Resolution Schmesolution

From the title of the post, it should be obvious that I don't believe in making New Year's Resolutions.  I'm certain I've mentioned it in previous years, but I've never really explained why.  It isn't because I don't believe in self-improvement.  Quite the opposite.  It's because I do.

Reason 1:  New Year's Isn't Real
I know it bothers some people when I say this, but New Year's isn't real.  There is no religious or culturally significant event that we mark on December 31st.  It astounds me that once a year, we throw huge parties that celebrate nothing happening.  The people that are offended by this statement usually tell me how it is the only holiday that everyone on earth celebrates.  That makes it sillier.  The entire world has agreed that there is something to celebrate when there is not.  Yes, the earth has successfully made a lap around the sun, but that is no more true on December 31 than it is on February 3 or September 9.  The fact that the calendar used to begin on April 1 proves that this is a completely arbitrary date.  Therefore, making resolutions in celebration of this non-event is silly.

Reason 2:  You are Knowingly Lying to Yourself
Starting on December 26th, all the morning shows start talking about resolutions and give tips on how to keep them for a little longer than you have before.  Articles start popping up on social media about why resolutions are so hard to keep.  Go the gym January 3, and you will find triple the number of people as if you visit on February 20.  I actually heard someone on the radio two days ago say, "Resolutions are meant to be broken."  While finding that statement bothersome, I also recognized that she's right.  People who make resolutions aren't actually operating with a belief that they will keep them.  They know that the average resolution is broken by the third week of January, so they congratulate themselves if they actually make until the beginning of February.

Reason 3:  Self-Improvement Should Happen All Year
When you identify a problem in yourself, start taking steps to fix that day.  Whether the recognition comes June 4 or October 12, immediately is the time to stop doing that bad habit or start doing a new one.  Putting it off until the new year is proof that you don't really want to address it.  If you actually wanted to lose weight, stop smoking, curse less, or save money, you would.  You would do it at the time you identified that there was a problem.

Self-improvement matters, and it matters too much to wait until the "new year" and make resolutions you have no intention of keeping.

Reading for the Joy of Reading

When I was a child, I was a voracious reader.  I read everything I could get my hands on.  If there wasn't a book around, I'd read a cereal box.  I didn't care; I just loved reading.  I stopped reading Sweet Valley High books somewhere around #118.  Books that were assigned at school were great.  Books I chose myself were better.  I recognized the value of books I ended up hating, like Great Expectations and Lord of the Flies, because there is a difference between appreciating and enjoying.

What makes a child love to read?  As with all things, there are multitudes of nature and nurture theories.  Most of those can be debunked as sole explanations when looking at siblings.  I think it is probably, like most things, a combination of multiple things in a child's life - parents, home, siblings, school, friends, and personality. 

I do believe the research backs up one thing, however, that could break a child's love of reading.  If you want your child to remain a reader, don't tell them not to read the things they love.  You can give them additional worthy choices without taking other choices away.  As I said earlier, I read 118 Sweet Valley High books.  Am I little embarrassed by this as a 41-year-old woman?  Sure.  They are formulaic and silly, and it took me way too long to figure that out.  However, if somewhere along the way, someone had said to me, "Don't read that silly nonsense," it likely would not have been replaced by literature.  It likely would not have been replaced at all.  Instead, I had some wonderful teachers who said, "You like to read?  That's great.  Have you tried reading this?"  Then, they recommended some wonderful books.  While I was reading Sweet Valley High, I was also reading CS Lewis, Francis Schaeffer, and a crazy long book called Nicholas and Alexandra, all in the 7th and 8th grades and all at the recommendation of teachers who inspired more reading rather than less.

