I suppose we cannot know. We reach each differently. So, to know would be difficult. But what if we could? What if we could decide what kids carry forward from our time with us? What would we choose?

A turn to content seems inscrutable. What would we choose from such a stuffed bag? So much stuff to choose from. And in our choosing, would we choose what matters now in the short term or would we choose something that matters later in the long? And, how exactly might we make that decision? Everything we teach is “important,” but what really matters? Oh, I suppose we might suggest that they carry it all. But we know they won’t. Some of them–many of them–cannot even carry it beyond the test. So it seems content may not be the choice after all.

So, then, maybe the skills. Seems a more suitable selection. Kids will likely carry something in their muscle memory, which we’ve reinforced through repetition (oftentimes year after year). Surely, they might carry forward the ability to organize an essay. We hope. And I say hope intentionally, for from my own experience of having kids two years in a row, I have discovered that the skills I taught aren’t always the skills they carry. “I taught you that last year.” It seems much of what we teach remains more hope than know after they leave–or sometimes remain–in our rooms.

Maybe, then, it’s something else. Or maybe it’s something entirely out of our control. Or maybe it is entirely within our control. Hard to know. But this, we do know. Kids will remember forever and always our interactions with them and how we made them feel. And while it may be a bit inaccurate and unfair to say that’s entirely within our control (for their perception has a say in the matter), it is something that will have a lasting impact, whether we want it or not. So, though, we cannot know definitively what kids will carry, we must know–must know–that there’s a compartment–a space for us–where they will keep how we made them feel. They will carry us with them. Maybe that’s the “know” we need to know.

Happy Monday, all.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.