Today is Day Three. Students have been back at school for three days, and they are already much more comfortable. They know where classrooms are. Locker combinations are starting to stick. They are figuring out where the gym. How to find their friends in between classes.
Before long, they will settle into their routines.
And routines are good. It is within routines that we find the space and freedom to be creative, to take risks, and to grow. When kids know what to expect - at school, at home, on a team - they have a foundation from which they can explore a little further.
But routines can also become ruts. As kids get comfortable, they begin to test boundaries. They search for new ways to be engaged, entertained - or what we sometimes just call distracted.
There is a fine balance here.
Race car drivers talk about driving right on the edge of losing control. Push too far and you wreck. Stay too far from the edge and you probably aren't really racing.
Maybe helping kids grow is a little like that.
We work hard to establish routines, understood norms, procedures, and boundaries. We want kids to know what is expected and to feel confident within those expectations. But then, almost at the exact moment they have it - when they understand it - we need to push them outside of their comfort zones again. Challenge them. Give them responsibility. Let them struggle. Ask them to think differently, try something new, or do something they aren't quite sure they can do.
And then be there as they figure it out.
Then, we push them again, just to the brink of chaos, with intention, control, and purpose.
Because that's often where the best learning happens. Where the most fun occurs. Where teaching resides.
Where purpose and impact are born.