My Career ~ Part 5

2020 ~ Enter Prairie School

I have a friend who teaches high school who held a talk about progressive education at Prairie School. My friend was on the school’s board at the time, so he had easy access to the space. I attended the talk, which was interesting in itself, but what I noticed most was that there were feelings and questions and charts on the walls. They seemed to point to what I was doing with Nonviolent Communication and I was intrigued. I asked my friend if I could observe a day at Prairie school, and I was able to do that during my spring break from my college. It was mid-March and it turned out to be the day before I found out the country was going to be shut down for Covid.

I was excited by what I saw at this K-8 school and I wrote a letter to let the teachers know what I saw and valued and what I thought I could do to volunteer. I think I was pretty vague about the volunteering part since this is really not my age group. A few months later, though, I got an email and set up a Zoom call to talk with a board member. Prairie School was thinking of adding what they were going to call a Capstone program where a few kids, who were technically going into 9^th grade, were going to stay an additional year. The Capstone program was to provide them with a unique experience where they could do a deep dive into a project they were interested in.

I said yes, met with the middle school teacher during the summer and started supporting the kids while they were completing their project the following school year. The work was challenging because I was fitting into a new school and into a classroom where the teacher was very sure about how she wanted things done but who also wanted to give me a lot of freedom. I was in a new, very different school in terms of size, philosophy and age of student as a confident, strong teacher with most of her experiences with adult students. While working with the middle school teacher, my laid back, more passive personality came out with her very assertive (not aggressive) personality came out. I was often struggling to understand what exactly she wanted me to do, but I was having fun learning about the school and I knew the work I was doing was valued.

That first year, after I had started and after I had said I’d volunteer, Prairie school paid me a stipend. The next year they tripled the stipend. More importantly though, the board member who called me for the “interview” was able to describe my strengths really well. She just seemed to “see” me in ways my current employer didn’t need or value. It felt great.

I was able to meet with the teacher every week. I was able to go to the biweekly teacher meetings to contribute to solutions. My soul just felt nurtured there.

That was the 2020-2021 school year. I worked with Capstone for the 2 school years after that. For my day-to day, I would teach at my college in the morning, hold my office hours and then leave for Prairie School around 1:00 pm. When I entered the playground for Praire School, I’d just be enveloped in this lighter, welcoming location. Kids I didn’t even work with said hi to me and I met other volunteers or parents and it was like a breath of fresh air.

I had been turning away from my college and trying to “escape” different aspects of it for so long and I never had somewhere to move towards. Now I do. I’m not sure what I hope to do at Praire School next year. I just know that when I go there to spend a little time with the teachers and kids, I want to stay. I want to do more.

This is one of my plans for after retirement.

2024-2025

When I think about telling people why I am leaving full-time work at my college at the earliest possible date that I can do this with a pension  . . . .I think about the fit.

I don’t fit in my college the way I’d like to. My personality and work style don’t fit within the structures of the college. The systems don’t work for me. I have gotten small tastes of how things can be different elsewhere and those places feed my soul in a way that my current employer cannot.

The Future  . . . what I am going towards

I was recently talking to a friend about leaving my college and I started crying . . . This friend helped me see that whether I was having good or bad experiences, my college has been very meaningful for me. Through reflecting on my soon to be 22 years of full time employment, I see the issues I’ve worked out and I see my growth.

For some reason, I imagine myself as a bug bouncing off a structure over and over. My college is that structure and I kept coming back to it over and over, and when I came back, I’d get a taste of what it was like and I’d bounce off and feel distanced from it again. Eventually, though, I’d try again, and bounce off again. I am wondering if Prairie School will be different for me. If it’s a place I can enter and stay.

Peace out (and In),

Julie