Yesterday was Valentine’s Day. If the Class of 2025’s carnation sale didn’t do me in, I’m still thinking along with many of you about love. My first name means love, so I’ve spent a lot of my life believing in the importance and strength of love. Today’s post helps explain where my contemplations have led…
“Why”…Wednesdays
215. Why Affinity Spaces
I wrote a post in April of 2021 about AWARE, the Alliance of White Anti-Racist Educators, a group I co-facilitate (Hi, KF!) at my school. I’m circling back to that idea in this post because I’ve been thinking more about the importance of affinity spaces for people of all races. In late-November and early-December of…
214. Why Avoid Whinging
If you want to buy the sign above, you can get it at safetysign.com. I’ve mentioned in other posts and most of my students from the past decade or so know that I offer time for a short check-in near the beginning of every class and that I encourage students not to complain during that…
213. Why Read Banned Books
You’ve probably all heard or seen the quotation above. I fully endorse its idea (if not its modifier placement — please switch the order of “only” and “function” as you read it) even though I hadn’t given much thought to the final word until recently. The benefits of having an open mind seemed obvious to…
212. Why Acknowledge the Ocean
Given that last week’s post was about surfing, you might think I’m obsessed with water and water metaphors. Honestly, until writing the last sentence, I would have denied that, but when I think about it, I’ve had a lot of water-related touchpoints in my life. I grew up in a city I could navigate because…
211. Why Surf
I took the screenshot above from the AccuWeather website article about where to find the best waves. I’ve added the link for you in case you know how to surf and want to visit a beach where you could do what the woman in the photo is doing. You might think, given the title of…
210. Why MJ
We’ve finally reached 2023, henceforward known as The Year of Michael. I know that not everyone grew up in Chicago, a mile from Chicago Stadium (now called United Center). I know that not everyone came of age during the late 1980s and early 1990s. I know that not everyone thought basketball was the only sport…
209. Why Learn to Bake
When I asked my husband for a Dutch oven for my birthday last summer, he thought he was heading into a trap in which whatever he did would make him a bad husband. If he didn’t get what I requested, he wasn’t listening to me. If he gave it to me, he was filling a…
208. Why Good Trouble
When I had the idea for this post, I didn’t know there was a television show called Good Trouble. It’s apparently a spin-off from The Fosters, which I enjoyed. Maybe I’ll watch it sometime. If you’ve seen it and can recommend or advise against, please let me know. The show has nothing else to do with the…
207. Why You Can’t Delay Making a Decision
I took the image above from a management training study guide about making decisions. It perfectly captures the way I used to think about making decisions, which is that resting on some neutral ground, a person has multiple directions she could choose to go, each of which would lead her to a different place. What…