Hello Fellow Travellers,
April has left behind a warm May and when the sun isn’t shining, it’s been cool cloudy Khandala (please look it up) weather. There have been many things to go at work and much time to play: both aspects a reflection of the privilege one takes for granted when one gets to being in a certain place in a certain way. There’s that Standard North American Family * shelf on which one lives.
Before Work, I Play
When I first started teaching in 2004, I began at an early start school so I’ve been in the habit of waking early. A huge help with meal prep and a quiet cup of coffee when raising young children back then. Nowadays as I’ve got more time and less mothering work to attend to, I look around and I peer. There are many thoughts running through my mind that my botany courses do not explain anymore as this is a connection that goes beyond scientific knowledge and leaf identification skills.
“There you are!”, I whisper
“You came back after the winter”, I say.
“Oh my goodness. You’ve got many more little ones along the fence now!”, I celebrate.
Looking Down and Planning Up
Just as one indulges people in one’s life they reciprocate as well. When they were younger, my children would remark when I’d walk about in early spring on this space or elsewhere: “Mamma is peering at the ground. Something is growing there”. I do this in every area of my life. I peer and I wait patiently.
I also work to create conditions that will allow that which is growing to thrive.
Transferable Skills: The “Remember-When Mindset” (Karnad-Jani, 2025)
Recognizing potential and creating conditions for growth and thriving is a skill. We can learn it. We can practice it with critical and kind friends and colleagues who know the heart and art of teaching and learning.
I work hard to strengthen the skills in in one area of my life so that I can use the “remember when? mindset” to support myself and others in another area. I am sure there is a theory for this somewhere and a fancy name in a book, but to me, it means noticing that something is sprouting and how when I and you create conditions for roots to go down and stems to grow upwards the young seeds become plants and the seedlings become shrubs and trees.
Let’s Grow Something Together: The Sunflower Lesson
A few weeks ago, I planted sunflower seeds outside but brought them in on the mid-May long weekend due to the cooler temperatures. I noticed on Saturday that sunflower seedling had flopped. I gently poked in a wooden stick beside it and on Monday I notice that it doesn’t need it anymore!
What does that tell me? Scaffolding and support to those who need it, allows seedlings to strengthen without expending energy to prevent bending or breaking. I take this insight with me into all areas of my life and also sharing with you, my fellow travellers.
With You, In Solidarity
Rashmee Karnad-Jani
- The Standard North American Family, says Smith, is an ideological code that informs the biases by which we see particular families as deficient because the ideal of SNAF is a two-parent, heterosexual family where the father’s work allows the mother to attend to the children’s schooling and educational outcomes. It is also important to notice that race is a critical intersection within SNAF (Karnad-Jani, 2021).
Peering, waiting patiently, and creating conditions for that which is growing to thrive are all markers of a dedicated educator and lifelong learner.