Welcome to the Arena! Or is it School?

Second week of school, and first week with all of our kiddos are in the books! It always amazes me how fast schools shift from summer nothingness, to summer is a distant memory. If you’ve spent any time in a school, you know schools have a life of their own and schools are alive again!

Last week was all about “doing relaunch right”; implementing new routines and protocols to ensure a safe and enjoyable return to school for students, staff, and parents. It was great to be back at school but nervousness, anxiety and apprehension were definitely in the air.

The students knocked it out of the park with their preparedness, maturity, patience, and understanding of new expectations added to their supply lists this year. As the week unrolled, a collective spirit of “we’ve got this” could be felt throughout the school.

This week I saw routines recently foreign to us become habits. We get close, we wear masks. We touch things, we sanitize our hands. We respect each other’s personal space. We’re sick, we stay home. Not as many reminders, just good sense actions.

Something else happened this week. It wasn’t just about COVID anymore. My days started filling up with dare I say, normal teaching and principaling work. I am grateful for being back and feeling normal again. Last week was ‘back to school’, but this week was ‘school is back!’

It’s been a near perfect startup, except...

If I could change one thing, I regret how over-politicized school relaunch has become. The political rhetoric and divisiveness has added undue stress and angst to everyone actually involved in school relaunch. The conduct of politicians, social media, interest groups, and media outlets have been embarrassing.

Schools are open, running, and we have work to do. Everyone else, find something else to do and leave us alone! If you think the noise you’re generating is helping, it’s not! I’m reminded of “The Man in The Arena” from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizen in a Republic” speech:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

The year has started, schools are full of students and staff that are daring greatly to make this a safe and enjoyable school year. Whether our context is online, in-person, or a bit of both, we are committed to the arena that is the 2020-2021 school year. My ask is that if you’re not committed to being in the arena, please leave us to it. You’re always welcome to join us in the arena, just be committed to actually helping us all make a great school year!

Thank you to everyone in every community, stepping into our schools to make great things happen!