Not the title you were expecting from this blog, was it?
But it’s not quite what you think…
While my students were working on an activity in groups, they also brought up sports. Someone mentioned Quidditch, the wizard game in Harry Potter.
There are muggles who run around a field on brooms playing this game.
One of my 9th grade students said this was stupid.
I was quick to remind him that sports in general are pretty stupid when you break them down.
- Football? A bunch of guys pushing into each other to move a ball over a line in the grass.
- Golf? Whack a little white ball around in the grass and go chase it. Hope to get it in a tiny hole.
- Basketball? People running around trying to throw a ball in a hoop.
- I could go on…
My ultimate motivational message?
We’re all stupid.
Ok, so not the best motivational message for a bunch of high school students.
I’m still getting the hang of this teaching thing!
But the message is still true, if not entirely eloquent.
We’re all geeks in some way. We’re all nerds. We all do those things that others will think are stupid, and you know what? It doesn’t matter. We should do them anyway!
For example, I don’t think I’ll ever really make money from my art. It’s not “good” by art world standards. But it feeds my soul to make it, so I’m going to keep doing that!
I hope others will keep doing the things that feed their souls, even if it feels like it won’t matter to anyone else. Quidditch, underwater basket weaving, writing, painting, using a silly voice to read a passage to the class…
You never know what might stick and what might move someone else.
C.M. Foust
03/2015
On the ugly side of things, my students are creating projects on the different human body systems. With that they are Googling images that show what we look like under our skin.
Let’s face it, we’re all pretty damn ugly inside, no matter what the motivational posters say.
Like the “stupid” message, the fact that we are all ugly under our skin isn’t the most eloquent motivational message, but in my mind it is a validating one.
No one is perfect. No one.
But we can remember that within these sacks of skin we all look pretty much the same. We are beautiful in our ugliness. The ugliness under our skin connects us all.
Knowing we are ugly on the inside takes away some of the pressure of trying to look perfect all of the time.
We can get back to the business of just being ourselves…
Thank you for being my ugly, stupid readers!!
Solidarity in ugliness and stupidity!