The legal requirement for school in many places is 180 days.
Why? We don’t know.
I’ve seen students make three years of progress in six weeks when they get excited about the work they are doing.
I’ve also seen them languish for three years without ever making an investment in learning.
Read MoreI remember the realization, years ago, that I wasn’t sure how I was going to make payroll two weeks later.
Sort of. Honestly, it’s happened so many times that it all sort of blends together now. But I do remember the feeling of the raging storm in the pit of my stomach, walking through the world with a tremendous and constant sense of distraction, unable to focus on work, my daily routine, or anything other than the fact that I was a huge failure.
I learned from the experience. I learned how to ask for help. I learned how to look at exactly what is happening in my business right now instead of letting the future be vague and hopeful. I learned how to run a leaner organization and not say yes to everyone I liked and wanted to hire.
Read MoreMy friend Rose had an evening seminar-style class that ran for more than two hours.
An entire week’s worth of material, covered in one night.
Rose and her classmates found themselves acting like seventh graders. Despite the fact that they were all professionals with internships or jobs in their career field, they would giggle and get off track, carrying on exactly like teenagers.
They took the material seriously, but couldn’t always engage seriously. One day, however, they showed up and conducted themselves maturely. The difference was so marked that their professor commented on it.
Read MoreI’ve written in the past about “the real world” rhetoric and the fact that many teachers feel it’s their job to prepare their students for a mythical future boss who won’t let you do any work over again or negotiate a deadline. Who are these bosses that act like fifth-grade teachers? Let’s all steer clear of them.
Beyond the silly notion that the teacher’s job is to prepare students for some mythical future job where a boss cares more about deadlines than the actual work product (“Nope! It’s a day late! I don’t even want to look at it,”) is the dark truth that these teachers are doing that very thing under the guise of “teaching accountability.”
Read MoreAs adults, we get to do what works for us. We have choices. We can organize our day’s activities based on our optimal sleeping and waking times, and we can take breaks when we need to. We can leave living situations, relationships, and job roles that are no longer working for us. We can eat and pee when we need to.
I would argue that becoming a self-actualized human actually depends on learning to make choices for ourselves. After years of being told what to do, seeing the full array of possibilities available to us can be overwhelming. It takes practice.
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