Hard Things, Silly Things, and the Wisdom of a Six-Year-Old

“You can do hard things,” I tell six-year-old Norah as she decodes an unfamiliar word. Norah looks up at me and replies, “And you can do silly things.”

When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I am a literacy specialist. I draw on two decades of experience in education, research-based pedagogy, and formal training in teaching to explicitly teach children the foundational skills they need to become successful readers and writers.

In other words—

I do silly things.

I laugh a lot—at myself and with my students. I dance with them. I use games, funny voices, and jokes that reliably land with a six-year-old audience. I build relationships, and I make space for joy to be woven into hard work. I help my students see that I am just as human as they are. And if we aren’t laughing at ourselves, at mispronounced words, and making learning fun—well, then what’s the point?

Learning how to read, training for a marathon, completing a doctorate—these are goals that require hard work, dedication, and focus. Yet each of these journeys has room for joy and space to do “silly things.”

I often reflect on how seriously adults take themselves. How does this seriousness support personal growth? How does it create clear roadmaps for achieving goals? Is there room to laugh while doing hard things?

Norah is proof that these two mentalities can—and should—coexist.