Breathing room

Is it a location or a vacancy in our personal capacity? Both. Though we can breathe in just any room, we simply breathe "better" in some environments over others. Do our schools afford children breathing rooms? Do our homes? Do our lives? The lack of breathing rooms in our lives leads us to the second perspective on this very term: breathing room. And my life, every now and again, does not contain that much needed room to think and prosper. I can only imagine you experience the same caveat in life. Though complaints arise that we live amongst the laziest generation in history, many of us are simply burdened by the "joys" of our lives entwined with too many other commitments.

Now that third quarter grades are closed, all 100 research papers are corrected, one of my graduate classes complete, and sports are in full sessions,believe it or not, I have a little more breathing room. This final quarter will be intriguing as the juniors explore transcendentalism with Whitman, Emerson, and young Christopher McCandless brought to live via Jon Krakauer followed by modernism amidst the words of Plath, Sexton, and Judith Guest. Sophies are delving from nonfiction malleable and non-malleable issues to Seize the Day poetry and drama with the timeless Dead Poet's Society's introduction to Whitman, Shakespeare,Thoreau, and Romeo and Juliet. I love my job!

Lastly, with room to breathe and a commitment to Proposition 5, I made an immediate inclusion of parental involvement and contact using the Infinite Campus messenger. I am composing weekly parent announcements indicating upcoming formative and summative assessments, titles of literature we are reading, and any pertinent additional information. My hope is that this information will extend conversation and connections at home.

Breathing room. We need it to function, to think, and to thrive. So do our kids. With all of the pressure and commitments of life, where is this esoteric room?