Parent partnerships in teaching and learning - lessons from Reggio

I continue to reflect on my Reggio trip and think about how I can implement the learning in my own context. 

I have always believed in working with parents as partners. However, after my trip to Reggio, I am forced to re-evaluate my stance. Partner is defined by Google as 'a person who takes part in an undertaking with another or others, especially in a business or firm with shared risks and profit'. I definitely revel when parents share their child's success with me and I choose to believe that I have a part in that success. But how much of the risks do I really share with the parents? Children stay with us only for a year or few years in an international school context! Do I really take ownership of the risks? How much time do I invest in learning about the parents' and children's contexts other than the 'Tell me about your child' form at the beginning and incidentals that I gain over the teaching year interacting with the child? How much time do I invest as a school leader in explaining parents - who we are - versus working with them in true sense of partnership? What expertise do parents bring that I can learn and work with? I continue to ponder on these questions.

Authentic parent partnerships are very visible in Reggio schools. One of my wonderful experiences was the trip to the Reggio Primary school and learning about how the parents and extended community were involved in the school right from the beginning. The design of the school was planned and executed together by educators, extended community members and parents. Expertise of parents as architects, as interior designers, as experts in construction etc was used. The school is a stunning example of a 21st century school. The flexi-environments with open and transparent learning areas are used not only by students but also by teachers for professional development sessions, reflection sessions, parent meetings, dialogue with the extended community, etc. Areas are not restricted or treated as only for children or only for adults. Imagine the sense of ownership where parents and teachers have helped construct furniture, planned learning spaces and even organised materials for learning! Though inviting parents to plan and construct a new building is not possible in all contexts, more so in a private school context, the concept of inviting parents for a dialogue in the setting up of learning spaces certainly offers rich possibilities.

John Dewey talked about schools as “miniature communities” that mirrored the social relations and activities of the larger society in which they were set. In Reggio Emilia, the image of the child as a competent, capable individual in an environment which mirrors the real communities and is not 'dumbed down', offers flexibility and opportunities for learners of all ages. Schools are not institutions where teachers 'teach' the students. Schools are places of learning. The teachers as researchers and learners along with students, parents and other staff members co-construct knowledge. All individuals including parents are learners and teachers, and that is a powerful context. This is a stance in sync with the International Baccalureate that changed the term Student Profile to Learner Profile some years ago. This powerful lifelong learning can happen only when the democratic values are genuinely ingrained in the culture of a school. 

I get reminded of an incident that happened years ago. After one of our Parent workshops, one of the parents (who had challenged a number of our approaches to teaching and learning during the workshop) asked my co-presenter, "How do you know that the way you are teaching (inquiry-based approach) is right? After all you learned in a traditional classroom and you have turned out fine." I remember having over heard this conversation and I remember my own emotions when I heard this. From getting surprised to defensive and getting ready to spill a whole load of theories, to thinking of this as an uninformed question, I went through a gamut of reactions before composing myself and talking to the parent about our philosophy, the rationale and the reasons for this. I felt that I had handled the situation well. As this was discussed over the coffee machine later on, the initial response of the teachers was that of incredulity! How could the parent ask such a question? We are after all trained teachers and know what we are talking about! 

I still think about this interaction and years later I still remember the situation as well as my reaction very clearly! However, I can now see the situation in a different light. My philosophy and my practices were not in full sync. Where I clearly wanted to believe that I was partnering the parents in learning together, my stance came from the position of authority and that of 'knowing better' than the parent. I was trying to tell him what was right for his child! I did not try to engage his perspective and knowledge to co-construct the understanding of where we were in place and time in terms of current context of education and the family's needs. 

Some of the powerful images from my Reggio Emilia trip play in my head over and over again. One of the videos I saw was that of a meeting between the parents and teachers one month after their children joined the infant-toddler centre. This was not a session for teachers to tell the parents what to do, how to support their child at home, or even how their child was faring. Instead this was a session for parents to talk about how they felt in this one month. Parent shared their emotions of pride, of pain at seeing their child emotional in the first few days, of separation anxiety on their part, challenges with routines, etc. The relief was evident in the faces of the parents who were new to the school; they shared a sense of camaraderie with their peers. A parent teared up and was comforted by the others. Parents who had older children and had been through the experience were able to offer support as well as strategies to the new parents to cope - from having coffee mornings, to taking more time for themselves, to using the time to enroll in a course, etc. Teachers equally contributed to the discussion. They shared their anxiety about the new parents and children, their times, their feelings and emotions. There were parents taking notes, teachers taking notes and the whole atmosphere was one of sharing and learning. Teachers learnt more about the parents' perspectives and built on their own understanding of where parents' questions came from, where the uncertainties arose and how they could build better communication. The experience helped the parents and teachers come together as a mini-community. This democratic, open dialogue with families helped establish a culture of learning and genuine partnership. I was blown away by this experience! 

