Intuition is a spiritual faculty and does not explain, but simply points the way.
Florence Scovel Shinn
It’s rarely wrong.
It usually speaks to my integrity.
It knows right from wrong.
Its voice can be a loud banging or a subtle nuance.
And its often ignored at the peril of the individual.
Intuition.
I think that we underestimate, as we get older, the power of our intuition. Filmmaker David Lynch has famously asserted that intuition or knowingness occurs “when emotions and intellect join together”; German theologian, Johann Kaspar Lavater, argues that “intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.” And author Shakti Gawain believes that intuition is “a deep wisdom, inner knowing…[an] inner sense that tells us what feels right and true for us at any given moment.”
I have been tuned to my big frequency, my intuition, very deeply over the past four months. As a result, I have made some enriching self-aware insights. I also find myself in what is perhaps the most healthy, sustainable, rewarding, and skill-matching role in nearly twenty-five years in public education. I have been working for nearly three and a half weeks in my newest responsibilities: teacher of hybrid learning. The program is called Homelinks. And by governmental definition it falls under the newly redesigned ‘online learning’ (OL) moniker replacing the quickly outdated term ‘distributive learning’.
Hybrid learning is an educational model where students spent part of their learning in school and part of their learning at home sometimes through a digital learning platform connecting with the material and teachers. There are hundreds of these hybrid learning schools throughout North America. The Homelinks model is a five day a week schedule where one day a week students spend time in a school classroom working on projects (art, music, etc.), group outdoor activities, and receiving direct teacher support for challenging learning content. The other four days of the week learners are supported by their families in working through a co-created Student Learning Plan (SLP).
Your intuition will tell you where you need to go; it will connect you with people you should meet; it will guide you toward work that is meaningful for you – work that brings you joy, work that feels right for you.
Shakti Gawain
Intuition and Meaningful Work
I recently left a teaching position that was also somewhat of a hybrid educational model: four days in school, one day a week home learning. A highlight of this model gives the families more time to focus on a project or area of learning interest and to do deeper within that space; and quite simply, more time to just be together. The current model of Homelinks definitely offers opportunities for transformation. Over the past ten weeks, I have refused to sit idly by and used my strengthen innovation and creativity to develop a longer term vision for what has become a rapidly growing choice of public education by families.
There is indeed something empowering about families desiring to take the education of the children and make it a part of their family lives; of wanting something that meets their specific needs; that offers flexibility and autonomy. Homelinks is receiving one application a week; the class for Fall 2022 is nearly full and a waitlist will need to be implemented before month’s end.
There is no doubt in my mind that my intuition has helped to lead me to this juncture in my life. I am entering another opportunity to do work of value; to work that brings me joy; and feels right for me. And I cannot help but emphasize the value and power that this growing self-awareness.
JY
GETTING CURIOUS 