Lie to Me A Little

September 2, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Note: This post is not because I am down! This post is written to all of those administrators and teachers that focus on the negative instead of the positive. I choose to focus on the positive no matter what is happening in the world. Therefore, if someone thinks the world is awful I am hoping they can “lie to me a little” and not share their negative world view. I hope that clears everything up.

Dear Administrators,
Yes, I know the economy is dreadful. Yes, I know that teachers are under attack. Yes, I know that we facing a crisis, whether real or perceived. But could you? Would you? Just please, lie to me a little.

You see, I just started school and I want to believe. I want to believe that I make a difference. I want to believe that what I do matters. I want to believe that I inspire, that I push, that I challenge. I want to believe that I am changing the world.

So don’t just tell me your gloom and doom. Don’t just share the policies or the changes. Inspire me. Tell me you believe that this will be the best year ever. Tell me that you believe in us as teachers. Tell me that you believe that together we can make it happen. You don’t have to believe it, but tell me nonetheless. Because I believe and so should you.

So if you need to just lie to me a little, I will take care of the rest.

4 thoughts on “Lie to Me A Little”

Patti Grayson says:

September 2, 2011 at 2:13 am

Despite it all… I can't imagine my life without it. It's still a great time to be a teacher.http://plpnetwork.com/2011/09/01/new-teachers-the-joys-challenges-of-21st-century-learning/You've been such an inspiration for me – and I'm sure many others. Keep the faith!!

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Mr. Inscho says:

September 2, 2011 at 6:12 am

Not a chance I'll lie to you! The straight-up-truth is that you're starting off a generation on the right foot to have the collaborative problem solving skills to make the most of their own lives and change others' for the better. There may be a lot of doom and gloom out there but you're a shining star inspiration for students and (PLN) colleages alike!

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Mrs Ripp aka @pernilleripp says:

September 2, 2011 at 10:41 am

I apologize if it sounds like I have lost faith a little in this post. I haven't. But what I do need from administrators is to start being cheerleaders instead of downers. Too many of them highlight the wrong things during inservices and the first couple days of school. I know what reality we face, I don't need to hear about it when I am getting excited about school.

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Theresa Murray says:

September 2, 2011 at 11:28 am

I would not want to be lied to in this situation, but there should be a balance to good and bad news. We had our back to school day yesterday. Instead of dwelling on the horrible things happening to education, our super gave us 20 seconds to think about his slide of negativity. He then moved on to focus on all the great things about teaching and the focus for the new year. We heard several times to remember why we do what we do along with examples of good things that have occurred. Similar thoughts were then shared in our building meetings. So, my thoughts for you would be to think about why you do what you do and have that be your focus as you dive into the new year of inspiring young minds!

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