As teachers we often worry about the parents not understanding us and generally talk to them as experts, at times even offering parenting suggestions. The partnership dynamics often tend to become lop-sided, unless time is taken to learn as much as to teach.

The values and threads in Reggio - from the image of the child, to environment as the third teacher, to the pedagogy of listening, to the democratic values - are all intertwined. Strong partnerships need good listening. I think again of my own experience above and about how could I have responded to the parent were we to meet again or if I faced a similar question in the future. I would offer the parent a listening ear followed by a time to discuss and work together. I would seek to not only explain my stance but understand his stance and questions. I would move away from bracing myself to 'handle situations' versus seeking that opportunity to learn about the root and context of the question. More often than not, I tend to use my belief and practice in the pedagogy of listening only with the young learners. I will now make a conscientious effort to extend this to all around me as I get ready to learn from them. 

Parents as partners has taken on a new meaning for me after my Reggio experience. Perhaps I will not have an opportunity to build a school with the students' parents sometime in the near future, but I will definitely try to be a much more open-minded listener to engage in a genuine partnership with the parents.

Democracy as a way of life in Reggio Pre-schools

A colleague recently asked if I had come down from the Reggio Cloud 9 yet..... If she meant the land of Parmesan, Prosciutto and Prosecco... well...truthfully I am not. Every now and then I do remember the evening walk to a Piazza, any Piazza and taking in the sights, sounds, smells and eventually the taste of good quality 100 miles food! I would like to stay there for a while! :)

Talking of Reggio preschools and the professional experience, cloud 9 is the place I always was and will be. I would not ever attempt to sum up my Reggio Study Trip. It is not a one-off professional development session which I can recall using my notes and use when needed. 

The Reggio experience can be best described as transformational. Had this trip been made in the initial periods of my teaching career, it would have been a major paradigm shift for me. However, after my experience with the PYP, and my interest as well as previous PD in the Reggio approach, this trip was a re-affirmation and loads of new learning within the same paradigm. It is transformational in any case, as the experience reaches out to the core of your philosophy, values and practices  as an educator and either changes or adds to them.

Reggio Emilia, a small town, 2 and 1/2 hours drive from Milan, is a picturesque town with an arterial road called Via Emilia. Our group tour on the first day was conducted by a group of proud Reggio citizens who explained us with fervour, the history of the birthplace of the Italian flag, its rich cultural past and the best gelatto, pasta and pizza places and cafes in it!  What struck me was that our guides were all volunteers, proud citizens who took great pride in the pre-schools and during the tour explained us points of interests where the Reggio pre-schools worked with the community and vice versa. I am yet to learn about any other city or town in the world, where the schools and the community have such a rich learning, working and evolving relationship. 

The Reggio Emilia preschools started and continue to evolve in response to the needs of the community. As one of the key speaker in the trip said - " These schools are not a mere response to the family needs but also to the cultural and political needs of the area." What interests me is that the determination of what those needs are and how they will be catered to, is not left solely to the educators or the municipality but is based on a dialogue and sharing of ideas between the parents, the municipal council and the educators. This dialogue and genuine partnership is at the core of the Reggio Emilia education. Reggio pre-schools are truly the "Labs for life for democracy". 

The democratic values of Reggio are evident everywhere. The pedagogical architecture of the new schools reflects the circular accessibility of the city (Reggio old city is kind of hexagonal!). The availability of community sharing spaces like the piazzas within schools facilitate sharing and dialogue in the environment. The buildings and the way they are used are reflective of their non-hierarchical and democratic values. In the school I visited (La Villetta), the 3 year olds' classrooms were at the same level as those for the 5 year olds' and the 4 year olds' rooms were on the higher level. There was a clear intention for the younger ones to learn from the older ones and the older students deepening the metacognition as they strive to explain concepts to their younger peers. 

When I reflect back on most schools outside Reggio that I have been to, there has been a hierarchical placement of grade levels with usually the younger classes on a lower floors. The intentional mix of age groups is seldom a practice. Linear and hierarchical structures are commonly visible in many traditional schools with the admin office and/or the staff room being a space usually out of bounds for children. 