If your child likes comic books and graphic novels, that is awesome.  Google which ones are the best.  You may not know that there are graphic versions of everything from The Metamorphosis to Sense and Sensibility (see this list from Goodreads).  If the story captures them, one day, your child may reach out and read the literary versions, but even if they don't, they now have absorbed a classic story they wouldn't have if someone had told them not to read it.  If you want to expand their reading to higher levels, look for a book on Amazon, and then see what recommendations it has.  Your local librarian, whether at school or in a public library, lives to recommend books.  Go in and say, "My child likes X-Men.  I'd like him to read something at a higher level.  Can you recommend?"  That librarian will be thrilled to give you a dozen recommendations of books with similar themes across a wide variety of levels.  As I tell my students, they have a Master's degree in recommending stuff.  The way to get them reading better things is to expand their options, not decrease them.  Please expand and raise your child's awareness of better books by providing them with more options.  Please do not tell a child that their tastes are wrong just because they are young.

I write this because I have spent the past three days sitting in a classroom with students who are finishing their midterms at different times.   In each class, about 75% of my students have a book under their chair.  As soon as they turn in their exam, they pick up where they left off in the books they chose to bring with them.  From Harry Potter to Wonder to the latest John Green novel, my kids are reading, not books they have been assigned, but books they have chosen.  I even saw someone reading the Collected Works of HP Lovecraft a few days ago.  Lovecraft, for heaven's sake.  I didn't even know he existed until I was an adult.  GRACE students are readers, and I believe it is because most of their teachers are readers.  I try to remember that much of my middle school reading was because a teacher I liked told me about a book they liked.  I tell them what I read over the summer.  When I see them reading a school book that I also read, I tell them my memories of reading it.  When they have a Shakespear play in hand, I tell them about my favorites, which are Julius Ceasar and Othello.  When we, as teachers, tell them about our favorite books, they see that reading isn't just something to do for assignments.  They see that we speak of reading with joy, not dread.  Hopefully, they see that we are never too old to read for the joy of it. 

Stop unrecommending books (I'm pretty certain that isn't a word, but Grammarly is letting me get away with it).  Recommend them.

Exams - Change Your Outlook

When exam time approaches, teachers and students alike tend to view it rather negatively.  At best, we view it as a necessary evil.  At worst, we view it as torture on the level of being punched in the face repeatedly for a couple of weeks.  Neither of these perspectives nor the spectrum between them provides for quality learning or joy. 

In my classes, we read a little Scripture at the beginning of each period.  Right now, we are reading through the book of Mark because it is my favorite Gospel.  Yesterday, we read the passage in which Jesus tells us that the most important command is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  I've been a Christian for 36 years, so this is not the first time I've studied this verse, but because I was reading it to a class, it struck me as related to academic pursuits more than it usually does.

Scholarship is an act of worship.  Whether you are studying science, math, history, English, foreign language, or anything else, you are studying God's work.  He speaks through His creation, and when you study it to the best of your abilities, you honor Him.  Changing your view of the work He has put before you will make you learn it better, but it will also give you more joy in the learning. 

Christian teachers, please do not present exams or any kind of work to your students as drudgery.  They see what you model, and if you work with a poor attitude, they will too.  Present exams as a sacrifice to the Lord.  They will find meaning in it when they do.

Priorities

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed that I had not yet posted this week.  Normally, I post on Monday or Tuesday.  This was a particularly busy week.  Christmas is, of course, busy for everyone.

For secondary teachers, it is also exam time.  Our exams were due last week.  Once we got approval for them, we make the key and copy them because they are due to our special needs team soon.  It was also Christmas concert time.  Our school has an exceptional fine arts program, so we have two concerts, one for chorus and band and the other for dance, theater, and strings.  For my students to properly prepare for exams, I need to get everything graded and back to them for study use.  And, of course, you still have all the regular duties that you always have.  These aren't complaints.  It's just an exceptionally busy time of year.

This brings me to the point of this post.  It may not be possible to get everything done that you want to during a week like this.  That means, it is important to prioritize your to do list.  Some items matter more because they have due dates, and some matter more because they are very important.  Some of the tasks can wait.  In this particular week, writing my blog post was the thing that could wait.

If you are a teacher, taking ten minutes to make a list and number in order of priority is well worth your time.  Giving yourself a break on the last items helps too.