The Power of But

I'm guilty. Sometimes I can't help myself either. It takes so much self-restraint. Even when you do hold back, you just want to scream. Most of us have been there. You get frustrated at something you see or some experience you have and you take to social media somehow and you rant about it. I can hold myself back on politics, religion, and lots of other things, but I can't hold my tongue sometimes on supporting kids and schools. I spend too much time on it and I'm passionate about it and sometimes things just set me off. That happened to me last week and I learned something that I hadn't planned on learning. I learned the power of the word "but." 

My rant was simple. I just wanted parents to spend a little time checking in on what their kids were supposed to be doing. I feel like we need parents as partners right now. It's hard engaging kids that we don't have in our classrooms and just having an accountability partner in the home makes a huge difference in what a teacher can accomplish. To my surprise, my eight-sentence rant was shared out hundreds of times and passed along by many people that I certainly don't know. Apparently, I had struck a nerve. I'm curious about people, so I looked at the comments of the people that I didn't know. They don't know me and they certainly don't owe me the courtesy of being polite or agreeing with me. The overwhelming majority was supportive and there also appeared to be a lot of educators. There were a few others that caught my attention though. There were the people that agreed, but not really. Their comments ranged from things like: 

 "So true, but what about the teachers that don't reply back?" 

 "I know I should help, but I'm a single mom and don't have time." 

 "This is true, but Canvas doesn't work." 

There were a lot more like this and most were pretty similar. What I found odd was the use of the word "but." It took me back to a high school English teacher that taught me that when you use the word "but" no one cares about what you said before it. How true that is. Go back and look in the first paragraph of this blog post. I did it. I said, "...but I can't hold my tongue sometimes on supporting kids and schools." Nothing before that mattered to me. I know I shouldn't run my mouth on social media. It doesn't solve anything. I certainly don't think anyone has ever changed their opinion based on a social media rant, BUT I just couldn't stop. The BUT was too powerful. 

So what are your BUTs? What is just to powerful from doing what you know you probably should do? Maybe yours are personal and maybe they are professional. Maybe you're human and have some of both. We grow by addressing those BUTs and by doing our best to cut them out. Do an experiment and try to catch yourself on your BUTs. You might be shocked at how much you use them and what they tell others about you. I'm going to try to correct my social media rant BUTs. Even though it can be so satisfying.