Often spaces in schools become small islands which people personalise and start to own. This often results in individualised ownership rather than a democratic ownership. How many times do we as educators resist sharing our spaces for other purposes? Classrooms, staff rooms, office space, admin areas, kitchens, gardens and even the teacher's desk area within classrooms  are often developed with different layers of accessibility for students, parents and even colleagues. These spaces are often deemed as spaces for 'privacy and confidentiality'. Often the breach of these is considered irresponsible and disrespectful and strongly defended with supposed reasons of safety, privacy and respect. These highly differentiated layers of accessibility build a culture of hierarchy. The Reggio schools are clear in this regard. The respect for individuals is extremely high and is visible in all interactions. Schools are community spaces for learning and dialogue and the democratic sharing of these spaces is visible. In the four Reggio schools I visited, almost all the spaces were commonly accessible and shared by the staff, parents and children for meeting, discussion, planning, eating as well as learning purposes! Though the staff worked in their areas, there was a culture of shared responsibility for all spaces in school.

The democratic values are ingrained deeply in all aspects of Reggio municipality pre-schools. In the Sole school I visited, the cook and the auxiliary staff were a part of the education team that met us. In these schools, the cooks not only maintain the kitchen but are an integral part of the school routine esp in the morning where parents come and drop their children in the infant toddler centres. They welcome the children, have a chat with the parents, discuss their child and also liaison with the teachers about children. They are responsible equally for managing and maintaining the environments. Interestingly in La Villetta, during one of the inquiries on digital landscapes, it was the cook who identified the children's interest and provided the scaffolding! I was also impressed to see that not only the teachers but the cooks and the auxiliary staff had mandated number of hours for work, for professional development and for working with the community in partnership. 

Many schools (in particular the PYP) have started acknowledging the roles of the community members in education. I take pride in using our community members as primary resources during our units of inquiry. However, there is still a clear hierarchy and boundaries of the roles associated with particularly the support staff in schools - the cooks, cleaners, gardeners, office staff, nurses, etc. The roles of the support staff in Reggio schools have opened my eyes to the possibilities of rich learning when all roles are truly valued by all stakeholders in a school. 

Democratic values are most visible in the teachers' role of co-constructing knowledge with the children. The open-mindedness of the teachers to learning more about children from children is awe-inspiring. The research has depths, possible only when the teachers' 'image of the child' as a competent capable individual is exceedingly strong. I spent hours talking to the teachers in some of these centres. Their belief about their own roles being at the same levels as the children's in the co-construction of the values and knowledge, was an amazing testimony to the deeply entrenched democratic value of children being citizens of the current times and not the future. The documentation of this co-construction of knowledge is a "public communication" that helps make visible to all including parents about the teaching and learning in the centre. 

I continue to reflect on the strategic objective of education in the society. The democratic values at the heart of the philosophy and practices in Reggio is one of the most important take-aways for me from this study trip. What better way to ingrain and hone the democratic ideals in young learners and the community?

And the musings continue...

Reflections on Reggio approach

Like many educators there was a point where I used to believe that Reggio approach of teaching and learning was inspired, like the Montessori approach, by a person! So when I realised that Reggio is not a person but a place in Italy, I once again realised that the boundaries of how-much-I-don't-know, have been pushed further by yet another notch! :)

In the past few years, my interest in the Reggio philosophy has grown in leaps and bounds and influenced my beliefs about teaching and learning not only  in the Early Childhood area but also my primary and secondary school teaching. As I get ready to go to Reggio  and immerse in their teaching and learning culture, I am starting to revisit and reflect on my present understandings.

This morning I have come across yet another powerful reading of Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio approach. Many thoughts cross my mind as I read the article.

I reflect back on my beginning days as a teacher and parent. I used to pack the teaching days with learning activities and ensure that no time of the day was 'wasted'! As a mother, I used to try and create learning moments for my daughter at each point of the day! I would have paints and crafts or toys or books or music around her. But more often than not I would see her go and play with bottle caps and pots and pans and cardboard boxes and completely ignore my ideas for her! Due to health issues, I had to take a step back which turned out to be a great blessing for my daughter who then had much time to tinker around on her own and construct her own learning. I was fortunate that I got into the PYP early on and the more I looked at my own approach, the more I realised the depth of my ignorance of how children learn. My image of the child was built on my presumptions rather than my understanding.

