I quit my job in the middle of a pandemic.

I left my job as an academic director. What looked good on my resume did not look good in the world of COVID19, trying to parent while on endless Zoom calls and counting the five hundredth viewing of Frozen 2 as family time. Sleep? What’s that?

Education is a funny world. So many of us are experts with advanced degrees, paid (often not enough) to care deeply about all the kids except our own.

I didn’t leave education. I’m just self-employed now.

I believe in creativity, I believe in kids. And in the words of Sir Ken Robinson, I believe the education system will remain broken until we learn how to help kids grow into their creativity instead of growing out of it.

I have two children of my own who are the most exquisite and fascinating people I’ve ever met, and as they grow and change I get to keep meeting them over and over and over again.

Recently we went for a walk in a nature preserve. I was trailing my nearly two year old, and we came to a point in the path. The way forward was obvious and clear. Except. Except there was a small, slightly covered trail that led off to the right. I would have missed the turn off, on the autopilot of the road more traveled.

My son stood there, a character in Robert Frost’s poem, and dashed to the right. There was barely a pause before his assessment found that the path with more grass and leaves also surely meant more adventure.

He has not grown out of his creativity yet.

He’s teaching me how to make sure I don’t grow out of mine.

It’s the 2020, and there are many reasons not to hope. But I still have hope that we can leave the world a better place for them. I still have hope that they can be the problem solvers we need, to undo the many ways that we fail in that mission. I still believe in their creativity.

We ended up journeying to the right.

And I quit my job.

It’s too soon to say if either of those choices made all the difference. But I’m hopeful.