‘Fessing Up

Despite my insistence last month that this isn’t an advice or self-help column, I find myself coming to you this month with some more thoughts along those lines. So if that’s not your bag, I won’t fault you for skipping this one. 

Missing the Small Things

A few months back I shared my plan to give myself credit for victories, rather than always demurring. And I’ve been regularly reminding myself of this. It’s been nice. 

But I recently realized something: While I’m willing to give myself credit for the “big” things, there are a million little things I accomplish but let slide by because they’re “small” or things I think anyone could do. 

What got me thinking about this was a little project I did. 

The Problem: 

I set up a Self-Care Station in the library a few months back. I used a donated 4-drawer organizer. It’s plastic, and the top is molded to serve as a built-in organizing tray. 

A collage of images of the self-care station. Left image: A white plastic four drawer organizer with translucent green drawers. The top drawer has a white label with red letters in the middle: "Supplies are limited." On the left side of the drawer is a green label with black text: Toothbrushes & paste. On the right side of the drawer is a green label with black text: Deodorant wipes. The next drawer down has a white label with red letters in the middle: "Be respectful with what you take." On the left side of the drawer is a green label with black text: Menstrual Pads. On the right side of the drawer is a green label with black text: Stain Remover. The third drawer down is double height and has a label in the middle; blue and gray letters on a white background read "Satz Library Self-Care Station". The bottom drawer is double height and features two images. On the left is a smiling cartoon hornet carrying a book. On the left is a logo for the Library Ninjas. Right top: A close-up view of the top of the organizer. I has a tape dispenser in the front, turned sideways to fit inside a raised plastic "lip". Behind it is a stack of yellow sticky notes that are balanced on a continuation of the raised plastic lip. In the center behind the tape dispenser is a black writing utensils caddy. In the back is an unopened water bottle that sits just inside the plastic lip that runs about an inch in from the edge of the organizer's top. Bottom right: A close-up image of the self care station's top without the office supplies. The raised white plastic lip runs all around the perimeter of the organizer about one inch in from the edge. At the front, there is another piece of "lip" that creates a large square area toward the back of the organizer's top, with a long, thin, rectangular area at the front, similar to a pencil tray in a desk drawer.

The self-care station as it originally looked as it entered service in the library.

Those raised plastic lips are kind of a pain – they make it difficult to fit the writing utensil caddy, sticky notes, tape dispenser, and other little things students regularly use. 

The Solution: 

I grabbed some scrap wood and whipped up a little “hat” for the organizer. Some glue, some nails, a coat of paint, and the organizer had a new top. 

A four-image collage showing different angles of Steve's Self-Care Station. On the left: A full-height picture of the self-care station with its new gray "hat"; some office supplies sit atop it. Upper middle: The self-care station with the hat, sans supplies. Lower middle: A closer look at the gray topper, bare of supplies. Right: a closer look at the topper with a stack of yellow sticky notes on the left, a black writing utensils holder in the middle, and a tape dispenser on the right; an unopened bottle of water is in the background.

The self-care station wearing its new “hat”.

As I took some pictures to share on social media, I had a meta-moment: I imagined the post I was going to write, along the lines of “Here’s a goofy little thing I whipped up.” And I realized that there are a lot of folks who wouldn’t have been able to whip up this goofy little thing. 

Examining Assumptions

First, I had an excellent stable of tools to draw on – table saw, chop saw, circular saw, three foot square, compressor, nail gun – because my wife is a contractor. I could have gotten the job done with some more basic tools, but it wouldn’t have come out as cleanly. 

And the scrap wood I used was leftover from one of her projects. That would have run me at least a couple bucks if I’d had to pay for it. 

Having the space to store all those tools, as well as the space to do the work, is not something everyone has. It’s taken my wife and I many years to have a home with that kind of workspace. 

The hours I spent cutting, assembling, and painting were available to me because I don’t have to work multiple jobs or care for family. Having free time is a luxury that I don’t really think about. 

I earned the skills needed to make the topper square, level, and well-fitted over many years of stage construction experience and DIY projects. I can confidently say that if I’d tried to make this topper a decade or two ago, it definitely would not have ended up square or straight. These are skills I take for granted, but they took a while to learn. 

All of this occurred to me shortly after I thought, “Not bad for zero dollars!” In reality, this simple topper cost hundreds of dollars and years of experience. 

All The Small Things

A lot of times, we do things in our schools that are the result of years of study and practice. We use skills and caches of materials and tools we’ve built up over time. And we often place little value on these tasks, because we whip through them and move on to the next thing. 

But there is a lot of value tied up in each one of these tasks. At the very least, our knowledge and skills are things that not everyone has, yet we often take them for granted. And we sometimes let ourselves be taken for granted. 

We need to remind ourselves: Who else has the vision to see the need for the task, the motivation to take it on, and the skills to execute it? Probably nobody in our school. So we need to stop minimizing what we do – with each other, as well as with our teachers, admins, students, and parents. It doesn’t matter how small the victory is – it’s earned, and we deserve to feel good about it. 

…And Furthermore…

This chain of thoughts also led me to another conclusion. I frequently hear educators (and sometimes am the educator who will) say they can’t believe students didn’t know a thing/do a thing that seems so incredibly basic. 

Yes, sometimes they lose skills we know we’ve already taught them. But are we giving them the chance, regularly & frequently, to use those skills, to really embed them? And we (I) often assume that something we know must be common knowledge. But that’s definitely not the case.

We Don’t Know What They Don’t Know

On stage crew one year, I asked a student to grab the sweep broom and clean up. The student grabbed the broom by the very end of the handle and started pushing the sweep broom ahead of them. I was flabbergasted – how does someone not know how to sweep a floor?

I later realized the kid was emulating what he saw our custodians do with their big push mops in the halls. So he was trying to do the thing how he thought it was done; he just didn’t understand the specifics of the tool in his hands. 

So we need to take a step back when students aren’t able to do a thing we think they should be able to, and remind ourselves that it took us years to gain our skills and knowledge. 

Be Kind To Yourself – And Others

And this isn’t just true of when we interact with students!

Every person we interact with has had a different lived experience than we have. We don’t know where they’re coming from, what tools they have used, what resources they are lucky enough to possess. 

So we should meet confusion with compassion and a willingness to teach. 

All of which is a long (LONG) way of saying, Don’t take yourself, your skills, or your experiences for granted. What is easy for you may be impossible for someone else. Give yourself credit, even for the “small” things. Be kind to yourself, and be kind to those around you. Share your skills – and your knowledge – with others.