The New Golden Rule

Dana S. Meyer

The New Golden Rule: A Teacher’s Rumination

The definition of insanity is…

doing the same thing over and over and expecting

that everyone will suddenly get checked in.

The definition of insanity

can be seen in the inanity

of the modern-day reality

of “hybrid learning.”

How can we even try to educate, to nourish knowledge, ask them to catch when they can’t see

where the ball is,

amidst a PANDEMIC,

while disparity and injustice bleed red and systemic?

You’ve got to remember we’re not even in the aftermath, we’re in the during,

our students enduring the wrath

of an intangible villain

who’s already taken almost

half a million.

I never knew how I missed smiles dotted of freshly-lost teeth,

how it showed the child underneath,

full of hope and wonder and anticipation for the tooth fairy who would leave compensation for this piece of childhood they left behind as they grew up too fast.

But those holey, holy smiles

are masked, seemingly miles

from sight:

a constant reminder of a world

that’s not right.

What do you do if you’re ten years old and you’re school’s online,

and through the screen nothing feels genuine? How do we teach

kids to reach

new heights in their learning

when what’s truly concerning is

discerning which

basic need can be compensated for

when they walk through that classroom door?

We look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

and you don’t have to proceed

any farther than physiological—

really, tell me what is the logic of

trying to teach

when even food, water, warmth, and safety cannot be reached for all of my students.

Let alone friendship and relationships, or

any sense of pride or accomplishment.

“Treat others the way you want to be treated?” All my kids want is a hug,

is a pat on the back for not giving up,

is a book and friend next to whom they can cuddle up. So how do we treat others the way we want to be treated, when our sense of togetherness is completely depleted? When all we need is a hug and a heart-to-heart, but the best way to take care of one another

….is to stay six feet apart?

How can I grade in A’s, B’s, and C’s?

when every day of their lives is defined by disease? How can I assess in math, reading, and science

when every day of surviving is the bravest act of defiance?

No— I,

I grade in perseverance,

in the daily resilience of simply

being in attendance.

I grade in persistence,

as my English Language Learners ache from the untravellable distance between them and their family,

between today’s inhumanity and yesterday’s semblance of sanity. I grade in positive attitude:

finding the teeniest reason to feel a grain of gratitude. Survival is the threshold for success in my classroom, my piece of the school;

Just “weathering the day”

…is the new golden rule.