Over the years the more I observe children, the more I realise that they have inbuilt mechanisms and behaviours for learning! They have the natural curiosity as well as ways to construct meaning. Infants, toddlers make meaning by repeating their actions again and again as they build connections and learnings. Some days ago, I played with a seven months old, who took a ball and flung it off my palm over and over again. She observed the way it rolled, followed it, communicated with her eyes that she wanted me to pick it up and repeated it. After having done this for a while, she picked up the ball, put it in her mouth (which is a way children learn to understand shapes, textures, tastes, temperature etc.); then she picked up a thin, long toy put it in her mouth again, then repeated the same with her ball, and continued till she decided that the long toy was an easier shape to get into the mouth. She was busy and naturally crawled towards the next area that she found interesting and would have probably continued to construct her learning ...

.... but we adults decided to intervene and upturned her whole toy box over! She was soon surrounded by many brightly coloured toys. It was an easy distraction from her personal experiment and kept her 'engaged'. However, engagement does not always directly translate to learning and our best intentions may actually not work the way we intend them to work. This is beautifully summed up by Malaguzzi - "Overactivity on the part of the adult is a risk factor. The adult does too much because he cares about the child; but this creates a passive role for the child in her own learning.". 

He says "What we so often do is impose adult time on children’s time and this negates children being able to work with their own resources........... Those who have the image of the child as fragile, incomplete, weak, made of glass gain something from this belief only for themselves.  We don’t need that as an image of children."

So what is our role as teachers and parents? "We need to define the role of the adult, not as a transmitter but as a creator of relationships — relationships not only between people but also between things, between thoughts, with the environment."

The continual learning for me is to think about the environment for learning and investing more time in observing. It is a way to respect children and their learning. Malaguzzi says, "When you learn to observe the child, when you have assimilated all that it means to observe the child, you learn many things that are not in books  — educational or psychological.  And when you have done this you will learn to have more diffidence and more distrust of rapid assessments, tests, judgments. The child wants to be observed, but she doesn’t want to be judged.  Even when we do judge, things escape us, we do not see things, so we are not able to evaluate in a wide way."

In my role as an administrator it is my constant endeavour to think about building a school culture where the children, teachers and parents feel respected and secure, to play, to experiment and to explore, thereby constructing new relationships and learnings. 

Looking forward to deeper understandings!

Learning in Action for Nepal

This is an old post which I had on my other blog. It is difficult to maintain two blogs so closing the other one! Needed to transfer the post as I want to keep my lessons from this.
Atima


The news of the Nepal Earthquake was bound to stir the school community as it did all others around the world. A few hours after the news, a trickle of messages across the whatsapp groups started with the idea of doing something. 

The school had had some experience last year in fund-raising for the Philippines Haiyan victims. Three children from Year 3 and 4, inspired by their families had come to us and wondered if they could do a used toys or a book sale. Wanting to encourage them to take action, a group of staff members and I started helping them in their endeavour. 

As the used toys and books donations trickled in, the children would bring it over to my office. I would sit back and listen to their conversations. There would be times when I was more the proverbial fly on the wall than the PYP Coord! It was tempting to jump into the conversations but I tried hard to control my impulses (which was hard!) and let them reach a point of getting stuck before jumping in with a question. My role then was to ask questions and more questions. From broad general ones "What is your plan?" "What do you need?" to more specific in the later stages "Where will you store these donations?" "How much will you sell them for?"  We would write the questions on a paper and stick it to my door. They would go back to their classes and often pop their heads in my room with an idea on their way to lunch or snack! Ideas ranged from wildly impractical to absolute functional and when we met as a group again, we discussed all of them. Very seldom did I need to interject as they debated their ideas. We went ahead with some ideas which I never thought would have been possible. In my best teacher intentions and infinite wisdom, I thought that I would let them carry out these ideas and they would learn when they failed. How wrong was I! I was limited by my own experiences and made assumptions  about what would work and what wouldn't. It was a mix of surprise, relief, glee at their success and self-realisation of my limitations when I saw that many ideas which I felt wouldn't work were actually very effective. I grew not only in my understanding of my role as a teacher but also as a person. My own beliefs and image of the child grew stronger as I worked with these children.

I am now of the firm conviction that no one, how much ever experienced and wise, has any right to take away the hopes and dreams of anyone else; for wisdom is often bound in the limitations of experiences which change as contexts change. 

While the Haiyan fund-raiser helped me in my growth, it influenced the wider school community equally. Children saw their peers capable of change and felt empowered. They felt that their ideas were valued and could bring big changes. Parents started viewing their children as agents of change.

