What next?

The visit we received yesterday from former students who graduated last year raised questions and comments about our nearest future once we finish our degree. In her last words, our teacher encouraged us to continue sharing our practice with other teachers, to discuss, to question, to challenge, to collaborate.

She also mentioned something which troubled me. She told us that she really liked the way Artigal linked things which apparently had nothing to do with education, while he watched a film, an opera, or listened to a song. I picked on her idea of how great it was that he was constantly thinking about education, and I felt terribly guilty, because thinking about work all the time is just the opposite of what I intend to do if I start a new career. Ricardo Semler explains quite well in this talk my reasons for that:

There are two things he mentions which I liked a lot in his talk: the fact that nobody in their deathbed will be wishing they had spent more time at the office, and his advice to ask three consecutive "why"s to ourselves when an automatic answer comes to our minds.

When our teacher encouraged us to do the same as Artigal and to share our experiences with each other I thought "what on earth will I share, that I am some lazy teacher not willing to stay late to prepare some exciting material for I don't know what?". I have friends fighting cancer, others who died even before we finished our first degree. I already regret having a niece who will turn one soon and whom I have seen half a dozen times, even though she lives across the river. I want to try live as if I were to die tomorrow, and to work as if I were to live forever; and not the other way around.

Thinking about it later, I have come to the conclusion that maybe that is what I will have to share: the experience of somebody who tries to be a good teacher and finish work at 16.30 at the same time, which is one heck of a challenge, come to think of it.