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I don’t think marshmallows have complex thoughts. But if they did, I doubt they’d curse their plush, pillow-like bodies for being “too soft.” Their gooey, squishy nature is exactly what makes them perfect. No one wants a hard marshmallow. Except maybe dentists. Do you think a pillow ever dreams of being concrete? A soft pretzel wishes it were one of its hard cousins? A blanket wants to be something less… comforting? Of course not. So when one of my students called me “too sof

This is what teaching has been teaching me. My students don’t know the real me But they show me who they really are every day. Their silliness. Their whimsy. Their impromptu dance parties on the carpet. Their scribbles. Their quiet rebellions. And yet I can’t always let them be themselves. I must keep order. I must show them who is boss. I must whip chaos into something that looks like learning. But I don’t want to. I want to laugh with them. I want to hear their biggest drea

My crinkled list of questions sat in front of me. I pulled it from our kitchen's junk drawer, tucked beside a retired butter tub full of rubber bands. In thick red marker, it read: How is the weather? How is Grandpa? What books are you reading? Have you seen any wildlife? How's work at the Nearly New? As I waited for Dad to finish talking, my heart pounded. I rehearsed the questions again. I knew them by heart, but I still needed the list. "Jenny, Grandma's ready to talk to y