I took my two daughter to see the Trolls movie yesterday while my wife was out. It was a great movie; definitely appropriate for kids, not too scary for my little one, and a nice soundtrack to boot.
My oldest really enjoyed the story, which, not to spoil the movie, is about taking care of others, building relationships, and changing people’s world-views. It’s a bit of a grown-up focus in a young kid’s movie, and was really nicely done.
At one point, towards the end of the film, there was an incredibly emotional scene. I could tell that all the kids and adults around me were incredibly invested in what was happening. It was so emotional, in fact, that I cried a bit. Happily, things ended well, but I was left reflecting on the power of emotion in the work that we do.
Emotion is incredibly powerful. We need to harness it to do the best possible job that we can. We shouldn’t necessarily ever run from emotion (as I believe I’ve written about before). We should welcome all that emotions bring, knowing, of course, that there are times when while it is appropriate for us to show emotion, we can’t necessarily be ruled by it.
I was also left considering how sensory emotions are. The combination of visual and auditory inputs from the movie led me to see the scene as very emotional. Our professional experiences can be much the same. Actions by a student or group of students, or a story by a colleague, can easily impact how we react, can draw up memories, and can lead to emotions leading us, rather than us leading emotions.
The key, here, is that we need to always be aware that emotions are a thing to be relished, and when appropriate, used for the leading and learning that we do. At the same time, we must remember that there are situations that require us to recognize emotions but put them in the back seat, as they might not put us, or others, in the right frame of mind.