Five Seconds Before You Respond
A Wednesday pause for teachers who are tired of toxic positivity and need something real.
Here's a quote, a resource, and a reflection to help you move through the middle of the week.
Quote
"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." — Ian Maclaren
In schools, we see behavior long before we see the full picture. A student snaps. We feel our own patience thinning by the end of the day. It's easy to react to what's visible and forget that most of what shapes people never shows up on the surface.
Most of us are operating with incomplete information, trying to do right by people whose full stories we'll never know.
Resource
Before you redirect a student or respond to a colleague who's testing your patience, try this:
Five seconds. That's it.
In those five seconds, don't try to fix anything or generate empathy you don't feel. Just notice: What am I bringing into this moment? Am I tired? Frustrated about something else? Already decided how this will go?
You're not looking for permission to let things slide. You're checking whether your response is about this moment or about the thirteen other moments stacked behind it.
Most of the time, those five seconds won't change what you say. But they'll change how you say it. And occasionally, they'll change whether you say it at all.
Now Repeat…
I can hold boundaries and still acknowledge someone's humanity. My patience has limits, and that doesn't make me unkind. I practice kindness without performing it.
Journal Prompt
What's one moment from this week where a "Five Second Pause" would have been helpful?
Book Spotlight
On Kindness by Adam Phillips & Barbara Taylor - Phillips and Taylor argue that real kindness is risky—it costs us time, ego, and certainty.
For teachers, that risk is constant. We choose kindness when we're running on empty. We offer it to students who don't return it. We practice it in a system that rarely practices it toward us.
This book won't make any of that easier. But it will remind you that the difficulty is the point. That kindness isn't a personality trait you either have or don't—it's a choice you make again and again, imperfectly, in rooms full of people who are all trying to survive their own hard battles.
👉 Buy on Bookshop.org | Buy on Amazon | Book Spotlight Archive (These affiliate links support Why Edify at no extra cost to you.)
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If this message resonates with you, you're welcome inside The STRONG Teacher's Lounge.
We're currently moving through the Winter Series, a slower rhythm of shared reflections and simple practices designed to help teachers move through the season with more steadiness and care. There's no pressure to keep up and no expectation to do it perfectly. Just space to pause, reflect, and remember you're not alone in this work.
