Walkin' The Line

I hate conflict.  I'm uncomfortable with confrontation and try to avoid it at all costs.  I am easily flustered when it comes to engaging in anything resembling a spirited argument.  The sweat-slime that's created after applying multiple layers of sunscreen, and the feeling of sweat-drips rolling down my back bring out the crabby whiner in me. For these reasons, I'm probably not the person you hope to have standing next to you on the strike line.  However, it's important to remember that even if your jokes are dumb, I'm a guaranteed laugh.  And when it comes to my bladder, I'm like a camel, so I rarely have to be shuttled off-site to a restroom.  I enjoy organizing, so I'll always set up a food station and keep the cooler stocked, and I can flash a winning smile and wave to cars all day long when I'm fueled by a cause I believe in.    

I make it a point to surround myself with people who spend most of their time on the bright side.  My people prefer to picnic on a sunny hillside where the grass is always greener, or at least die trying.  It's my nature to seek a silver lining, but even my stalwart optimism was squashed when I found out a teacher's strike at my school was unavoidable.  It turns out, nothing puts a damper on a sunny disposition like having to defend a spotless record of service, and nothing is more infuriating than being considered guilty until proven innocent.  Having the names of both my school and my friends dragged into an absolutely unwarranted, negative spotlight has been profoundly disheartening, but the time I've spent "on the line" has been exactly the opposite.  It's been inspiring. 

Don't get me wrong.  I hate almost everything about this picket purgatory.  I want a resolution YESTERDAY, but when the other side refuses to even open a dialogue, what's a glass-half-full gal like me to do?  You guessed it. This Pollyanna pinpoints the positive (and then writes about it =).

Being united for a good cause provides a sense of community that I always hoped to be part of, but was never sure could actually exist.  Getting to know teachers outside your own building isn't easy...until you're forced to sit on the side of a country road together for eight hours a day.  Providing an elementary school teacher with "where are they now" accounts of the grown-up versions of the tiny people who nervously entered their classrooms, or talking to a middle school teacher about the students who awkwardly navigated their pre-teen years only to find their footing in high school is an awesome and important experience.  Hearing that the problems teachers are facing in our middle and elementary schools are pretty much the same problems we face in the high school only serves to unite and empower teachers to continue fighting the good fight.  And I can assure you that every single teacher at Illini Bluffs IS fighting the GOOD fight. 

Families and other community members continue to deliver an over-abundance of food and supplies to our picket posts, and some hold sign-making parties and donate their time to help spread a message of support for teachers.  Kids take it upon themselves to rally, and past, present, and future students have all shown up to stand on the line with us.  And it means everything.

Out on the line, the teachers are still teaching.  They're teaching me that change is slow, but it CAN happen. They're teaching me about handling myself with grace under pressure.  I'm learning from the best what it means to have an endless capacity for hope.