11/12/2024
Educators.....Listen to the words of Stephanie Pace Marshall as she writes about the ..Deeper Basics...
"'Why can’t Johnny and Susie read, write, and count? is the mantra of school reform.
To be sure, these prerequisite skills are essential for all future learning –and they are not enough.
Where are the voices that fear as much for the deeper basics –the basics of the human mind, heart, and spirit?
Why aren’t we at least equally troubled by why Johnny and Susie can’t think, can’t slow down, can’t reflect,can’t sit still, can’t imagine, can’t create, and can’t play?
Why aren’t we deeply saddened that they can’t dance, or paint, or draw,or make up a story?
Why aren’t we worried that they can’t cope with frustration and conflict? That it is so easy for them to be bored, cynical, and distrusting of adults and that it is so difficult for them to express deep love, trust, and compassion?
Why are our hearts not heavy because their spirits cannot breathe, because they have not experienced the wonder and awe of the natural world, and because they do not know how and why they belong in the world?"
Our kids do not need to be fixed!
They are navigating the school world that we....the adults have created for them. It is a world of high stress, of competition against one another and a world that ranks and sorts them into winners and losers!! It is a world of closing achievement gaps not finding gifts and talents that usually exist outside of the world or the standardized tests.
Our children are speaking to us thru their behavior....
can we hear them??