Education is the continuous adjustment of curriculum, strategies, and relationships to stay on mission and sustain the best conditions for learning and growth. Success is the result of harmonious flexibility that resolves the inevitable tensions between our inner selves and the dynamic environment in which we serve.
We gain wisdom and insight from every adventure as an educator. These encounters include all kinds of crazy scenarios, so we use the difficulty and make improvements because we love to learn and get even better.
Such humility is the fertile soil that is prerequisite to a growth mindset.
I'm full of fears and I do my best to avoid
difficulties and any kind of complications.
I like everything around me to be clear
as crystal and completely calm.
— Alfred Hitchcock
It's a good thing Alfred Hitchcock was a filmmaker and not an educator. Once described as an “artist of anxiety,” his obsessiveness with controlling the conditions around him would have violently collided with the unpredictable nature of schools.
We all face difficulties of our own while also taking on the responsibility of loving and guiding students, parents, and colleagues through disruptions and hardships.
Amazing new strengths and miracles are often experienced in those difficulties.
Patience and perseverance have a
magical effect before which difficulties
disappear and obstacles vanish.
— John Quincy Adams
Actor Michael Caine offered some of the best advice I've heard regarding how to respond to the inevitable daily difficulties of life. Click the picture below to watch this brief advice.
Use the Difficulty is a wonderful perspective!
Is it possible that those difficulties actually add flavor to life? Without them, how would we truly celebrate success? Are they crucial to the learning experience?
Absent the struggle and stress, we'd lack the courage and discipline to overcome.
Difficulties mastered are victories won because they strengthen our mind and spirit.
When you encounter difficulties
and contradictions, do not try to
break them, but bend them with
gentleness and time.
— Saint Francis de Sales
Some difficulties can be anticipated, while others are so unexpected that no one can reasonably prepare for them. Resilience and character are measured in how we navigate abrupt interruptions—we reactively allow them to upset our plans and behavior or we find a way to responsively adapt and persevere anyway.
It's our choice.
Educated people who care continue to take the risks because when we find opportunities in the unexpected, we experience the deeper joy of learning and of life.
Use the difficulty this week, my friend, adjusting to the unexpected with wisdom and poise.