Student attitude and joy. If our students are lacking an attitude of gratitude, that may be why they are feeling “stuck”.
For me, when snowdrifts are melting, snowdrops blooming, daffodils are poking through warming soil, and birds are streaming pure joy. Spring is nearly here! It is hard to decide whether the anticipation of spring or spring itself is more joyful. I live in Minnesota, where winter weather consists of three possible forecasts: Very cold, very snowy, or both. But every February or so I know change is coming, and I am beginning to feel buoyed, anticipatory, and joyful! That is just what I want for my learners…perked up, engaged, and joyful! The research on joy is compellingly clear; anticipation is a significant contributor to joy. Anticipation has a kind of life of its own. You know, the way waiting for something like a big trip, the planning, prepping, imagining it, is like an extension of the trip itself. The pre-trip work and imagining of the beach, the mountains, and the food become part of the joy of the trip, and you haven’t even left home yet.
So, what about our students who are feeling stuck, invisible, and horizonless? Perhaps they are missing the experiences of joy that can power them into the next day or next learning. To improve student attitude and joy, what could anticipation do to intrigue and engage them? Part of our role as educators is to paint the picture of what’s next, to point to the horizon, and to entice our students forward, much like the signs of spring beckon and enliven us. In read-aloud, poetry, video, writing, and discussion, we can create pictures for them of what’s coming soon. Anticipating coming moments helps students make them part of their imagining of the future, seeing themselves in it and borrowing the moments of joy in them a bit ahead of time. Help your students create “anticipatory snapshots” of these coming joyful engagements. And then, in guiding students to more distant horizons, help questions of significance and opportunity to appear. I envision projects here that build knowledge and experiences of a “new normal” better world:
- How can our world be more equitable? How can we generate equity close to home?
- How can we focus more on love and less on hate?
- How can we save our planet?
Catching the joy in the small moments and the big explorations doesn’t magically happen. It takes practice. Brene Brown’s research points to joyful people having one characteristic in common: gratitude. Joy requires gratitude, the practice of gratitude. The daily practice of gratitude builds a reservoir of joy that is available for us to use, even when life is not joyful.
What are the possibilities for your learners if you practice daily gratitude? If you model it for them? If you teach them how to practice gratitude until it is a practice they own? Imagine a practice of gratitude that builds a well of joy from which they can draw in moments of vulnerability and need. We know that learning requires vulnerability, taking off our protective shells, to be open to new ideas and experiences. As Brown says, “No vulnerability, no learning.” Students come out of hiding and make themselves vulnerable only in spaces of belonging and joy. Joy requires gratitude. Practice gratitude. Let me start: I am grateful for you and each of your learners. You give me hope for our future!
