A PERFECT DAY AT SCHOOL

It occurred to me this morning that I was in the midst of a perfect day at school. Granted, the idea of perfection is much disparaged these days (“Nothing is perfect” is a phrase I often hear), but I have a more positive thought about it. One dictionary defines “perfect” as the condition of being “as good as it is possible to be”, and this school day fits that definition. This day at my school is, in fact, as good as it is possible for this particular school day to be. It may not be the kind of school day I love or was hoping for, but for this specific day – October 20, 2009 – it’s as good as it can be. It’s exactly the kind of day it has to be, which is another way of saying it’s perfect. My students may not be behaving the way I wish they would behave, my lessons may collapse in heaps, and I may receive dozens of bothersome emails, but for this day, everything happened as perfectly as possible. Some of the students’ behavior was perfectly annoying, a few lessons were flawless failures, and my emails were impeccably vexing. Even what was wrong with this day was entirely wrong. It was as wrong as it could possibly be. If I’m sounding tongue-in-cheek, I honestly don’t mean to be. The perfection of each day is a serious reality to me. A school day might not be my particular dream-come-true day, but each one is as good as that particular day can possibly be. Tomorrow will be different than today, yes, but not any better.