he already has? Could he possibly change his existing role and re-find his Missing Spark where he is? U isn’t sure … and U isn’t alone.

Let’s call her X. X has been trying to change her role on her own. She’s had some good results, but she’s exhausted … so exhausted. The changes are good for many of her students, but some of them – the ones that need the change the most – don’t quite seem to get it. And just about every weekend, X finds herself with several hours of extra grading and a pile of extra planning to go along with the changes she made. That’s not sustainable and it’s definitely not the regenerative change she was hoping for. But what’s the next right step? X isn’t sure.

But let’s talk about D. She came to me back in early December with a similar issue. Less than two weeks later, we had found the part of D’s professional identity that had her stuck and frustrated. D’s role as the person who controls the process worked well in Old Normal times, but it’s not what her students need now … and it’s not actually aligned with D’s deep, true professional identity. Two weeks after that, D had a workable plan to change that role and readjust her students’ roles. And today, the first day back from Winter Break, she’s been sharing that plan – and starting to implement it – with the class that had her almost at the point of wanting to quit a month ago.

U and X and the others? You?

I’m here for them when they’re ready. And I’m here for you when you’re ready.

The Spark and The Community

T came to a coaching session for help with her resume, but the problem behind the problem for T was twofold: she’s seeking that spark, and she’s seeking community. Not the fake “we are all a Family here at School kind” – not the kind where you have to hide and pretend in order to be accepted and safe. The real kind. The kind that the principal of That Second School of mine was talking about when she referred to her island of misfit toys, where kids (and teachers and other staff members) who just didn’t fit in at the Big Regular Schools would not be “crushed into the mold,” but would have the freedom and support to become the best possible version of who they truly are.

That kind.

“Foothills Parkway Community Day, November 8, 2018–Joye Ardyn Durham” by Great Smoky Mountains National Park is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.

Depending on Where and When you’ve lived, you may have always known about that kind of Community. Or maybe you’ve dreamed of it, never quite believing it’s possible. Maybe you became a teacher, at least in part, because you hoped you could find or create something like that with your students, in your school or classroom. Maybe creating that kind of Community is part of your Spark.

It was for me. It was for U. It was for T and M and D and so many others. The subject or grade level you loved … that was important, but it was the means to the end of creating that kind of Community. And then Life happened and Stuff happened and it’s not that you forgot, exactly. There was just so much Life and so much Stuff, and creating Community can be hard.

It was hard enough in “good old normal” … and then came 2020 and the pandemic, and it seemed pretty much impossible.

“Behavior,” said one of my wise mentors, just about thirty years ago, “is communication. Those ‘bad’ kids with ‘bad’ behaviors are trying to tell you something important, the only way they know how.”

Time stood still as her words sank in. “They’re trying to tell me something! What could it be?” It turned out that they wanted the same thing I wanted – they wanted that kind of Community, that charged space or container where you can be free to become. They wanted to know where the boundary lines were, and they wanted to know that I could and would hold that kind of space for them. That’s when the Golden Years of Teaching started for me.

U used different words for the same experience. So did T. So did M, E, D, and N. So did every student and family and adult learner and teacher I’ve ever worked with, whether they’re commemorated (with an initial that isn’t really theirs) in this space or not. But all of us are talking about the same core Thing: the community we seek to co-create, the one where everybody gets to find their Spark and, as wise Otto Scharmer puts it, protect the flame.

You might have been afraid that the Spark was gone forever, that the Community was an unachievable fantasy-wish or fever-dream. But the Spark isn’t gone and the Community is seeking you just as much as you’re seeking it.

Let’s locate your Spark and connect you with your Community and connect the Communities in a living, joyful network.

Finding Your Missing Spark

U (not his real initial) and I had connected on LinkedIn a few days ago, and yesterday it was time for U to have a coaching session with me. U’s situation is a little bit different from what D, M, and other mid-to-late-career teachers are facing. U isn’t a brand-new teacher, but he’s at an inflection point, about a decade in. As we talked, I almost heard me in 2001 or so, when I had realized it was time for me to move on from That First School to Something Else, but I hadn’t yet clarified What or Where. Back then, I remember saying to a colleague that I felt like I was suffocating or drowning at That First School. U said he’s lost his spark and he doesn’t know where it’s gone.

