Holding children. Together.

We held a child together.

This phrase has two meanings as it is written. One meaning implies that a child was somehow falling apart and you and another person kept the child from coming undone. The second meaning indicates that you and another person held a child at the same time, in a united act of love and care. Both senses of this phrase contain powerful imagery. But it is the second sense that I want to talk about here. I think it's best written like this: We held a child. Together.

There is a powerful bond created among teachers who hold the same children. I have been searching for a way to describe this relationship for years, and here it is. The act of holding a child, literally or figuratively, is what a teacher does. And I don't mean hold as in hug. I mean hold as in stabilize, hold steady, hold on to. A teacher provides a base, a safe haven from which to explore the many pathways to growth and knowledge; a reliable hand in time of need; or even a tug in the right direction. Teachers who share in this act of holding with other teachers create an even stronger structure of support, for both the kids and each other. These bonds are powerful and build an architecture of relationship with a different texture and deeper cohesion than that of congenial friendship among colleagues.

I first heard this phrase (hold a child. together) from my former principal, who is stepping down after six incredible years at the school she founded. This is the same principal who hired me fresh out of ed school to be the first English teacher at her school. It is safe to say that no one has had more of an impact on me as an educator. Not usually given to flights of metaphorical fancy, she uttered this phrase in response to an incident in which she literally held on to the t-shirt of a child in distress with another colleague. But for this same colleague, relating the incident at the principal's going away party this week, the literal grasp to bring a child back from the brink was the moment when she truly understood what being a part of a school is about. It is about holding children together. Together. One t-shirt or one field trip or one parent meeting or one lesson at a time.

I could go on forever about how much I love this principal as a person and as a leader of teachers and kids. But what I want to say here (related to my previous post below and a lot of the pondering I've been doing this year) is that there is so much power in holding kids together that a school feels empty when this isn't the case. Because in order to hold kids, you have to reach out, no matter what kind of kids you teach or where you teach them. And I cannot believe that sustainability or finding a work-life balance involves keeping your hands at your sides, literally or figuratively.

I know it's summer, but I welcome your thoughts...