It’s time to celebrate the week! Thank you, Ruth Ayers, for offering offers a place for this weekly practice. Find other celebrations here.
My kids lived in Batman and Superman costumes, t-shirts and PJs. It wasn’t until they went to school that they wore clothes that excluded a cape. I loved those capes for what they lit up in my kids: adventure and escape.
Maybe it was the spirit of Halloween that prompted a conversation around personal superpowers in my Voxer group this week. It got me thinking about my superpower. And the corollary, my kryptonite.
I believe we all have superpowers and things that derail us. Our kryptonite.
Perhaps it’s with highs; there are lows. Is it because we dare to fly too high? Is it something internal that just stops us? Are we protecting ourselves?
Or is it something that’s put on us? Have we been taught?
Yesterday, I asked my students about their superpowers and their kryptonite. While their superpowers ran the gamut of whatever they were passionate about, their kryptonite was surprisingly similar.
Hurtful words
Telling me I can’t.
Saying I’m not good.
Other conversations hovered around the impending celebration.
Is it time to put on our costumes?
Is it time yet?
Now?
And my favorite question of all, “What are you gonna be?”
The limitlessness of this query exists on Halloween and whenever we put on a cape.
Today, I’m celebrating superpowers and the question, what are you gonna be.
Here’s to imagining the possibility of what schools and teaching could be. A kryptonite-free space where we can wear our capes and fly.
Happy Halloween.
To Read To Write To Be 