Like me at the turn of the millennium, U wants his spark back. He wants to find it and follow it because he knows it’s out there somewhere. Can he do this by himself? Will he need me to help him more? We’ll see how U feels after his first day or so back with students.

E, who’s at a very different life-place but a somewhat similar career-point, told me she’s seething on the inside because it seems like she’s the Only One Who Cares about things that everyone – colleagues, parents, and students in particular – ought to care about. Things that they did care about in Old Normal times, things that were (and probably still are) important. E hasn’t exactly lost her spark, but that inner seething is an important sign, a sign she’s paying attention to.

With both E and U, we’ve talked about Robert Dilts and his model of NeuroLogical Levels or Levels of Change. But we haven’t talked about the different kinds of helpers that Dilts identifies – because different Levels of Change call for different kinds of help. And I realize we haven’t talked about them in this space, either.

Justin’s version of the “Dilts Levels” and Helpers Needed

Even when things are stable and good in the Physical and Social Environment, the Environment still needs a Caretaker to make sure things remain as they should be. Teachers tend to love the Caretaker role and excel at it, especially if you spend time thinking about how to rearrange The Classroom to make it the best possible learning environment. That was always my “summer is here and I’ve begun to recover” task in my Physical-World School days. I’d take a legal pad, draw a diagram of The Classroom, and spend a few hours (or more than a few) thinking about what should go where, what the flow of students and papers should be, how to build on the strengths of Last Year while hopefully eliminating That One Problem. But Caretaking is hard, maybe even impossible, when the Physical and Social Environment are rapidly shifting.

In a situation like that, you need a Guide to the new environment. Teachers are good at being Guides when we remember! But sometimes we forget. Sometimes we assume that “everybody knows” or “everybody should know” the Environment. We forget that what’s old and familiar for us is strange and new for our students … and when everything is strange and new for everyone, the way things have been since Old Normal went away overnight in 2020, we all need a Guide! But where do you find a Guide when it’s strange and new to everyone?

When that changed Environment leads to a shift in Behaviors, which it almost certainly will, a Caretaker or Guide isn’t the helper you need. That’s when you need what Dilts calls a “small-c coach,” someone who can help you analyze your behavior patterns and optimize them for the “different game” that you find yourself playing. Teachers tend to be good small-c coaches, but sometimes we forget to apply those skills. “THEY SHOULD KNOW HOW TO DO THAT!” we complain … and they (whoever “they” are) probably should, or should have in Old Normal. But they don’t. So they need a small-c coach to help them. And we need a small-c coach to help us when the Game We’re Playing shifts – when our Old Normal behaviors are no longer optimal for the Strange Emerging New.

But a profound shift, the kind we’re in the midst of, calls for a shift on other levels, too. When new capabilities are needed, Robert Dilts says, a teacher is required … but who will teach the teachers when everyone needs a new skill-set? And when our values and beliefs are suddenly misaligned or incongruent with a vastly altered environment, radically different behaviors, and significantly altered capabilities (both for ourselves and for our students), we need a mentor to help us sort things out. But again, who can mentor the mentors?

And maybe your whole professional identity is shifting and you really need a sponsor. Or you’re questioning your mission and purpose – your “What for?” and your “Who for?” – and you desperately seek what Dilts calls an awakener.

But the unique blend of helpers that U needs isn’t the same as the blend that E needs, and your unique blend is different too. That’s why you won’t find a prepackaged set of programs or a “Buy Now” button anywhere on this site: because one size kinda-sorta fits many isn’t what you’re seeking right now. You’re seeking to be seen and heard and understood and valued for exactly Where and Who you are right now, because only then will you be able to figure out your Next Right Steps and the support you need to take them.

And that’s where we come in, right?

New Year, New You?

If you’re reading this post “live,” it’s December 29, the last weekday of 2023. In just a few days, 2024 will arrive. It’s a natural time to make all sorts of plans and resolutions for the upcoming year.

