The Teton Mountains: A Letter to My Students

Dear Students,

You are the most impressive mountains I have ever seen. You have transformed my perspective of what learning is, majestically rising to meet the moment in ways no one else ever has. You have carved the sky, left your mark in the clouds for us adults to see. And what we see is granite-grit and resilience, but it is so much more.

A few years ago, I visited the Teton Mountains. It was on my list for so long, so my expectations were as high as I imagined those peaks to be. My imagination was no match. My eyes weren’t big enough to take them in, to honor their magnificence with simple understanding. To say that I was in awe is the closest words can get, and it’s still not close enough.

It wasn’t just the jagged ridges sawing through a smooth, blue sky. It was the lakes they cradled beneath. It was the wooded flats that lay like a stage at their feet. It was the streams speaking softly and the rivers raging loudly. It was the birds and the squirrels. And it was the quiet.

Last spring, the world went away. Your grown-ups asked you to pivot from school to home, from friends to family, from classroom to computer. We asked you to change how you were in the world. Still, you met the moment majestically. You embodied both strength and flexibility in ways we adults forget how to sometimes.

And here we are again, asking you to be open to this year, to learn another new type of school, one that will likely change several times as the weeks and months go on. We are asking you for one day at a time and to be patient and adaptable in ways we are struggling with ourselves.

And you are doing it. You are rising everyday like great granite mountains. You are transforming hopefully-tomorrows into thankfully-todays. I know it is hard. I know it is not always fun. I know you cry. It’s hard for me, too. I cry, too. But one thing that keeps me going, keeps my feet following the path that my eyes can see is that my eyes are looking at you.

You are the Tetons. You are ecosystems unto yourselves. You are rushing rivers and quiet streams. You are stately pines and lakes serene. You are all that I can see, and you are the spaces in between. You have shown the grown-ups how quickly you can grow up, how you can handle these conversations and how you can reach higher than our high expectations.

You are the most impressive mountains I have ever seen, and I know I haven’t seen anything yet.