I love being in a classroom of adult learners. I am grateful for the diversity of culture, ethnicity, ability, academic readiness and spend a significant amount of time managing my expectations and looking for opportunities to inspire compassion and connection, knowing that my students are destined to be helpers.
However, this political climate has left many of my students and myself emotionally exhausted, often defensive of our personal leanings, and starved for discourse.
So what do I do when I’m feeling “teachable moment fatigue”?
I stop teaching.
I start listening.
And I take space from the hustle and bustle of the 24 hour news cycle and biased op-Ed pieces and choose to sit in the silence, listen to an audiobook, or crochet until my hands hurt.
Because as Anne Lamott says, “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”