“(Outtake) 97 of 365: My New Year’s resolutions” by dumbledad is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

But we all know what happens with “typical” resolutions, no matter how well intended. And we all know a few things about changes that last. We also know you’ve been feeling like a Misfit Toy, maybe even a Broken And Discarded Toy, and you’ve been longing to find a Freedom Bus … or someone who can help you build one and figure out where to drive it.

I realize I’ve had a lot to say about Robert Dilts and his NeuroLogical Levels or Levels of Change in the past few weeks – mostly because I’ve found Dilts’s framework profoundly helpful both for me and for the Teachers and Learners that I serve. Dilts notes that a change at a “higher” level of the pyramid will have ripple effects down to the lower, more observable levels … and sometimes a change at a “lower” level will have ripple effects at higher levels, too. If you change your perceived Identity or your values and beliefs about something, those changes will definitely ripple down through your capacities and behaviors and have some effect on both the physical and social environment. On the other side, changes in environment are likely to change behaviors, and behavioral change sustained over time will have upstream ripple effects on your capacities or capabilities.

My “beautiful” attempt to recreate the Dilts Pyramid.

A decade ago, I might have quoted Deborah Frieze and Meg Wheatley’s Walk Out Walk On: “Start anywhere, follow it everywhere.” That quote still resonates.

You really can start anywhere – start where you feel called to start. And once you start, the follow it everywhere part is just as important.

Back in 2006 or so, when That Second School was still The Island of Misfit Toys and I was still happily helping the “Misfit Toys” find their Joyful Work and pursue it, I realized I wanted to be in better physical shape. It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution; it was a February or March resolution. So I joined a local gym and started going every weekday morning, before school, to work out. That was a behavioral change in Dilts terms, and to sustain it, I made some changes in the physical environment on one side and in my identity around physical health on the other. Downstream, at the environmental level, I picked out my clothes for the next day every evening, packed my workout bag, and put those things in the car before I went to bed … so it was actually easier to go to the gym than not to go. I got to know some of the other Early Workout folks – and discovered that I already knew some of them – so there was a community of support. We greeted each other and we checked in on each other (“Missed you yesterday! Good to see you!”). And at the identity level, I started defining myself as a person who cared about health and fitness, a person who was taking action because he did care about health and fitness.

And it worked. I was healthier and happier than I’d been in a very long time.

You’re reading this, and you’re a teacher, and you want the second half of the 2023-24 school year to be discontinuously better than the first half was. You want to solve the seemingly unsolvable problem “IT” and gain the seemingly unattainable desired results “IT.” You want to Reclaim Your Teaching Confidence for sure. You have a sense that there’s another step, maybe a few more steps, before you fully Reground Your Professional Identity and Rebuild Your Teaching Practice – and find a way to keep it grounded as the People and Place and Practices continue to change. You’ve got some hope but you’re afraid it’s more of a wish.

Good news: the second half of the school year can be different. You can solve the problem “IT” and you can gain the desired results “IT.”  If you still have a season or reason to be a teacher, you can move out of barely-surviving mode and do the Work you feel called to do, and do it well, until it’s time to finish strong. Yes, even if that season is short (“until the next right job comes along,” for example), you can still do the work well and finish strong … and yes, even if it’s a longer season like “until I can retire in X years” or “until I finish upskilling for that Next Right Career.”

It can be different, but it won’t be different if you keep on doing the Same Old Same Old. And there’s Better News: You can take the information here and apply it for yourself – or, probably better, find a community of practice and apply it together – or we can work together to find your solution and help you implement it.

You know how and where to reach me on Facebook or LinkedIn. You know you’re ready. Let’s do this thing so 2024 really is the Different Year you’re hoping for.

What’s the Hidden Gift?

E (different E from yesterday’s E) and I have been talking about the joys and frustrations of E’s current teaching context. E is a very experienced teacher who recently moved to a Very Different Place and started teaching at a Very Different School. She loves the students, the subject, and the support she gets from her administrators, but E is tired. And it’s not the kind of tired that a few days of Christmas vacation can fix.

E is tired because everything is so different. It’s a different textbook – one that she really likes, but she’s getting to a part that she’s never used before. The community is different. The students are different. Students’ patterns of strengths and weaknesses are different.

