Parma Plan It: Ready To Learn

I always ask the kids during assemblies, "Parma Elementary Students, how did you come to school today?". The response they shout back is, "Ready to Learn", and now that is followed by, "Ready to Lead". I am aware that many of our students could answer that question in so many different ways.For some of our kids, we cannot even imagine what the night before entailed or what this morning looked like for them.

Listening to some music on my computer this morning, I came across a song from Pink titled, "Family Portrait" - a song written from a child's perspective about a family being torn apart by divorce. As I often do with songs that have meaningful lyrics, I searched for the video on YouTube. I was amazed to discover that the video has 15,000,000+ views and 11,000+ comments. As I read the touching comments left behind by many children, I thought of the many students we work with at school who just aren't ready to learn because of all the sadness, fear, and uncertainty swirling in their minds. I also thought back to a talk I read about a few years back given by Dr. Gabor Maté. The most important thing he said of children was that as teachers and parents, we need to “Collect them before [we] direct them.” By collecting, Gabor Maté was talking about taking the time to make meaningful connections with our students and children, before 'getting on with business'. How can we get on with learning in classrooms when children are dealing with real-life trauma such as parents divorcing, hunger, neglect, or abuse?

Yes, our work in schools is about promoting wonder, awe, discovery, and a love of learning. More importantly, I believe that our work in schools calls us to build positive and meaningful relationships with students within a safe, caring environment. Only then can we get children to a place where they are ready to move forward and get on with learning.