What Matters

It is terribly difficult to keep one's focus on the things that are important - the "prime directive" for those of us who grew up on Star Trek - no matter what your profession.For me, the prime directive is to encourage children to be curious, to encourage them to take learning risks, to encourage them to love learning new things, whether or not those things are academic. In current times, education has taken on an air of desperation as policy makers try to jam every child into a one-size-fits all curriculum. What we gain in test scores, we lose in creative possibility.  But I digress.How easy it is to lose sight of what is important! We have been in school (officially) 2 days and here it is, the morning of the 3rd day (4:30 in the morning to be accurate). So far the things that are occupying my mind are schedules, logistics, paper management, and directives. "When your up to your ass in alligator, it is hard to remember your original objective was to drain the swamp." I don't know who said that originally, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a teacher during the first week of school.Before any magic can take place in my classroom, I need to put aside these distractions. The outside influences that are impeding what I would like to accomplish - my prime directive - need to be shut out.Energize.