This is not a reflection on a summer juice cleanse. I did jump on the no-carbs bandwagon once, though. With days approaching college spring break, the commitment lasted just shy of 48 hours, until Taco Tuesday, of course.
Later, living in Los Angeles tempted me with the juicing phenomenon. Trendy juice bars on Abbot Kinney and Ventura Blvd indirectly pressured me into buying my own juicer. These juice pushers did have a point. They said that being aware of what you eat, ridding harmful toxins and breaking bad dietary habits can actually bring more clarity to your life.
And to be honest, I still love my juicer.
Closet cleansing is the new (but not really) rage. Thanks to a handy Pinterest cheat sheet, I detoxed my wardrobe yesterday. A fun little flowchart assisted me with questions like, does this item still fit your overall personal style? Or, do you feel good when you wear this?
I didn’t necessarily purge my entire wardrobe, but I did surprise myself by tossing a few items associated with unpleasant memories. My go-to dress for my least favorite job? Gone. Stark white pants purchased at a less-than stellar period in my life quickly contributed to the growing Goodwill pile blocking my bedroom door. Going deeper with the detox was nice.
Feeling liberated, I began to think through different detox approaches. What about an emotional detox? Or a philosophical detox? Could I apply it to teaching? Would it even work?
I decided to start with Anushka Rees’ Closet Detox Flow Chart. In this case, wardrobe equals teaching practices.
- Will you be able to wear it this upcoming season?
- Does it feel comfortable, could you wear it all day?
- Could you get it tailored to improve the fit?
Playing this teaching detox game in my head, I realized that it’s not that simple. There’s that one question that brings upon a big messy closet of questions, upon questions, and leaving teachers feeling far from liberated.
Should I teach for the long term or the short term?
Teachers are here to inspire, empower and provide students with the tools it takes to become happy and successful adults. Unfortunately, those things aren’t measurable on state tests. Furthermore, since education has become a money game with scores tied to funding, we often have to water down our philosophies just to keep our jobs.
I wish I could purge 100% of my teaching practices related to things I don’t believe in. Or things that don’t make me comfortable when I wear them. Or are outdated and make no sense.
We gotta do what we gotta do, though. Ain’t nobody wanna be unemployed.
Faithfully, I can say that with each year that passes, and each summer that brings a swift cleansing, some clarity and a whole-lotta hope for a new beginning, the school-year realities that crap on our summer dreams are getting easier to work around.
Can we throw out a teaching method that doesn’t fit us anymore? Sometimes. Can we overhaul the whole system? I’m not sure. But after months of Hamilton references bestowed upon me by teacher comrade and Lin-Manuel Miranda superfan, I’m proud to say I’m thirteen pages deep into Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton.
Hamilton definitely has something to teach us. I’ll be taking notes...
In the meantime, I offer this idea of detox, not as a cure-all to the missteps we’ve made or will make in the upcoming year, but perhaps to bring us one step closer to teaching in our truest forms...as our purest teaching selves.
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| Amalfi Coast, 2015 |
Power to the teacher!
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