This is not my favorite time of year. THe reason for that is the fact that I drive to the office in the dark and I drive home in the dark. This time of year always reminds me of an episode of Northern Exposure, the late 1980’s television show. Residents of the small Alaskan village realize they are suffering from seasonal affective dissorder, understandable given the fact that the “evening” was ten weeks long. As a prescription, all the villagers wore headbands with ultra violet lights shining on their faces. These people changed the rules of the “night.”

During my stint as a high school social studies teacher, I would become convinced that the entire student body was conspiring to break my heart. Missed assignments were purposeful attacks at the integrity of my professionalism. Poor test scores were a sympton of the disintegration of the American way. Although I always “snapped out of it,” it was never a pleasant time.

One of the pathologies of that “dark time” was the failure to realize the fact that I had created my own rules for dealing with this situation. Under these rules, my job was to deliver instruction to the unsophisticated mob of students, their job was to do anything in their power to resist my efforts. My day was reduced to winning or losing. If I won, the students learned (and lost). If I lost, the students won (and didn’t learn). Clearly, no winners in this scenario.

What if the rules were different for just one day. Can you put aside the rules you currently work under and play by different rules? Can you treat students “As if, rather than as is?” By this I mean treat students “as if” they are on their way to a brilliant academic career and love learning? Try it, just for one day.