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Garden Check-In (Week 14): Lessons from My Compost Pile · The Grammar of Classical Education

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Greetings and salutations my fellow educators.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think I can get used
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: to these Friday garden check-ins considering we only have two more in this series.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Today's garden check-in is a bit different than many of the others we have done.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that by offering a glimpse of transparency,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: you may be encouraged in some of the challenges you have or are or will be facing.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: This week,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've been thinking a lot about the composting and pruning that I've had to have done
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: in my life as a teacher.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: I guess it's normal in August.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: The back-to-school bug bites everyone, even when you're no longer in the classroom.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: As I was thinking,
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I was first of all glad that over the years I've been able to prune some of
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: the brown stuff before it accumulated to the point that it affected my students,
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: my teaching, and even my heart as just a person.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: When you've been doing the teaching thing for over 34 years,
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: there is a lot of brown stuff that can accumulate.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of pruning and a lot of composting.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just by way of encouragement,
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I might share some of the brown stuff that has made its way
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: to my compost pile and what exactly I do with all
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: that accumulated gardener's best friend.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Probably in my first or second year of teaching,
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: in my extreme immaturity,
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking with another older teacher about a student
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: and was expressing my frustration with the child and the way that
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: the parents were reacting to my attempts to help with the problem.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: A full conversation.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Only to realize that the parent had been standing very nearby.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you,
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: some 30 years later,
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: and that brown stuff still gets turned over periodically in my compost pile.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Lesson learned.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: By the way,
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: the issue wasn't getting advice from a wiser,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: more experienced teacher,
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: but in being much more careful about where I choose to have those kind
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: of conversations.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Another good deal of my compost pile is made up of moments of reactionary attitudes
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: that I definitely know weren't going to help me or my students or anybody for
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: that matter.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Cut that kind of rot and disease spreading ick out of the way right away.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Items pruned like that Break down very quickly,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: but leave a certain wisdom behind,
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: especially when you consider how petty the problem is in hindsight.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah,
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: I have a pretty hefty compost pile,
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: but I want to point out the fact that you can't just let it sit and grow bigger.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: When you give it a little time and space,
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: and yet remember to turn it over in your head and your heart,
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: and when you water it,
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: sometimes with tears and sometimes with the rain of God's grace,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: when you find ways to use that wonderful compost of gathered wisdom,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: your garden can't help but grow.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: And my friends, you will find that you are growing too.