In Have To or Get To,  Doug Johnson challenges us to create a “short list” of what makes us happy in our jobs.  I think he and Seth Godin are definitely onto something.

The higher the percentage of things you “get to do” as opposed to “have to do,” the greater the likelihood of happiness and success.

“If you won the lottery tomorrow and never HAD to work again, what things do you do at work that you would continue to do?”

Here’s my list:

• I’d still want to talk about books with teenagers.  Don’t know exactly how to do that if I didn’t work in a school anymore.  Hanging out on MySpace makes we worry that someone from Dateline might pop out at me with a video camera.  Still – maybe public libraries would be open to book discussion groups with guest adult facilitators.
• I’d still want to work with new books – I’d miss that wonderful smell.  Maybe I could find an understanding librarian somewhere who would call me when there were boxes of new books to open.
• I’d still study library trends.
• I’d still want to work on a library related website.
• I’d still blog about libraries.
• I’d still want to do workshops that would help busy school librarians make new technologies work for their students and teachers.

Doug goes on to ask:

How do we encourage those poor people who seem to live an entire work-life of “have to’s” to find a more fitting position?

I’m afraid I have no answers for that right at the moment.

Instead I’d like to ask a related question…. How can we redesign school so kids can “get to” do stuff they like at least part of the day – and not just lunch or recess.?

If we could figure out a way to answer that question – maybe we’d be more help to our students who don’t fit easily into the school mold.