At the moment I am reading a book titled ‘Untamed’ by Glennon Doyle. As the title suggests, the stories in here are all connected to the taming and untaming we experience in our life.
We are tamed.
As Glennon shares, like a cheetah that is raised with a labrador, we are tamed.
In one of the opening chapters, Glennon recounts a trip to the zoo with her daughter, where together they excitedly watch the cheetah show. This cheetah, who goes by the name of Tabitha, is tamed. She has been raised alongside a Labrador, meaning she will do everything the Labrador does, including chase a pink bunny rabbit tied to the back of a truck to show the crowd just how fast she can run. But she has been tamed. This is not as fast as she can run. Or as far, or for as long, or why she would run.
At the end of the show, Tabitha glances just beyond the distance, looking, longing, but for what? She doesn’t know.
Do you?
Just beyond the horizon, there, where you can’t quite make out what lies in the distance, there is more. We have had a glimpse of it.
As teachers, we have been tamed also. Tamed to teach a certain way, arrange our classroom a certain way, expect our students to learn in a certain way. Tamed by the curriculum, the school setting, our training.
Funny though, with Covid-19 showing up, all we have been tamed for has been removed. No classroom, teaching not as we are tamed for, students not learning in the way we have tamed them.
Why tame us then if it doesn’t have to be that way?
Somewhere in the distance, I have a sense there is more, a sense as teachers we can come together to create our own untaming, where we can perhaps be free.
If this has you curious, I think we should have a chat. Join me Thursday 14th May at 4pm.