GOOD ENOUGH

Ink drawing by one of my students, Sara Kearns,
which shows some of the principles of design:
positive and negative space, repetition, contrast, shape/line

"I didn't think I was good enough," explained Ginni Rometty, the former CEO of IBM, who spoke in San Francisco recently. She described how every job she was offered seemed beyond her ability, but she took them anyway. Seeing Rometty, a tall, blonde, confident woman, you might expect her to have come from a family of privilege. She commands a room and I was surprised by her childhood story. She and her siblings were raised by their mom alone after their father abandoned them. Her mom worked at low-paying jobs, juggled child care while attending college, and became Rometty's best role model.

Yet even Rometty has the doubts that so many of us develop in early adolescence and beyond. I thought of Rometty's talk as I sat on a small stool in our garage and sifted through nine binders of lesson plans that I developed in my career as a junior high school "utility" teacher. Back then I taught art, PE, English, journalism/yearbook, and a class called Quest, which the Lions Club sponsored to help students to learn to get along better with friends and family and to develop the character needed to overcome life's challenges.

Advance and Do Not Fear the Thorns in the Path by M. Slavin

During Quest class, we sat in a circle and went over the day's lesson. One was particularly effective for the students as well as when we shared the story with their parents who had to commit to attending sessions of the class in the evening. One student in the class held a can and some small stones. Another read the story which begins early in the morning when the character sleeps in. The first stone clinks into the can. Each time something negative happened throughout the day, another stone would drop into the can. By the end of the story, the can was almost full and the looks on the kids' and parents' faces had a new understanding of all the negative actions than can occur during the day.

I remember a student in my English class who I thought had all the promise in the world, but who rarely turned in his work. He had a horde of excuses, including my favorite. He told me, "I was walking to school, my homework flew out of my hand and landed on the grill of a passing car and disappeared forever." Creative, yes. Feeling like he wasn't good enough, yes too.

Playful Butterfly by M. Slavin used as an example for a lesson plan

Most people who asked me what I did for a living, raised their eyebrows and shook their heads as they remember their own tumultuous times in junior high. Teaching that age level filled my day with a series of small defeats and rewards and sometimes a moment of pure joy when I watched a student comprehend something new. As a teacher, I always had doubts about myself. When I left teaching, I thought to myself, "After teaching junior high, I can survive anything!"

Looking at the binders and carefully constructed lessons that I created, I'm glad I looked through them knowing that sometimes something that I kept from my past gives me a new understanding of myself. I could tell my younger self that as a teacher I was good enough. 

A simple lesson in type design by M. Slavin

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Check out what Ginni Rometty's about changing the world in her new book,  Good Power: Leading Positive Change in Our Lives, Work, and World 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2023/03/08/former-ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-good-power/

Check out the Quest Program for Social and Emotional Learning here:

https://www.lions-quest.org/explore-our-sel-curriculum/middle-school-social-and-emotional-learning-program/