Leaves & Branches, Trunk & Roots

From Tom Drummond, one of the educators on a Reggio Network that I am a part of.  While Canada isn’t as assessment crazy as the US is, it’s an interesting proposal.  What do you think?

Here is a way to describe more important qualities in children than “academic readiness” or the ability to pass a knowledge test for entry into elementary school.

When children leave early childhood to enter common school they can… Participate as a member of an interdependent community. Care for themselves, the others and the community. Treat others with love and compassion.

Cooperate with other children to accomplish group goals. Celebrate group accomplishment. Laugh and play with a tangible sense of joy. Express many human emotions in language and art.

Be inquisitive. Initiate new ideas and invent solutions to problems. Stick at difficult tasks or come back to them later in order to succeed. Run, hit, catch, throw, kick and tumble. Sing and dance with exuberance. Paint, draw, sculpt, and construct objects of beauty. Maintain the community’s spaces in cleanliness and order. Greet guests with courtesy and charm.

These are all natural acquisitions for children from all cultures when they are (1) treated as capable human beings, (2) listened to and (3) trusted. Provisions for young children that offer opportunity to be with other children can create the kind of community in which all children achieve these 15 Capabilities. Imagine all children by age 6 being this way.

Then imagine being a Kindergarten teacher and having children with these 15 capabilities enter the room at the beginning of the year. There would be no “behavior problems”. These children would be responsive and eager to learn. The teacher could get right to work, listening to the children’s interests and findingout what aspect of the world they wanted to explore. If that topic were spiders, for example, children would be eager to examine, write about, read about, draw, create poetry, music, scientific displays, research, count, mathematically represent spiders. Because they shared that love of learning with others, they would exceed all the academic standards by far. Experience in a culture of a learning community is true “readiness” for school, because all the children come to view themselves as capable and competent, not just a few.

The 15 Capabilities are durable. Next year the 1st grade teacher would inherit those same children, eager and happy to be at school, not like the browbeaten, destroyed children we often see in schools today.

It is up to every one of us who considers himself or herself a contributor to the early experience of our children — as an elementary or early childhood, teacher or principal or parent — to examine what we really want for our children and advocate for it with politicians, leaders, and our friends. The 15 Capabilities are what we want for all our children.

Right now the dominant discourse is about remediation for some of our children, the poor ones, the underprivileged ones, the ones that are “at risk”. When community leaders and politicians want children to be “ready” for school they are speaking about poor children. Rather than offering resources, they are offering tests and standards. The implication in the dominant discourse is that certain children are deficit and need remediation.

Actually, these children and their families need good places to be and grow with adequate resources and staff who earn a family support wage, so all our children are not destroyed by the cultures of poverty and racism. All our children can achieve the 15 Capabilities that can transform our society, reduce poverty, and make our towns and cities better places to live.

Two actions we can take right now can help.

1. Never accept talk about the problems of education as residing in the children or their families. The children are who they are, capable and strong from the time of their birth. Every here and now offers possibilities for new ways of being. That’s what we do in school. That’s our job as early educators of children and families.

2. Talk about the 15 Capabilities rather than academic readiness as the outcome we all desire for our children and childhood.

Last week we reviewed the rights we had learned: the right to be safe, to play, to rest, to learn, to be listened to and now, the right to work, but not too hard.

“Not too hard” was difficult to understand, so Miss Pamela drew out a “red light, yellow light, green light” map.  “Green”, she explained, “is easy work, so you have the right and responsibility to do green work.  Yellow is a little hard, you still have the right and responsibility to do yellow work, but you might need teamwork, or a break when you get tired.  But RED is too hard!  Stop Stop!  Red work is so hard that it could be dangerous.”

The children debated this, with Naexplaining that red work is like lifting up the whole school.  It’s always too dangerous.  Except for diggers, Ma added.  We all agreed that red work for people is not the same as red work for diggers.

The children then wanted to say how hard Mom’s and Dad’s work.

Dr’s Dad works yellow hard and Mom works red hard.

Lo B’s Mom works green hard, her work is easy, and Dad doesn’t work at all hard, none of the colors.

Ba’s mom works red hard and her dad works yellow hard.

Ta’s Dad works yellow hard and Mom works red hard.

Na’s Mom and Dad both work yellow hard.

Si’s mom works red hard, and she isn’t sure about her dad.

Lo B added that Robots work red hard, and they squish people.

