I mean, I had to. What else could I do, would I do, should I do? Their situation called for it. I had to make the deal. So, I did.

No stranger to making deals with kids, I have found myself making a fair number of them in recent days as not only the challenges of distance learning but also the challenges of kids’ lives surface during this strange time. And just as no kid’s learning is the same, no kid’s life is the same, so in the difference, I make the deal.

Some of the differences I discover are common and expected, others are unexpected and uncommon. And some…well, they are downright heartbreaking. But big or small, common or uncommon, differences drive decision, which decide the deal.

Once upon a classroom, I dealt in the notion that if it wasn’t equal, then it wasn’t fair. So, I listened to this “logic.” But as I learned, I came to listen better, and I heard not what I expected to hear, what I wanted to hear, but rather what they were actually saying when they came to me with their differences. And I quit the “same game.” I learned to deal with different.

I can’t change the cards the kids come to me with. But I can give them a few fresh cards from my deck, so they may better their hands.

A bum deal? I don’t think so. Have I made some mistakes? Of course. Have I been “taken advantage of?” Probably. But my gut tells me that’s not enough to fold. My guts tells me to go all in for each. And so, I do. I make the deal.

Happy Friday, all. Have a great weekend.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.