Slice of Life: Week 3: Dear Parents, Caregivers, and Family #SOL20 #TWTBlog

Dear Parents,

When I wrote two weeks ago, I didn’t anticipate this would become a weekly letter.  I didn’t fully grasp what the long haul really meant.  I didn’t understand how the loss of jobs, people I know getting sick, and the level of stress this is putting on our communities would feel. While as adults, we are trying to navigate a course for which the destination and duration are unknown, our kids are depending on us.  Governor Cuomo in a speech this week, reflected on the young, “This is going to form a new generation and it will transform who they are and how they think. Our children will be better people and better citizens because of this.  This will shape them. Let’s teach them the right lessons.” 

The right lessons. 

As an educator, those words have stuck with me.  What are the right lessons? These past two weeks have been filled with conversations about lessons – online learning, digital tools, objectives, number of hours, zoom and hotspots.  Social media platforms are filled with people offering parents lessons for their children. Parents wanting additional lessons to make sure their children are learning, not falling behind.  What are the right lessons?

What lessons will shape our students? What lessons will bring them out of this a better person and a better citizen? I think right now we need to be thinking more about Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs than Bloom’s Taxonomy.  I am not suggesting our kids shouldn’t be learning during these upcoming weeks.  They do need to continue to grow.  It’s just that I am thinking more about what this learning should look like and how we can prioritize the well-being of our kids than the actual lesson objective.  How do we teach them the lessons they need to grow academically and the right lessons? What will they remember twenty years from now?  What are the enduring understandings we want them to learn?

Right now, I clearly have more questions than answers, but there are a few things I know for sure.  First, our kids need the familiar right now.  I don’t know about you, but I am not looking to make new friends. Our kids need to spend time – virtual, asynchronous, and direct – with people they know.  We must figure out how to get them in contact with teachers, friends, family, neighbors, coaches and community members. This connectedness will ground them and give them a sense of belonging they need to learn the right lessons.  Second, kids need to have a sense of control right now.  The proper amount of control gives us security and makes us feel powerful.  They need agency to make decisions, problem-solve, help, and find ways to contribute to their community.

The right lessons are about what we choose to do and how we choose to impact those around us.  Our kids need to have the opportunity to be a part of history and we need to guide them.  The world is giving our kids the lessons they need to learn, we are responsible for making sure they learn them in a way that will shape them.  They must embrace discomfort, work through anxiety, sacrifice their wants for another’s need, create solutions, have empathy, be flexible, and have grace.  Whether it’s math, reading, writing, laundry, cooking, sharing with a sibling, or facing a loss, I believe agency and connectedness will shape them.  They will remember the people who impacted them and who they impacted.  They will remember what they did to help one another.  They will remember laughing, crying, fighting, and being together – way too together – with their family.  They will remember learning in a way they have never learned before with their teacher and classmates. They will remember how we respond.  They will remember that even apart we are stronger together.

To me, that seems like the right lesson.

Be safe, be well, and remember … you’ve got this!