We were talking this morning about those patterns. Disorganization jumped out to E. Lack of executive function. Struggles with attention. Forgetfulness. You could probably make a similar list.

“The thing that’s starting to come together for me,” i told her, “is that the corresponding strengths of the kids are important. Because yes the disorganization / different conception of organization, yes the differences in attention, yes the different ways that they remember and don’t remember things – those are real. AND somewhere within that set of surface-level problems (problems from our perspective), there’s a set of gifts that we and they haven’t recognized and haven’t opened yet. Those gifts are what interests me.”

“Birthday gifts” by Droid Gingerbread is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

But I realize those gifts – the hidden gifts – always interest me. Helping people identify and unwrap the hidden gifts … that’s the core of the work I’ve always done. That’s why that First Principal, all those years ago, hired me to help him help his students with their Freedom Buses. It’s why that Other Principal, nine years later, “hired me away” to work with her Misfit Toys.

Maybe you have a calling to work with hidden gifts, too. Or maybe you’re feeling like your gifts – the really important ones, the ones that led you to become a teacher and sustained you in “old normal” hard times – are hidden or missing or worse.

When you’re working with hidden gifts, you’re working at the level of hope. Not the wishing kind of hope that we sometimes fall into, especially at this time of year. Not that “maybe just maybe I’ll Get Some Rest over Winter Break and things will Get Better” wish-fantasy. Hope, the real kind, isn’t like that at all.

Hope, the real kind, is the bridge that takes you from your current reality to that future desired state that seem so out of reach. It’s the deep, deep YES that you feel when you’ve identified “IT,” your seeming unsolvable problem or unachievable desired results, and you see that it isn’t impossible after all. “Do you want to?” YES! “Is it worth the investment of time and energy?” YES! Hope is that deep, deep YES.

And as you read this, there’s something you’re hoping for. U, who I just met this week, hopes he can rekindle the spark that had, Back Then, when he knew teaching was the only thing he ever wanted to do. E hopes she can find ways to bring the fun and joy back in ways that honor her current students’ strengths. M, who got hope from me in a Very Dark Time and then gave hope back to me in my own dark hour, hopes she can reground her professional identity and rebuild her teaching practice in ways that align with the current and emerging versions of the Place she works and the People she serves. K hopes the temporary job will turn into a permanent job … or maybe it will lead to one that’s an even better fit for her strengths as a teacher.

And you, dear reader. You have a hope, and you are almost afraid to name and admit it. Good news: I don’t know exactly what it is, but I know enough to be able to tell you this:

When you’re ready (and you know you’re ready), we’ll identify that “IT” of yours. We’ll find out if it can be fixed or done (and in your heart you already know or hope it can, right?) and we already know that you WANT TO and it’s WORTH IT. We’ll name and frame the Next Right Program after that, and the right price will be obvious to all of us. And then we’ll get started … and before too long, hope will bring the desired future into current reality. And then we can take the next step and the step after that.

When you’re ready, let’s do this thing!

But It’s My Calling

E isn’t a client of mine yet, but E’s Story is so much like the Story of my best-fit clients …. which means it’s so much like my story transposed to a different place and time. E is actually a second-career teacher, and he spent nearly twenty years loving the students and the work and feeling like he was fulfilling his calling by working as a teacher.

And then things changed. It seems like E can’t do the Calling-work anymore. So E is looking for other jobs … and WOW there are a lot of people who feel just like E. They feel just like I felt back in December 2013, a decade ago as I write. You can probably feel it right below the surface in my stories of Ms. X, Mr. Y, and the Giant Review Packets that they just knew they could Make Those Kids Do (“just a few questions a day”) over Winter Break.

“Who are these people?” I was silently asking. “And where is this Place? What happened to the People and Place I used to know and love, the Place Called School that was at this same address, in this same building? How can it be so totally different, so utterly changed, when it looks and sounds and even smells the same as it always did?”

Like E, I had a strong sense of calling or mission, of what for and who for, that influenced my professional identity and the persona and role definitions and stances that I took towards things. My very first principal, at That First School, talked about “helping kids build and board their Freedom Bus and figure out where they want to drive it.”

