I learn something new every day—from colleagues, from students, and from families. It’s something that makes me happy and makes my job a fascinating one. I feel incredibly lucky. Sometimes, I learn about something I had no idea existed, often I learn things I should probably have known, other times I “learn” something I used to know and had forgotten. For instance, seeing as it’s my tenth time planning a new school year, you might think that I could do it in my sleep—after all, isn’t it just the same process year in and year out?
In Gay Science Nietzsche proposes the following thought experiment—he asks us to imagine what it would be like if we had to live the same life one thousand times over without the slightest difference from one version to the next; each life would be the exact same as one that went before. How would we react when faced with what he calls external recurrence? He posits that we would learn to love destiny.
But Nietzsche wasn’t a head of school and his thought experiment comes up against a number of hurdles when we consider it in the context of the school year. He is however right on one front: time is not linear. Something I learned this year (and why this year and not another I cannot say) that I should have known, and that I must have known before and then forgotten is that school time stops in June. And when it starts up again in September, we haven’t moved forward three months, we have in fact turned back the clock. The 1st Grade teacher who finished the year with students ready to start 2nd Grade finds themselves with a classful of students just out of pre-school.
It’s obvious (I know it, I used to know it, I should have known it) but still. ..We plan for each coming year based on the one at hand. We take the measure of things according to what we see before our very eyes. We build on our achievements. To such an extent that planning a new school year becomes a kind of thought experiment in itself—the theoretical expression of a very practical savoir-faire that has come face to face with reality all year long.
That’s why the start of the school year is so exhausting, why we empty ourselves of every ounce of energy. We need a tremendous amount of collective strength— input from each and every one of us, to keep the structure standing. We all go the extra mile to ensure that what starts as just an idea can take shape and breathe.
The October Break is well deserved and couldn’t come at a better moment. The students have given their most and I congratulate them for it. The teachers have been phenomenal (some have even lost their voices). As for me, I have some excellent news—my wedding suit fits again.!Getting back into the swing of things was just what the doctor ordered —figuring stuff out, aligning, realigning, modifying, and adjusting. It was necessary to get in tune with a year that started differently from how it finished. It was to be expected, it was inevitable, but still…
I wish you all a wonderful break that is full of joy. Plenty of kids are coming to school for camp and Miriam and her team can’t wait to welcome them.