Best Time to Bloom

I have learned so much about teaching and learning by observing nature (Read Goose Liver Pedagogy, Butterfly Facts for a Teacher and Untitled for other musings on nature and teaching) Last year I hired someone to trim my trees. I was so desperate to get the job done that I just went with the random person who had left their card on my door and wasn't asking for a lot of money.  When I came home I was shocked to see how they had pretty much hacked all of my trees down without any attention to aesthetics or shape. I was sure I had lost all of my crepe myrtles. But a couple of weeks later I began to see signs of branches and leaves coming back! The trees bloomed all summer and I was relieved that I hadn't lost them. When winter came, the crepe myrtles naturally lost their leaves and became bare again. But as Spring approached, I began to worry that most of them would not bud or bloom again. There was no sign of new growth. In mid-March, I went on a closer inspection and noticed that all but three of them were coming back to life in varying degrees. A few days later, the last one holding out had new leaves as well. For a while they all looked different from each other, at different stages of rebirth, but today at the end of April, I can't tell who bloomed first.  They all look green and thriving and ready to bear pink flowers soon. All this contemplation of nature reminded me of my own four children and how they learned to walk. My first born took her first steps at ten months. The next one, right around one year and the last two a month or so after their first birthday. By the time they were toddlers, running around wreaking havoc, I could not tell who had walked first. And the fact that some walked at an earlier age than others did not make them better runners or walkers later in life.

When it comes to learning, children bloom at different times. And maybe bloom is not the right word. It is very subjective really. It has come to mean they do something that I expect them to do, the way I recognize it as masterful and at a time when I deem appropriate. So maybe a better way to express it is: Learner reach the various milestones of mastery at different times. The important things is to not withhold care and nourishment from anyone, not to lower expectations if they aren't doing what we think they should be doing by a certain arbitrary date and time.

There was one crepe myrtle that stayed dormant longer than any of the other ones. It actually never bloomed after the initial violent pruning.  Yesterday, I got really close to it because I spotted something that looked like new leaves from afar. And sure enough, there it was. That little tree, blooming!

As a teacher, I want to always remember to not give up on any of my students because they are not doing what I expect them to do right now. Maybe now, at nine or ten years of age, is not the right time for them to learn the difference between a simile and a metaphor. Maybe they are not ready to master writing summaries. My job is to continue to nourish them with beautiful language, thought provoking stories and fascinating texts about our world. This in no way implies that I lower my expectations. Actually, I am raising my expectation - for me - to see strength and possibility in every child.

This one held out a whole year before showing its leaves.