Intentionally Using the Fire of Passion

As I got ready to begin a lesson in my classroom, I asked a group of three students to stop talking. As soon as I turned away from them, one of the three started talking again. 

The audacity! The rudeness!

I got animated. I got dramatic.

I raised my voice, I moved my hands through the air, and I got right in front of the student. I then kicked him out of my classroom.

I wasn’t taking his behavior personally. I wasn’t trying to control him and his peers. I wasn’t aiming to regain power in the classroom and in my relationship with him. I wasn’t making him wrong. I wasn’t intentionally demeaning him. I wasn’t angry.

I was standing for the integrity and workability of a shared space.

My getting animated with him had integrity, because I wasn’t trying to emotionally beat him into submission.

I told the class all this, and then I stepped outside to calmly and respectfully chat with the student about it.

I told him that he’s smart, creative, hard-working, and I love getting to work with him. And I’m committed to workability in our classroom.

I asked him, “Is there anything you’d like to say to me?”

He apologized for being rude. I said that I appreciated his apology, and then checked in with him to see if he had anything else he wanted to say. 

Out of this experience, my relationship with this student became deeper than it was. 

As a class, we eventually worked through the physics that I planned for the day, but there was a much more important lesson that day that I’m glad we didn’t overlook.

Sometimes a little fire, a little passion, and a little drama can be a powerful and effective way to communicate or express something that doesn’t seem to be getting across. That's one of the gifts of our inner fire, I think!

However, as always, it’s important that we’re responding with integrity and intentionality instead of reacting from insecurity.

Where in your life might a little unattached, grounded, and intentional passion help shift something that feels stuck to you? Are you willing to stay on the healthy and generous side of the fine line between responding and reacting?

Much Love. ❤️