Value

Value

I went to the board recently for reasons that I am not discussing here…maybe another time..  

The high school has a program called School Of Choice or SOC.  It has been in existence for at least 20 years.  Maybe more.  It was in progress when I began teaching at the High School in 2004.  

Four students presented the program, while their teachers sat in the audience.  This in itself was telling.  The teachers had 100% confidence in their students to present the program to the board and public.  

Briefly,  it is a program in the school that students apply to.  It consists of the four core content areas.  They must meet certain criteria, but not necessarily academic criteria.  From my own understanding, it is designed to support students in their learning, students who may struggle in school for various reasons or just need a different approach.

There was one phrase in a slide that jumped out at me:  The program prepares learners, not test takers.  Now, I am paraphrasing the statement, but that is the message I got.

This program has been in existence for more than 20 years, and I started wondering, “Why aren’t we learning from the successes and asking questions and applying the practices to all classrooms?”

I talked to the teacher involved with the development and implementation and she said the key to it is attendance.  And that we have a huge attendance problem right now.  One reason being is that parents call their kids out for any reason…and I felt a little twinge of guilt, because I am a guilty parent.

I am about to head off on a tangent here and talk about attendance.

My daughter will occasionally call or text me telling me she doesn’t want to go to such and such class for various reasons.  These reasons are anything from physical ailments and  exhaustion to how the class makes her feel depressed, or she doesn’t have the capacity to cope, or there is nothing important happening.

Now, I am sure she is not alone in her reasons and I bet there are many more.  But the one thing I keep wondering about is value.

What I saw and heard in the SOC presentation is that these students found value in their class.  They had a sense of community and belonging.  They realized that their presence made a difference.  That they were part of something bigger.  They had a sense of belonging.  

I read a book called Atlas of the Heart a while back.  I often refer back to it.  It is sort of my personal dictionary for feelings. Brene Brown, the author, talks about belonging versus fitting in.  She talks about how we are all wired for belonging.  It is a part of who we are.  I interpret this as a human need.

One piece that she mentions has really stuck to me.  She gets a bunch of quotes from kids and one has always kind of hung around in my head.

“Belonging is being accepted for who you are, Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else.”

Now, what does this have to do with attendance?  Or learning? 

I am going to attempt to connect the dots here.

We need certain things to learn.  Learning can be uncomfortable.  When we are learning something new, when we are opening our mind to a new idea,  a new perspective, thought, concept.  We can feel uncomfortable.  And we should be a little uncomfortable.  As long as you stay in your comfort zone, you are not really pushing your brain or body to learn.

Now, I am not talking about certain types of discomfort like hunger, or feeling tired.  Fear and worry are discomforts that are not conducive to learning.  

Our kids need to feel safe to learn.  And I just want to be clear here, I am talking about actual learning not just doing work.  We can discuss that later.

Belonging is a feeling that can promote learning.  If you are in a class and feel like you belong, like your voice matters, you matter, then is it possible that what you are learning might matter too?

And is it possible that if you felt that your presence in the class had an impact, that it was important not just for you to be there, but that it matters to others as well, that you would feel a sense of belonging?  That you, as a contributor, had a purpose, would that be a driver or feeling that might make it easier to show up every day and be involved?  Would it make it more enticing if you had value?

And if you have value in a classroom, then is it possible, you might find value in the class?  And if you find value in the class….well…maybe you would want to be there. On time. Often.

What if every class at school felt this way for every kid?

What if when a kid showed up, no matter where they were in the learning process they were valued?

What if every kid found value in their peers?

What if every teacher was a facilitator?  

What if students had a voice in the HOW of the learning process?

What if that is what would change the attendance problem.  Not lunch detention.  Not letters home to parents. Not a bad grade in PowerSchool.  

If our kids are not going to class, we owe it to them to ask why.  We need to talk to them and find out what would add value to their day.  What would make them show up?

I recently asked a kid this question.  She said that a lot of kids are late to certain classes because nothing is happening in those first few minutes.  So, I asked the question:  What would make those first minutes worth showing up for?

She felt that if students had a voice in what was going to happen in class that day, she would be there.  We discussed this a little further, and what I can boil it down to is this:  The teacher is no linger the presenter of information, but should be a facilitator of learning.

And when we feel we are part of something, when we have a purpose and we feel we belong to something bigger.  We will show up.  We will feel invested.  We have a purpose.

And in feeling this way, is it possible that our kids will also become better learners?  That they will feel safe to take risks, be uncomfortable, and move outside of that comfort zone to allow themselves to learn?

What if….