The Evil Witch had Facetime & Skype First!

The Evil Witch had Facetime & Skype First! 

By, Michael Earnshaw

February 6, 2019 

@mearnshaw158

“It wasn’t my fault!” As an educator, how many times a day do you hear this, or an iteration of the phrase? My guess, it’s more than you can count on your hands, and your grade level teammates hands all added up together.  We are constantly trying to teach our students that they need to take ownership and responsibility for their choices and actions. “It wasn’t my fault!” was a phrase we shouted when we were young but have since learned how to be responsible, honest, and productive adults. Or have we?  

With the turning of the new year I have been doing a lot of reflecting. I’ve been staring into the mirror and analyzing everything reflected: childhood, teens, early adult hood, parenting, being a husband, educator, principal, and the list goes on and on. What makes me chuckle is that most of the images playing like an old filmstrip movie are ones that did not end happily. Of course, I have happy memories, but when I begin reflecting, it’s always about what has gone wrong in my life. With each of these situations I found one common theme...my response, always some version of, “It wasn’t my fault!”  

Every time something has gone unfavorable in my life, I have been able to respond and explain by stating why that was the outcome. There was always a reason, always, and it was never me. I had always explained that there were other forces that caused these negative outcomes, factors outside of my grasp. 

After staring into the mirror, I realized I had not truly learned what I try to teach 550 students daily. The one factor for all these less than favorable outcomes were the same...me. I am in control of my choices, my actions. It’s time to accept that and take ownership and responsibility for what I've chosen in the past, and the choices I will make going forward. 

As educators, as adults, we need to teach our students, our children, how to take responsibility for their choices, to think of the outcomes before they make them, to consider the feelings of others that will be affected.  

I ask you to stop and look in the mirror. Have you truly learned the lesson that we are trying to teach daily? You’re never too late to learn, and I am so grateful that I finally have.