My class was silent yesterday.  If you can imagine the feeling of 30 human sponges sucking the learning atmosphere in a classroom, that was the silence I got.   I would ask a question and I would get nothing.  In fact I would get more than nothing.  It seemed like they were afraid to try.  So what is a teacher to do?

For some strange reason the idea of addressing this silence seemed important.  As those who are wise always say, “Start from where the audience is at.”   So I checked.  (And that is another thing I learned from wise people – when in doubt, check)

“I’m disturbed by the silence. Do you have an exam this week?”

“Sir yes. Management Accounting.”  (Methinks: finally something)

“And are you worried about it?”

They laugh a genuine, nervous-checking-each-other kinda laugh.

(Ha ha a genuine human reaction, I guess that’s it)

I relied on a piece of wisdom I  picked up along the way: When in doubt, tell the truth.  And share your personal experience. So I did.

“Guys someone once told me, ‘You chose this life, and difficulties come with that.‘   You have a choice you can make here: either you cower in fear and give up or you try really hard.  And it doesn’t matter if you have less time or less talent than others.  Those aren’t matters of choice. But how much you give is something that’s up to you. And I can tell you, if you give 100% (no matter what that looks like), you’ll have no regrets. This is a leadership class, and this is a leadership choice, and this is where leadership happens in these small choices.”

I knew for a few, it made sense — and maybe even more than just sense.   Some sat a little taller, held their heads up a little higher, and had that twinkle in their eye.    But even if I didn’t connect, the underlying message was still important to bring out:  there is more to us than our fears and frustrations.  And despite what our fears tell us, we can always choose to be our better selves.