Man, today is just a heavy day. Hard to get out of bed, hard to face the cold, dreary sky, hard to go to meetings with head bowed low, weighted by furious thoughts racing round my brain.

Some 5th graders today, in class, launched into a side discussion about the world, and its cruelties, and how helpless and frustrated they feel about the unfairness of it all. Even though I can be a bit cynical and jaded at times, I'm actually quite positive when it comes to teaching and the things I say to my students. But these guys were pretty deep today, trying to understand why bad things happen to good people, frustrated that they know about all this suffering in the world, and that they can't do anything about it.

Man, these kids are too young to be having an existential crisis. But that's what comes with the territory of being "gifted" I guess; sometimes you're able to figure things out a bit faster than everyone else.

Hard for me to know what to say back to them, either. I can't smile and say, "Oh, don't be so silly! The world is a perfect, wonderful place kiddies!" They're too smart for that. But you have to be so precise with what you say to students. My response is some watered-down version of the Four Noble Truths (but you know, without it being all "religiousy",) and I tell them we can pick up the discussion over lunch. I think some of them just need to talk it out, and they don't get that opportunity to do that in their regular classroom as much.

Man. Too heavy of a conversation to have on an already heavy day.