Students want a connection with you, but they also want to disconnect from whatever it is life is serving them at the moment. And that should take precedence. Lately I’ve begun training myself to enter class with a bare bones outline containing one idea, a short story to illustrate it, and a Rumi quote to help the idea hit home.

When a child picks up a tiny piece of food and feeds themselves for the first time, do we celebrate and coo and clap and praise effusively, or do we move right into the longing for when they’ll finally use a knife and fork?