A community grows in its learning and that became very evident when the news of the Nepal earthquake reached the masses. What started as a trickle of whatsapp messages in our teacher groups soon became a steady stream of "We need to do something." messages. When I reached my office after the weekend I had already received messages from teachers and parents about fund raising ideas. We took the news of the Earthquake to the Student Representative Council. Children were phenomenal! They had many ideas for fund-raising, Crazy hair day, Mufti day, Donation boxes, Carnival activities and many more. Student rep council teachers marvelled at the suggestions and children started building up on the ideas of each other; the co-construction of knowledge was evident and the roles of teachers and students blurred as the team brainstormed ideas together. Buddy reading at school was suggested, till a Year 3 girl said "Why are we restricting it to the school? Why can't we take it to the broader community? We could read books for younger children at our condos and raise funds." A goosebumps moment! A Year 5 volunteered to dress up as clown at the school carnival with a donation box around his neck. Others decided to run games and donate the proceeds.

Tuesday, a brother-sister duo came with their fund-raising appeal letter. The sister had helped lead the Typhoon Haiyan 'Used toys' sale and the younger brother was now inspired to help. Both decided to do another toys sale, this time at the upcoming school carnival.

We started our fund raising on Wednesday. The donation boxes were set up and the Vice Captains and the brother-sister duo shared their plans at the Pre-school assembly.

By Wednesday afternoon I had more children and teachers come up with ideas. Keeping in mind the busy-ness of the term we decided to not add any more events as it might dilute the donations and not necessarily add to them. Just as I was getting ready to wind down the school day a Year 4 girl walked straight into my office and said "I emailed you my plan. What do you think?" The plan is beautiful. She wants to create ... "a 'Wall of Hope' so that the people of Nepal don't think that everyone is just giving them money and forgetting about their feelings. We need to make them feel that other people are with them." She had suggested two other charities in her email and I pointed to her that the school had already decided to go with the Singapore Red Cross. Her response was swift, "That does not matter. Any charity as long as the message and the money reaches the people of Nepal is good." Her quick thinking with clear goals and instant decisions made it obvious that she owned the idea. Her determined look silenced any doubts that I might have had and I felt compelled by her enthusiasm to say yes! She is 8 years old!

Thursday morning she spoke to the children and parents at the Primary school assembly. She even got her older brother to design a video to support her request. She added requests of clothes, blankets, medicines which I hadn't said yes to... but I remembered my experience with children's ideas and decided to go with the flow.

In the meantime, our school Vice Captains reached out to each parent and their determined looks persuaded all to add to the donations. I was proud of their beautiful manners and equally beautiful persuasion skills.  

Little Miss 8 has now taken coloured paper for her weekend prep for the 'Wall of Hope'. She has promised to spend her lunchtime for the next fortnight managing the wall and persuading community members to add their messages and donations. I can't wait to see the "Wall of hope" build up at school! We have decided to send the messages to the Nepalese Consulate in Singapore. 

Students as little as four years old to as old as ten, have donated their pocket money for the week. A little four year old contemplated asking his older brother for a loan as he had finished his pocket money. I am in awe of these children. Many teachers have teary, shiny happy smiles of pride as their children have come forward with not only ideas but their own money earned by doing chores at home for the Earthquake victims. 

At the last count, we have already collected more than 800 SGD and as we continue our fund-raising next week, I am sure we will get a lot more to give. 

Learning empowers and action inspires. From three children fund-raising for Haiyan victims, we now have more than 12 students leading the Nepal fund-raiser. In the strictest definition Action is what the learner demonstrates and does voluntarily as a result of his/her learning. In my experience it has been evident that modeled, guided and shared action further inspires independent action. Action needs a toolkit of strategies, skills, knowledge and attitudes and is voluntary.  The PYP considers student's action as the most significant summative assessment of the efficacy of the programme.

I think it is safe to say that the efficacy of the programme is even more evident in the students now. The 'Wall of Hope' cannot but grow! 

Of cups and learning

Many years ago, I read 'Travels' by Michael Crichton. I was intrigued by his mention of auras. It reminded me of a distant cousin who used to claim that he could see people's auras. Unfortunately he didn't hold the same claim to fame as Michael Crichton and we generally viewed him with skepticism. But when Michael Crichton, my favourite author, with all his books generally well researched, talked of auras, I got interested. Many years passed by and my interest kept waxing and waning with circumstances. So recently when a friend added my name to the Reiki interest group, I finally decided to make some time to explore it. 

I didn't experience any earth-shaking experiences on the first day and talked to a friend who's my sounding board when it comes to spiritual/mental experiments. He said that he too has been to sessions with evaluative mindsets and that I should read about 'emptying your cup', a buddhist concept before my next session.

