Had I attempted to take this on myself, making bread at least once a week, I probably would have given up after a week or two. I tend to jump into passion projects head first with extreme enthusiasm, but as soon as the initial adrenaline rush wears off, it becomes a real struggle for me to stay committed. Because I am essentially forced to work on this every week for school, I have stuck with it, and I've actually been able to see myself improve.
Making bread might sound like a cute, quaint, pioneer woman sort of hobby, but I had read before of the almost meditative quality it can have. I'm sorry to say that I had brushed this off as hippie-talk, but I have become "one of them". Somewhere between waiting for the yeast to proof and kneading the dough over and over, I'm able to forget whatever has happened to be stressing me that day and lose myself in the comforting process of combining flour, water, yeast and salt in varying combinations and with varying degrees of success until I'm face to face with a beautiful golden loaf of gluten-y goodness.
It's amazing how good bread makes people feel. As soon as the first hint of that yeasty, warm smell comes wafting out of the oven, my roommates start asking when they can have some. Bread has always had a communal quality about it, something to be shared. It's one of the most basic, and one of the oldest foods in existence, and there's something almost primal awakened when a warm loaf is cut open.
All this is simply to say that I am so grateful for this assignment for helping me to keep working away at this, and for finding something I truly love and that I want to continue to improve in. I loved the idea of genius hour when I first heard of it, and I appreciated what it could do for students from a distant, theoretical point of view, but now that I've been able to experience it firsthand, there is no doubt in my mind that I want to incorporate it into my future classes. Everyone deserves to have time to do something they love, or explore something they think they might love. It can build classroom communities, help a teacher get to know her students, and break down the arbitrary boundaries and social systems that seem to be created in elementary school. I would love to know if there's been any work done with regards to investigating the mental health benefits of having time to pursue a passion project, because I know that it has made me extremely content.
This past week was incredibly busy. I found myself tired and exhausted most evenings, overwhelmed with work, and counting down the days until the end of the term. I'm typically an early to bed, early to rise kind of person, but one night after an evening class, I came home absolutely wired, knowing there was no way I was going to be able to get to sleep any time soon. Without really thinking, I pulled out flour, salt, olive oil and got to work making focaccia. For a little while, I was still running through everything I still needed to get done for the week, assignments to be done, lessons to prep, but after a while, my mind quieted down, focusing on the texture of the dough, whether it needed more time to rise, was I kneading it enough, and before I knew it, I had a pan of focaccia that my roommates and I were tearing in to. I was calm, happy, full and sleepy.
Thanks to this genius hour, I might just make it through this term.
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