Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Rushy McRusherson

This morning I was driving to work and noticed a guy... a fence-building kind of guy.  He was walking along freshly placed fence posts (a project that started about a week ago).  He carefully took the time to wiggle each post... making sure it was secure.  Then he checked to make sure that each post was level.  Whatever happened next is unknown to me... I kept driving.  I guess I'll see the progress when I drive by again tomorrow.

I started thinking that if I was ever having a fence built, I would hope that the "builder guy" (as Jake calls them) would have that same attention to detail.  I would be upset if they just rushed through the job and my fence blew over in 3 years.

Then, it struck me.... the "AH HA MOMENT!"

In the workforce we want employees that ensure a job is done PROPERLY.  That people are paying attention to those little details.  That things are not rushed through just to get it done quickly.

But in our classrooms, well, mine anyway.... we tend to rush through everything.  GO... pray, GO.... snack, HURRY.... late for Music, QUICK... to the bathroom, No time for a story at the end of the day.... etc, etc, etc.  We even have a fast version of our goodbye song (for when the parents are already there and we aren't quite done).

YIKES!!! How am I training these little TIKES?

What kind of workers will they be?

Will they be rushing the day away task by task, feeling like they haven't really done a decent job of anything.

Is life a series of checkmarks on a to-do list?

For me, it seems to be (lately anyway).  And it's the kids that are missing out.

WERE missing out.

I'm going to change my outlook.  I'm going to focus on slowing down and REALLY experiencing things.  We'll take our time getting to music (the kids can't tell time anyway.... they don't know we're late).  I'll let them glue on that last piece of ribbon, even if I already called for clean-up time.  

If we don't get to everything.... I'm going to be OK with it.  If an idea exists... and it doesn't happen... the kids won't know.  They won't care either.  And at the end of the day I'd rather them have one hundred QUALITY experiences than 62 Bajillion rushed experiences.

Enjoy taking time with the short people in your life.  They deserve it.... so do you.

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