By Tabitha Bozeman
It seems like we just started planning the summer, and now it is over. School starts back next week, and preparations are fully underway for a new schedule, including updated bedtimes, drop-off and pick-up times, homework plans, extracurriculars and more. Whether you have kids starting a new school year in public school, private school or homeschool, the excitement and uncertainty of a fresh new beginning is here, ready or not.
I have a very eclectic and mixed-bag educational background. I have attended private school, public school and was even homeschooled for several years. As an educator, I have homeschooled, taught at a private college, a public university, a community college and online. In all of these school environments, one thing has repeatedly been an accurate predictor of success in its various forms – curiosity.
Asking “What if?” and “Why?” and “How?” and then actively hunting for the clues and answers to those questions is what results in learning. As a kid, I was often in trouble for asking too many questions. As an educator, I sometimes struggle to get students interested in asking questions and being curious about the answers. But it is always my goal to get them interested.
As Einstein said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” So, I have made it a habit to ask my children, my students and even myself a lot of questions. What do they like to read? Why? How do they prefer to study? Is there a topic they are interested in researching? Who do they see themselves becoming in the future? Did an assignment work the way I wanted it to? How can I change things up to make class more engaging? Am I modeling the curiosity I hope they develop? These questions lead to reflection and often to change. This curiosity helps keep me engaged in what I do in the classroom and at home. It helps keep things new.
Last month, I took the girls on a back-to-school shopping trip to take advantage of the tax-free weekend. They had more fun looking for pencils and page protectors than they’d had all summer, I think. I’d waded through their Amazon wish list requests, approved or denied their Walmart shopping lists, watched them try on more pairs of shoes than I could count, and still found myself needing a few things we’d missed from their official school supply lists. In our family, we’ve always enjoyed school supply shopping nearly as much as Christmas or birthday shopping, but we had more fun than usual this year. Going back to school isn’t anything new for them at this point, but a new school year is new for each of them. We have a new highschooler, a new middle schooler, and a new fourth grader this year at our house. However, “new” is another way of saying “unknown,” and the unknown can be really scary. The closer we get to the First Day of School, the fewer hours of good sleep we have at our house.
This uncertainty is partly why I decided to make a Girls’ Day Out of back-to-school shopping this year. A good friend and I did something similar last year with our girls, so this year I thought it might help if the girls got to share their excitement with their cousins. So, one morning I picked up three of my nieces, and the seven of us girls went shopping.
The purchase list included many pencils, cosmetics, composition notebooks, new shoes, Sonic snacks and thrifted treasures. After lots of singing and silly jokes later, we’d knocked out most of our list.
On our travels around town, the girls traded stories about friends, homework, books and crafts, as well as asked each other a lot of questions. They were all curious, because half of them are in public school and half of them are homeschooled. They are all learning, reading, active and curious. Spending the day together, comparing schedules and pencil preferences and asking each other all the questions really made them much less anxious and even more excited about the new year. Their curiosity overrode their worry, and instead of focusing on the unknown, they all offered suggestions and shared in the fun.
Watching and listening from the driver’s seat that day got me thinking about differences and curiosity, learning and the unknown, and how all of these are bundled up together in this beautiful and wild ride of a life.
Writer and playwright Bernard Beckett describes the amalgamation of these elements like this: “[The] human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved; differences resolved. It is a type of confidence.”
As we get ready to start another school year of learning and questioning and of change and uncertainty, may we each have the confidence to face the unknown with eyes that see difference and change with the curiosity and excitement that these cousins shared the other day.
Tabitha Bozeman teaches English at Gadsden State Community College and is the editor-in-chief of the Cardinal Arts Journal. The opinions expressed are her own. She may be reached at tabithabozeman@gmail.com.
