This week time sprang forward. The extra hour of light stretched the day out and felt good. We all lost an hour of sleep. That felt bad. Change is good and bad at the same time – it throws us off balance while providing the opportunity to recenter ourselves and regain our focus. 

Life never really settles; there is always something pushing or pulling us off our center. Sometimes it is something little like a regret that keeps us tossing at night. Sometimes it is something big like a pandemic that wakes us at 3am – exhausted by unsatisfying efforts. 

During change we struggle to put things where they belong – to establish order – to think the world apart so we feel we have some control. The truth – of course – is that everything collides randomly in the same messy shared space we call life. What we must learn to do is to think things together – balance is found in connectedness grounded by purpose.

Our educational system fragments subject matter. Math in one box. Science in another. English in yet another. As teachers, we challenge our students to think beyond the separations, to realize they can learn while problem solving. 

The artificial structures of academic knowledge make it difficult for many students to see the point of it all. The connections between what students find interesting and what they are being taught are not always obvious. What does mathematics have to do with drawing?  How does reading literature connect to fishing? How will learning the parts of speech improve my life? Learning without purpose has no traction. 

One approach to bridging the gap between academics and living is to engage students with complex problems. Complexity demands we think our knowledge together and apply our skills universally. The engineer who sees the failing bridge in correlation with a symphony reframes the problem – making a new type of bridge possible. High school is a time for students to engage in problem solving that calls for pulling knowledge together. 

I hope this weekend you have the opportunity to talk about the role education plays in helping you find your balance when change disrupts your living. Focusing on where you are trying to go and pulling the parts of your life together can bring you into balance and ground you in the present so even the strongest winds of change do not uproot you.

Peace,
Chris