Ew’s Mom works red hard and Dad works yellow.

Mas’s Mom works green hard and Dad works yellow hard.

Lo C’s Dad works green hard and Mom works red hard.

It’s always interesting how children classify things, isn’t it?

I am away at Project Zero this week – and very excited about it!  However, it also means that I am away from work for the week, and am a little bit sad – the project work I have been working through with the Big Kids class has been a lot of fun.

So – for the sub teachers who wanted to know where we were, but also to share:  my teacher project notes…

Observation 1: In May/June, the kids were very worried about hawks and woodpeckers attacking the school.  (Not sure why?  One child stated woodpeckers would eat the school up)  They made signs so the woodpeckers would not come into the piazza or to the big tree.

Observation 2: The kids were excited last week, when the zoologist picked slugs to study, about birds.  While eating snack, we listened to a woodpecker.  Ta was angry that he was hurting the trees.  When they were playing on the “hill”, there were cracks in the dirt, and OwT pointed to them, saying the woodpecker has been eating the hill.  When Dr and Si found the rot holes in some fallen logs, they said that woodpeckers had been eating the slug’s homes.

Observation 3: Last Wednesday, the children were painting the front yard tree, and when it was time to go home, Dr spoke about adding more beautiful things to the trees. I told him I know about bird feeder’s that we could hang up, and he reminded me the next day we needed to make bird feeders.  At snack time we saw a bird fly down near us, watching us eat, and the children tried to feed it a rice cracker.

Observation 4: On Thursday, I put out pinecones, ribbon, molasses and grass seed to make bird feeders.  The big kids all made several each, hanging them from various trees in the back yard.  They asked to make more.  When asked about the different birds they knew about, they listed Hawks, Eagles, Woodpeckers and Crows.

Observation 5: Ta, the new zoologist now that we are done with slugs, determined we should study birds next.

Possible directions to go?  I’m unsure about the interests of the children.  Is it the forest ecosystem in general (they are equally excited about logs, water, slugs, bugs, trees…) or animals in particular (they are very passionate about caring for the forest neighbours)?  Should we consider bird cataloguing – going on hunts to find the different types of birds?  Or go into detailed information about bird anatomy and life cycle?  What about bird habitat – the joy that they found in making bird houses was sincere, and they also like constructing a variety of buildings – forts, houses for cars, and they enjoyed building a habitat for Sluggie.  What about flight?  Or sound and music?   What about nests? Or bird-watching stations?

Possible resources to pull into the room:

Bird books, bird house construction books, books on flight/wings, maybe forest animal and ecosystem books – and then monitor and observe interests and comments?  Perhaps bring the books, read one or two for project time, and then revisit with the questions: what birds do we know of, what do we know about birds, what kind of questions do we want to answer about birds?  Is it better to start sensorial / experience wise?  Or information through books / youtube and then experience in the forest?  Or perhaps a field trip to the bird sanctuary?  It isn’t too far away…but maybe that should wait until children have some basic knowledge?

Feathers.

Bird nest -I found one some weeks ago, and it’s sitting outside on top of the gardening box (or maybe in the gardening box?)  Maybe some detailed analysis, drawings, measurements, weighing of the nest.

A bird?

Such an important part of project work is the questions teachers propose, balanced with the materials and resources available to help stimulate thought…and then finding ways for experiential understandings.  If one piece is missing, there is the danger of this becoming a teacher “theme”, rather than a genuine, deep unfolding of understanding through question-research-answer-new question.

I’m excited about reading the teacher notes while I’m away, and seeing the video and photos…it’s not often I get to do project work, as it’s always the teachers who are in the classroom.  This summer has been a treat, with the time to work with the children during the daycamps.  But it is strange to step away mid-exploration…and exciting to wonder about what direction things will move in.  Am I right that I think that this interest may be an overall interest in the forest neighbourhood and everything within it?  And if it is a macro-interest, how much detail should I, as the teacher, continue to explore.  I’m aware that keeping the project work exciting, challenging, rewarding and long-term for deep exploration lies with the teacher and the questions and experiences proposed.  So – at what point does the project definition need to emerge?  Or will it only truly be visible in hindsight?

As part of my job and my schooling, I have to read. A lot.  I love it – I love reading and researching, and as Loris Malaguzzi said, teachers need to be culture holders, so I try to get my culture late at night when I should probably be sleeping, wading through articles and stories.

