I just talked to a friend who is finishing up her MSW at UC Berkeley this spring. She is in a state of paralysis thinking of how much work she has to do over the next six weeks. A teacher colleague told me that she is in a state of "permanent overwhelm." A colleague at the health center was in tears this week from work-related stress. Whew. It's tough out there! Somehow it's easier to find words of comfort and support for these colleagues and friends than it is to access that same counsel when I'm flailing...

Been thinking a lot about historical/generational trauma--both from the coursework, films and reading in SW540, and learning and conversations through my work. Last week I was able to attend our CA School Health Center Association annual conference in Long Beach. A colleague and I went to a pre-conference seminar on "trauma informed care" that really spoke to our experience at the high school working with young people. I'm on a mission now to do education with our faculty to help them understand that the "over-the-top" behavior they are up against in a lot of their classes is rooted in trauma. I want to offer them specific skills to work more effectively with young people in these moments that would support everyone involved to have more positive outcomes--e.g. young people getting connected with support rather than continuing a cycle of punitive response/punishment that doesn't offer any opportunity to address the underlying causes of these behaviors. And also for teachers to avoid the awful battles that take away from their instructional efficacy in the classroom. I'll post as  I move that work forward.

Whew. Still riding that wave. A lot going on at work, I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a 2 day California Assoc. of School Health Centers Conference in Long Beach, have a meeting tonight for a program that my older son is in and I'm trying to get to some 550 and 541 coursework before I leave (while my son is home sick). So, where does balance come in?!

At least I'm in good spirits. That counts for a lot. Hope everyone else is well. Sorry I missed the check-in Monday night, my sister was passing through town just for that one night...

Resistance and Qualities of the Heart

The other night on one of our Elluminate sessions, a classmate asked me to share a couple of quotes that I have carried with me over many years. Together, they have offered me tremendous inspiration when I feel weary or dispirited about "making a difference."  The first is by Monseñor Oscar Romero, and the second one is from Wendell Berry.  Enjoy!

This is what we are about:

We plant seeds that will one day grow.

We water seeds already planted,

knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need

future development.

We provide yeast that produces

effects beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything and there is a

sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something  and to

do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,

a step along the way,

an opportunity for God’s grace

to enter and do

the rest.

We may never see the end results,

but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders,

ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets

Of a future

not our

own.

                                --Monseñor Oscar Romero

The following is an excerpt from “A Poem of Difficult Hope,” an essay by Wendell Berry in his book, What are People For?

Much protest is naive  it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come.  Protesters who hold out longer have perhaps understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone’s individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success; namely the hope of preserving qualities in one’s own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.

Obviously still struggling with the blog thing. I feel like I spend all of my reflective energy on my 550, 541 and   232 class (at UCB), reading, thinking, writing, and then while I'm at work, commuting on my bike, lying in bed, all the wheels keep turning integrating all of this learning and thinking with my world at the high school. I wish I had the energy to bring it all together here, just can't make it happen. I'll keep trying...

Hanging in there...

Doc diagnosed a "raging infection" in my throat yesterday. No wonder I've been feeling so wiped out this week. Just trying to make it through.

Jenn's first blog

Hi MSW Compas,

Is this how we do it? Keep me posted....