Potential

These days I do a lot of reflecting. It is a tool that I’ve been practicing for many years. Some can call it paranoia, or control, or perfection, but the art of reflection has always been a tool I’ve used to help make me better.  I was reflecting or I suppose reminiscing about many of my experiences with my husband. I was tickled the other night when I remembered one of our very first fights after we were married. I unfortunately had “let him have it.” I let him know everything he had done wrong since the beginning of time. Two things I remember most about that fight was the fact that I told him if he ever talked to me the way I was talking to him that I would divorce him (um? What? How was that even fair?) and I remember my husband asking me, “Why in the world did you even marry me then?”  My quick reply to that questions was, “I think you have potential!!!”  And he really, really did meet and surpass any potential that I ever had for a life partner.   And he often forgave me for those moments when I let him have it….sadly often not deserved.

The day after I thought about that memory, I had a student in my office who had made some unfortunate choices. We were talking with her and her mom about how to start over and how to control some of those impulsive behaviors. We were making a really good plan when she said, “Why do you care anyway?”  It broke my heart. Could she not see that I care for her? Could she not see that I really, really don’t want to be her disciplinarian and that I really want to be her encourager, her cheerleader, her backbone, and her friend.  I looked at her and said, “I think you have potential.”

Often times I look at each of our students and see them as the 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, or 11 year olds that they are. But many times I look at them and see them as teenagers, as high school students, as college students, as adult citizens. I realize that many of the decisions that we make effect that teenager and that adult. I realize that I am looking at doctors in training, nurses in training, future teachers, future businesspeople future car mechanics, future policemen, and future jobs that have yet to be created.   Everything about our work as educators revolves around helping our students unlock their full potential. It seems so simple, so cliché.  Yet it really boils down to motivation.

Fostering our students towards their full potential means motivating them to push themselves, to create, to innovate, to fail, to work harder than they thought they could, to struggle, to succeed, and to explore. It is about teaching responsibility and dedication. Holding students accountable isn’t always fun. It doesn’t always win us the teacher popularity trophy. But it makes our students push themselves. Keeping our students engaged every minute of the day helps them reach their potential.  Is any of this easy? Nope.  Does this require extra time planning, executing, researching, and collaborating? You bet you, it does.

The thing about reaching potential is that it usually surpasses all understanding and our idea of their potential is shattered. They’ll become something amazing. But not without our hard work first. Are you willing to make that sacrifice?