Just finished reading and responding to a great post by Vicki Davis over at the Cool Cat Teacher Blog on the importance of balance and perspective in education and life in general. Now, I'm not a religious person by any stretch but I found myself nodding my head more and more as I read on. Then I felt compelled to comment as her words hit a chord from within my brain.
Vicki, I loved this post not just because you share with me (and the rest of your readers) more about yourself and your life journey but it enables me to put a mirror up to my own existence. I turned 40 this year and have found myself more and more cursing myself for not being more ambitious, not seeking out career furthering opportunities and wondering if I should be "further along" in my contribution to my chosen profession. But when I read your post, I think that I should be happy with what I have achieved, high profile or not, that even if I don't do anything more substantial in this field, it doesn't really matter. I saw a job vacancy the other week - right up my alley, next step up the promotion ladder, interactive whiteboard expertise required and all that but I decided to leave it alone. The school I work at is less than two minutes drive (I should ride my bike more often!), the stuff we are doing is exciting and I have a chance to really cement some good practices in place. Plus with a young family nearby, there are plenty of reasons to keep the balance. Vicki, I'm not a driven personality as you describe yourself but you recognise the dangers of that path - there is danger also in my own pushing towards something that I "think" I should be doing as opposed to what I want to be doing. I don't want to so busy or over-committed that I can't get down on the carpet after work and play Thomas trains with my youngest son or read Dr.Seuss books to my oldest every evening. Vicki, thanks for sharing how you strive for perspective - I think balance is a really important message for us in this hyper-connected world.
Vicki's words are better. Go read them.
Balanced Rock with balanced rocks by ghewgill
Flickr Creative Commons