“Ancient School Bus-2” by dok1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The principal who hired me away to That Second School … she talked about creating “the Island of Misfit Toys,” where bright, quirky kids (“who would have gotten themselves killed at a Great Big High School”) were free to find themselves and thrive as who they were. My what for and who for resonated with those visions. I loved those visions and I loved the People and Places and Practices that clustered around those visions.

“December 2015 Art Challenge Photo ‘Misfit Toys’” by COLORED PENCIL magazine is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

But visions change. Very First Principal retired, and his successors – capable administrators and good, kind people though they were – had a different vision for That First School. The “Island of Misfit Toys” principal got an offer she couldn’t refuse to lead a much larger school, with salary (and effects on her finances in retirement) to match. Her successors, who were also capable administrators and good, kind people, also had a different vision for That Second School.

By December 2013, I didn’t have words for it, but I was ungrounded from the People and Place around me, and my Practices were more grounded in what had been true Before than in what was true in the moment or what was emerging. And that was “just” from the inevitable slow changes in People and Places.

If you’re reading this, and if you’re a teacher, the changes that started in March 2020 were drastic and overnight. All of a sudden, you were forcibly ungrounded from the People and Place you knew. The Practices that had worked perfectly well or well enough on Thursday or Friday were suddenly impossible to implement in a world of Remote School. You still had your sense of Purpose, and you had a faint hope that maybe, just maybe, the closures would end after the promised two to three weeks and Good Old Normal would return. “And we’ll appreciate it more,” you thought, “because of All Of This.”

We know the rest of the story.

Weeks turned to months. Even when schools did reopen, things were Different. If you’re a middle-school or high-school teacher, none of your current students ever experienced Good Old Normal School at the level you teach … and when you stop and think about it, you realize that Good Old Normal is gone and it isn’t coming back.

My what for hasn’t really changed, and neither has my who for. I still love helping people build and board their Freedom Bus and figure out where to drive it; I’ve just added teachers whose world has changed to my list of People who might be needing a Freedom Bus. And I still love helping the Misfit Toys flourish as Who they actually are; I’ve just added teachers who suddenly feel like a Misfit Toy to that list. But the joyful freedom focus and the process where we recraft the Stories together … that would be recognizable to students of mine from 2013, 2003, and even maybe 1993.

If you’re reading this, and you’re wondering whether your IT is FIXABLE or DOABLE, the answer is “It depends.” It’s almost certainly true that your Seemingly Unsolvable Problem could in theory be solved, and your Seemingly Unattainable Desired Result could in theory be achieved. Do you still want to? And is it worth the time and energy investment? And can you do it alone, or do you need help?

You know where to reach me when it’s time. Let’s do this thing!

… but is it DOABLE?

Some of us, reading the current series of posts, are thinking, “This is so close to what I need, but my issue is a little bit different.” If that’s you, your big question isn’t really “Is IT FIXable?” There may be some things that need to be fixed; there probably are. But they aren’t the things that are keeping you awake at night and threatening to ruin your Winter Break again, just like they ruined your Thanksgiving Break and your Summer Break and all the other breaks since they started to show up.

Your question is different because you’re not really focused on the seemingly unsolvable problem. You’re focused on the seemingly unattainable result that you’ve been desiring to achieve for such a long time.

Maybe you’re a teacher, or maybe you’re a homeschooling parent or an adult who’s been trying to learn That Language and hitting a wall. Or maybe you work with teachers, parents, or learners outside of school. Maybe you have a formal title like Curriculum Specialist or Supervisor or Instructional Coach. Maybe your title is informal or “It’s Complicated.” There are lots of different ways you might show up, but just below the surface is your Question, which isn’t “Is it FIXable?”

Your question is, “Is IT DOable?”

Your IT isn’t exactly a Problem. Your IT is a Goal or a Desired Result that you’ve been wanting to achieve, either for yourself or for the learners (and maybe teachers) that you love and support … a Goal or Desired Result, BUT it seems unattainable or unachievable. It could be, “My child desperately wants to learn Latin, BUT we’ve tried every textbook and curriculum package out there and we always get Stuck.” It could be, “My whole identity is wrapped up in being a good, experienced, effective teacher, BUT the world has changed and I’m not as effective as I want to be.” It could be, “I just want the teachers and students in my department to be happy and successful, BUT they’re stuck and miserable and nothing seems to help.”

