365 Days: What is Possible

Showing up every day

 “If you write one short story every day, at the end of the year you will have 365 short stories. Three or four of them will have to be good because it is impossible to write 365 bad short stories.” —Ray Bradbury

When I taught writing to middle school kids, they loved this quote — we read it aloud every day before writing. It gave them belief in their possibilities as writers. I have been thinking about this principle in other contexts—what we do each day accumulates to expand or limit our possibilities.

Every time I see another viral letter from a principal or teacher explaining why they have to quit, I feel discouraged and sad for our kids and our profession. I worry about the strong principals and teachers I see wavering under continuous pressure and threat.

I don’t want them to quit. I don’t want to quit working in school buildings. I believe even the smallest success in sustaining the kind of education we believe is good for kids, means we haven’t lost yet.

We need to help each other sustain our commitment with ways we’ve found to sustain teaching that matters, to keep belief in the possibilities alive.

I’ve been gathering stories, quotes, advice and poems from colleagues, from other fields, from the past that offer guidance to sustain our efforts and a keener sense of our mission as educators in these times. We are not alone nor are we the first to face these kinds of challenges.

I have come to see my sustaining belief in possibility as a discipline, a practice like meditation that has a cumulative effect on my spirit and strength. Each day for at least a while,  I learn something new about how to succeed in difficult contexts.

Could Ray Bradbury’s principle apply in an education context? What would happen if I wrote and posted a good story, lesson, example, or inspiration every day for 365 days? At the end of the year, what could be the result for our strength in sustaining good education?

I hope you will join me at any time; your contributions will expand our repertoire for meaningful work and widen the place in our hearts where there is a story of hope and possibility for our children.