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Reclaiming Your Power: The Circle of Control
Posted by Janice Scheckter on 15 January 2026, 10:40 SAST
In the midst of an education crisis, it is easy to feel small. Every day, you are bombarded by the Circle of Concern: the national budget cuts, the shifting curriculum policies, the lack of textbooks, the poverty in your community, and the broken infrastructure. These are heavy, real realities. But when we spend all our emotional energy staring at these giant walls, we feel paralyzed. We feel like victims of a broken system, waiting for permission to make a difference.
But inside that storm, there is a smaller, quieter, but infinitely more powerful space: your Circle of Control.
This is your sanctuary. You cannot control the Department’s budget, but you can control the energy you bring into your classroom every morning. You cannot control a learner’s difficult home environment, but you can control whether your classroom is the safest, most encouraging 45 minutes of their day. You cannot control the backlog of infrastructure, but you can control the culture of curiosity and the high expectations you set for every child seated in front of you.
When you step into your classroom and close the door, the systemic dysfunction stays in the hallway. In that space, you are not a bureaucrat; you are an architect of human potential. To focus on your Circle of Control is not to ignore the crisis; it is to defy it. It is an act of rebellion to say, "The system may be struggling, but in this room, on my watch, we are going to learn, we are going to dream, and we are going to rise."
