Day Sixty Six. Morning, all. Thought I would share another passage from a learning letter. I believe this young lady captured the essence of what this shutdown has felt like for many. I found it particularly poignant and compelling.

“Now just because I lost motivation doesn’t mean I’m not worthy of an A. Let’s say you’re a fisherman, and you only catch fish for 8-9 months out of the year. Yet you always caught really nice big fish. This happens consecutively for 9 years, and then one year, the season opens and for a solid 6 months you were catching wondrous fish and you had no doubt of anything else. Then towards the end of the season the water gets colder, covered in ice, and the fish start to swim elsewhere. Which is very weird because you live in Ecuador, and have NEVER experienced this, so you are trying to follow the stream and fish whenever possible. But since you have barely any understanding nor experience of any sort, you begin playing a harmless game called,”trial and error” but at the end of the day there is only so much time to play this game before you lose hope.”

She’s right. We have never experienced anything like this. NEVER. But we (all of us) did our part to keep fishing, though the waters strange, the fish scattered, and the bait spoiled. And our collective trial and error did not necessarily stand the test of time as our hope ebbed and flowed, leaving us listing in uncharted waters towards the unfamiliar sunset now upon us.

And as the sun sets on this strange season, she will get an A. She is worthy, even if the “record” in Skyward tells a different tale. But as she and I know, for I have been clear all year long, in my class, grades do not exist until the end, until the learner has had her say, told her story. She has spoken. I have listened. And though her trials found error this season, I believe she will go on to catch wondrous fish again.

Happy Tuesday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.