This NY Times article came across my inbox today.  I have always advocated that early childhood educators should be paid more than they are – but one two conditions: one, that it is government subsidized, because otherwise, corners will be cut and parents will pay higher rates and two, that the same expectations of other professional fields hold true – school teachers, social workers, nurses.  We work just as hard, but we don’t always hold ourselves to the same professional standards.  That needs to change – and I am pretty proud of the team I get to work beside, because they are raising the bar of what to expect from early child educators.

They research. They reflect. They propose new ideas.  They network.  They publish. They get ongoing professional development.  They train student teachers and volunteers. They do everything they can to find new ways to communicate with parents.  And, first and foremost, they love and care for their children.  I know how much is demanded of them – and they continue to grow professionally, despite the disparity between ECE and, say, primary education.

Ah, nap time.  It SHOULD be the most wonderful time of the day, but lately, it’s just been terrible.  Nobody wants to sleep (even though they are SO tired) and nobody stays asleep.  So, utterly exhausted and frustrated, the brilliant teachers, director and pedagogista of Alderwood House launched an attack on the nap time struggle.

We blogged, internet searched, sent emails, made phone calls, and…today…we may have hit upon the secret uuber-nap recipe.  To be fair, Ew isn’t at school today, and he is one of the anti-nap ring leaders, so it’s possible that when he is back we miight need to adjust a little big more…but as of now, our success includes:

1. Lavender soap to wash up faces and hands with after toileting.

2. A light lavender aromatherapy in the nap room.

3. A few books to be read aloud while the children all sip on warm whole milk with a dash of nutmeg.

4. A “wooden story” (oral storytelling) 

5. The ipod is turned on and we listen to books on tape.

6. When almost everyone is asleep, we switch the audiobook to a nice forest medley of birds and classical music.

And the newly added secret? 

7. Turkey in our lunch.  We estimate that if we are careful to use all of it and make soup broth, one turkey should get us through 5 lunches.

Each child has their bed in the same place every day, with the same bedding.  We are trying to create a “school time” bedroom – and it seems to be working!  Usually by 2:30 there are only 1 or 2 children still asleep….today, I’m going to have to go wake everyone up because they are still out cold!

“It undermines the integrity of the family and involves children in a political undertaking. There is a gradual erosion of parental authority and this is one more step in that direction” – Abbotsford trustee in The Abbotsford News, BC, Sept 16, 1999

I just read this as I began “Empowering Children” (Covell) and was struck with such sorrow.  Shortly after, I went for lunch with a colleague, and we discussed this quote – it was a quote in response to the idea of discussing children’s rights with children in the classroom.  In all her wisdom, my colleague suggested that giving children rights (Um, hello?  They already have them, don’t they?  Isn’t it the law?) is scary for some people.  And some really don’t believe that children have rights.

I am trying to wrap my head around this.  Studies have indicated that educating children about rights in a participatory and experiential way leads to increased acts of caring, kindness, intervention in social conflict, and surprisingly, better self-regulation.  Children have indicated that Favourite rights or Most Important rights are ones such as “The right to a family”.

Given the studies, I would think rights education would be exciting for most educators and parents.  The potential benefits are great, and what harm could there possibly be in teaching a child their rights?  This isn’t about giving children carte blanche to satisfy whims, but increasing awareness that EVERYONE has rights and EVERYONE needs equal consideration.

This summer, the “rights” conversations have continued, so that the new 3 and 4 year old classes are involved in them.  We are mid-way through week three.  I’ve had parents tell me that their child is telling them that they have rights (and the parents seem a little unsure as to how to deal with it).  I’ve had children tell me I can’t do x y or z because they have the right to (insert right here!).  But I’ve also seen children tell each other that someone’s rights are being violated, and then seen the behaviour stop.   What is it about rights education that creates a more powerful argument for stopping hurtful or upsetting behaviours than “please stop” or teacher intervention?

It isn’t instantaneous.  And if last years grad class is an indication, it takes about 3 months.  But Rights, Respect and Responsibilities (the curriculum in Hampshire) makes some interesting claims – and from simple dialogues about Rights, we’ve seen the same responses with the under 5 years set…

This isn’t about political action.  It isn’t about undermining family.  It’s about honoring the child’s voice and seeing the child as an active citizen.  Since the time of Dewey, that has been the purpose of education.  So why are we afraid of it now?