Tiny-Mindedness

Not even small-mindedness. TINY-mindedness.

Tiny-mindedness is what happens to people who live in fear.

• racists

• internet trolls

• control freaks

• gun obsessers

• Christian Nationalists

• misogynists

• Critical Race Theory fabulists

• flaming narcissists

Oh, hell, the list goes on and on. There is so much fear constricting our minds, our capillaries, our bodies. The hearts of so many, it seems, have shrunk three sizes, and shriveled brains just spark and smoke and make no contact with those hearts.

So, no gun control. No access to abortion. In time, no freedom to choose one’s romantic partner or gender identity or religion. No truth in teaching. No liberty to name the corrosive forces of fear, hatred, trauma that form the very bedrock of our country. We are still battling misogyny, and tiny-mindedness is undermining feminism. We are still battling the Confederacy, and tiny-mindedness is undermining anti-racism.

Education should be the antidote to tiny-mindedness. But our teacher-warriors are exhausted and demoralized, suffering, in some cases, from tiny-mindedness themselves. After all, relentless stress and impotence cause constriction. Our teachers are only human.

We need expansiveness.

We need to take a breath. Stretch out our chests, giving our hearts room to inflate. Sit in mindfulness, giving our minds time to still. Dig our toes into the dirt, giving our bodies a chance to anchor.

We need to ditch the content and go organismic. We have got to connect.

(And we need to get out the vote.)

Where is tiny-mindedness in your school? What would it take to get everybody

up and open,

stable and trusting,

relaxed and laughing

for even just a moment?