So, sure, there are Problems to be solved, but the Problems aren’t the point. The Goal, the Desired Result, the Thing that the Problems are keeping you from doing or being or achieving … that’s the point.

Good news: we can work with that, too. In fact, “Is IT DOable?” is an easier question to answer than “Is IT FIXable?” It’s a similar process, but that small change in focus makes things easier. When you message me and ask for an “Is IT DOable?” coaching call, this is the process we’ll follow:

Here’s an example of how it works … I’m time-traveling in a way, interviewing the Me that I was in 2013, just a few months before I had that moment of clarity that propelled me out of my Stuck and Frustrated Place and into the first version of the Joyful Liberation Work that I do now.

2013 Me: “The Story that brings us here today … WOW, that is a great question, Future Me! So, I guess you know it but I’ll tell you anyway. When I was (should I say when we were) a sophomore in high school, walking down the hill from the main building to the separate building where lab science classes were, I had (we had?) this sudden realization that I wanted to be a teacher, specifically a Latin teacher, and I wanted to use Latin teaching as a way to help people access the languages of power and see through different eyes and understand things more deeply and … I didn’t have the words yet, but yeah, I wanted to do joyful liberation work through Latin. And not just with students, either! I had this sense that there was something about teachers and schools, something about spreading joyful liberation through a network of Schools Like No Ordinary School. But that seems so far away now. Am I even still the same person who had that dream?”

Current Me takes notes and empathizes and explains the Cynefin framework categories.

2013 Me agrees that Complexity is the main issue, with some Chaos and maybe even some Confusion.

Current Me explains the Dilts Framework, and 2013 Me has a flash of insight: “OHHHH! Yeah, Future Me, you are right! There is something at the level of Values and Beliefs or Professional Identity, something really important that I’m not seeing. That’s WHERE I’m Stuck but I still don’t know WHAT I’m stuck in.”

Current Me takes “us” on a deeper dive into Professional Identity, Professional Persona, and Role Definitions. “OMG!” shouts 2013 Me. “I SEE IT! So, I’m a Guide on the Side. I’ve always been a Guide on the Side! That doesn’t mean I don’t lead or direct; I mean, you were me, right? You know that. But when I do lead and direct, I’m not standing in front of people waving my arms like a choir or orchestra conductor. Maybe in rehearsal, but not in performance. I … we … love musical groups where the leader is leading from within, right? But my students … they don’t know how to work with a Guide on the Side. They don’t want a Sage on the Stage either. They want a GUIDE on the STAGE! They want someone to stand in front of them and wave their arms. That’s the misalignment! And they don’t even see me as a Guide, the ones who are the Problem. They see me as, like, a Sage on the Side, and they wonder why I’m not up there on the Stage like I should be!”

Current Me smiles, very happy that 2013 Me could see, in 15 minutes, what took him (me? us?) months of struggle and frustration in 2013-14.

So that’s the IT for 2013 Me: students seem to need a GUIDE ON THE STAGE instead of a GUIDE ON THE SIDE.

Can this “IT” be fixed or done? Sure, and 2013 Me has seen evidence of it the days that he ran a “Traditional Latin Class” with That One Group. It was exhausting but 2013 Me did it and it worked.

Do I want to? That’s an easy answer, too: NO! 2013 Me has exactly zero desire to become a Guide on the Stage, and it would not be worth the investment of time and energy to become one.

What’s the Next Right Step? 2013 Me now knows that he (I? we?) will be looking for an environment where Guide on the Side leadership is needed … actually, to be precise, the kind of participant-leadership that you see in a really great jazz band, a small vocal group that performs without a conductor, or an orchestra with a player-conductor, but for teaching and learning. 2013 Me doesn’t know it yet, but that opportunity is only a few months away.

And if you’ve read this far, you either know your “IT” by now or are ready to book a session and name IT. And you’re ready to say, out loud, the important part: whether you want to Fix or Do your IT, and whether it’s worth the investment of time and energy. And you’re ready to see and name and take your Next Right Step or two.

You know where and how to reach me. Let’s do this thing!