Learning Less is More

I don’t write or post often on any social media platform, and when I do, it’s typically something about education.?I’ve been in the gig for 25 years more or less.?It’s what I know, and as I get older, I find it’s also what I don’t know.

I was recently at a family Christmas party and my mom brought an old video camera and some tapes I had requested.?I hadn’t seen some of the tapes in literally decades and most were from college when I was in a band.?My youngest son was looking through the tapes and noticed the dates written on the outside and commented that it was nearly 30 years ago.?My brain could do the math, but my heart disagreed.?He couldn’t be right. Surely only 20 years, right??Wait, 2021 minus 1994….?

Something heavy landed in the space between my heart and mind in that moment.?The kids in the car laughed at me and said Mid-life crisis was now officially upon me.?I laughed and said no, I already bought a motorcycle.

It was more than that.

When I got home later that evening, I cued up one of the tapes and began to watch a performance from my first band – The Soul Bandits.

We made our own banner on a bed sheet with spray paint and hung it behind us as we played in the auditorium at college.

It brought an immediate smile to my face.

It was exactly how I remembered it.?The faces were the same. The sounds were the same. The pure joy of it was the same.

And then the 30 years set in – and I saw the broken relationships, those that have already left this world, and all the missed opportunities to stay connected through the years.

I don’t think I’d call it sadness, but there is a sense of sweetened melancholy that resides there in those moments… and a part of me so desperately wants to be back there again – in the pure joy of performance and reckless abandon with friends making music for ourselves in a suspended moment of youth.

What a privilege and honor to have had those times with such great people.

We have but moments with others throughout our lives.

Looking back, the fact that I have those memories is a blessing.

The fact my mom still has the tape – AND the camera to play them, even more of a blessing because I can revisit them.

So as I think about these memories, they all stemmed from College.?From school and from the experiences centered around the people and the place that put me in a position to have those memories and support my efforts to look for a dream.

How much more could we be as educators if we first start with how we will create situations to support lasting memories? What kind of memories do we want to support?

If our students were all given video cameras to record a special day, would they see it and be filled with joy 30 years later??Would they be moved to try to capture it in words to share with others?

As I move forward, I think I am coming to the conclusion that I know less about education than ever before.

I also think I like it.

Maybe the thing missing this year is that we all need to know less about education… and more about people… ourselves included.

Connections are important. Memories are important. People are important.

I have no videos or pictures of me taking tests.

Yes, I think I am learning less about education every day.