Some unambiguously good news

from my little corner of the world

Y’all. You may have noticed that the Unruly Quaker has been a little wobbly lately in its shift to Tuesdays and Thursdays.

No, I’m not pregnant. Hush your mouth. I’m 50 and in menopause.

No.

It’s to make room for my new job.

A new job that I LOVE.

I repeat — and I’m knocking wood so I don’t jinx it — I LOVE my new job.

When I’m getting ready for work in the morning, I think of this Howard Thurman quote:

This has never happened to me before. Grad school, yes, that made me come alive the first round and this round, too. Volunteer endeavors, yes. Traveling and writing and dance parties and friend get-togethers and restorative justice and silent retreats, yes. But a job? I mean. No. Honestly, I didn’t know it was possible.

This new job? It makes me come alive.

So what is this dreamy new job?

Academic Success Coach —which to me also means Executive Functions Coach — at my child’s alma mater, Insight Colearning Center.

Insight is a student-driven micro high school that operates on an equitable sliding scale.

It’s a special place we found for Sam after he got rejected from Carolina Friends School (twice: once for middle school and again for upper school). Although I was heartbroken and not a little mad that my Quaker child didn’t get into the Quaker school whose board members have said how they want more Quakers in the school, it worked out better this way.

N.b.: “It worked out” doesn’t mean that it was pretty. It wasn’t. I wasn’t chill. I was freaking out. Long story short: my heartbroken, enraged, spiraling, sleepless, panicky ass desperately prayed for insight as to where to send Sam for high school.

Literally. I’m not making that up as a cool story in hindsight. I literally prayed for insight.

And what do you know, as I was contacting folks for ideas and also appealing to CFS to let Sam in, two people I trust mentioned a new micro high school in Durham called … Insight.

Anyhoodle. Forgive my digression.

One of my least endearing, least Quakerly qualities is my ability to hold a grudge. And I mean hold a grudge, especially when I think my child has been short-shrifted. Lord howdy. Don’t wake the beast.

Back to Insight Colearning Center!

It was such a wonderful high school school for Sam, who is a keen learner and a hard-working student *and* has learning differences, executive function challenges, and some other stuff that makes school a hard go.

Insight is different.

Insight is a school to which students *and* staff can bring our whole selves.

Our whole selves!

Imagine if your whole self had been welcomed at school.

What would that have looked like for you?

In my case, and for many of our students and teachers, our “whole selves” includes but is not limited to showing up with:

• learning differences, neuro-spiciness, and/or neurodivergences

• anxiety, ADHD, and/or executive function challenges

• losing our sparks in “traditional” settings

• soul-level dedication to social justice

• being LGBTQI+

• racial, cultural, and economic diversity

• having human feelings

• working creatively and collaboratively

• being an introvert

• being an extrovert

• wanting to be outside a bunch

• thinking big thoughts

• and so much more.

And … the timing … wow.

Much like the timing of Insight showing up to us when we needed it, this opportunity popped up at an incredibly timely time.

I don’t mind saying it is a time of transition for certain Unruly Quakers.

And this, this is an opportunity to evolve from being mama bear and advocate / coach for my own child —who is nearly grown (?!) — to being given the opportunity to coach and advocate for other young people.

That feels like a big-ass deal.

So … what is “Academic Success Coach”?

Well, specifically at Insight, it means I get to meet with students individually once or twice a week for a 30 minutes at a time, to work on executive function and academic success skills.

Okay, but what does that mean?

It means identifying a student’s long-term goals and helping them create plans that make those goals possible.

It means chunking big goals down into smaller, tangible steps.

It means helping students learn how they learn.

It means teaching students how to reflect on their work; to identify their executive functioning strengths and weaknesses.

It means offering multiple strategies and scaffolding for doing homework and getting organized and managing time and advocating for themselves in the classroom ... and beyond.

It means celebrating accomplishments, big and small.

It means being a consistent, supportive presence in young peoples’ lives.

It is a gift and an honor and sure, it’s frustrating sometimes, but mostly it’s so, so much fun.

It also means I get to use the kinds of information about learning styles that I find so fascinating.

I love learning about this stuff. This is the kind of information I’ve grokked from … well, frankly, from life. From parenting. From sleepless worried nights, countless books, conferences, parent info sessions, five years of incredibly informative and formative osmosis from Sam’s years at The Hill Learning Center, and most of all, from raising smart and delightful child with learning differences and executive functioning challenges. Oh, and also my Master of Education degree focusing on working with teens.

Here’s a little teaser about Executive Functioning, if you’ve been scratching your head this whole time:

And! Another perfect thing is that this new gig is part-time, which means I get to continue my peace and social justice and writing and Unruly Quaker and grad school at full(ish) pace.

(Although I will appreciate your patience if my posts are a little late or a bit more unruly than usual.)

It almost feels like … Serendipity. Synchronicity. Sublime Coincidence. Alignment. The noodling of The Great Cosmic Echidna. Whatever you want to call it. I just love it.

And I’m so so happy to share this news with y’all.

Thank you for being here.

Wishing all the best things for each and every one of you.

XOXO