Surely not the ubiquitous cup again!!! In the last few days I have encountered a number of perspectives on cups.

Last week at new staff induction, I talked about the Loris Malaguzzi (Reggio Emilia) philosophy of children not being empty vessels that need to be filled with knowledge. We believe that children come to us with their own capacities which needs to be respected and valued. Their thoughts, knowledge and ideas along with those of teachers help create new knowledge in a constructivist classroom. The concept of a child being an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge is not in sync with our philosophy and it is recognized that all individuals regardless of age come in with their own cups of life experiences, interactions and reflections which make them unique individuals.

This week, I read the 'emptying your cup' story before my Reiki session. The emptying your cup zen story though seemingly contrasting with the Reggio philosophy, offers equally deep lessons. The difference lies in the hat one wears - the teacher's or that of the learner. Where the 'empty cup' concept asks learners to empty their cup and become more open-minded when going to learn, the Reggio philosophy tells the teacher that learners will bring in their cups -not empty- and that needs to be respected. 

The discussion at this point goes way deeper, about learning, about age, about societal structures, about the varying perspectives  and philosophies of cultures on teaching and learning and it still continues to work its way in my head but this is not what I would like to write about today.

Keeping my reflections and mental debates in the back burner during work, I went on a coffee break to the staff room and got chatting with my teaching colleague and friend Catherine, whose son Joseph was my student some years ago. We talked about the cup being half-full or half-empty and she mentioned that Joe had come up with a different perspective. He said that whether your cup was half-full or half-empty depended on whether you kept drinking from it, or filled it up every now and then. He said that the level of the cup would vary at different times!

It always takes the uncluttered  minds of children to come up with the most rational explanations. Simple, beautiful and so rational! The more I thought about it, the more it all made sense.

Each of us have a cup full of positive emotions inside that we reach out to, every now and then. When we experience moments of happiness, we replenish it; when we experience unhappiness, we reach out to it, we reach out for hope, we reach out for strength and we reach out for love, to regain our sense of balance.

Young minds are bubbly and positive! Every day's a new adventure, simple happenings are celebrated and our cups fill quickly. The older we grow, the more often we reach out for our cups. As we get caught in our professional and social lives and have increasingly lesser time for ourselves, the emotions in the cup recede and we find it more and more difficult to get our sense of balance. We get angry, tired, joyless and often despair at the state of events and even wonder why people around us are negative. But we forget that we might not have taken the time to replenish our cup within us.

Joe's perspective has brought clarity. Inspired, I am drawing my own list of ways to help me fill my cup and keep it brimming. 

• Being grateful for and celebrating the little, big things in my life.
• Taking time out to do things I like - cooking, dancing, listening to good music, reading books and recently zentangling.
• Keeping my happy photos handy! My daughter's photo with her bright beaming smile is my phone screen saver and it makes me smile each time I check my phone.
• Planning a new project.
• Keeping a memory or two of completed projects, always brings a wide smile!
• Keeping updated my happiness file, a simple folder where I add all special memories-notes/cards/scribbles/photos from good times.
• Learning something new.... with my empty cup!

As I get on with my Reiki experience I hope to develop the capacity of filling my cup through richer spiritual experiences. I will go with my empty learning cup and shall work towards replenishing my positive emotions cup.

Cheers to that!

Atima

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The irrational teacher!

If I said that you are to leave the comforts of your home and take a bunch of children to an adventure zone and stay with them and take care of them, ensuring that they learn something new and have fun and stay safe, for no added benefits to you,.....

.... more probable than not, the chances are that you will politely decline. That is absolutely rational. 

So what makes another person get excited and spend hours on planning that excursion, which will take him/her away from the comforts of home with a bunch of excited, energised children? Irrationality might be a correct presumption!

Or perhaps this person is a teacher. I don't have statistics but having been in this line for some time now, I am pretty sure I would be right most of the times.

Teachers are indeed an irrational breed.

When a teacher talks about her students he/she often says ‘my children’.  After spending the majority of our waking and productive hours with the lively, active, energised fresh minds, it is difficult to just remain a ‘teacher’.  More often than not, a teacher’s role morphs into that of an educator, counsellor, parent, guide, friend, mentor, nurse, nanny,  tour guide and much more. We teachers talk about our students’ parents,  as ‘my parents’,  simply because in our heads they ARE ours! We spend hours distressing about ‘my child ’ who is not reading or writing at the correct level.  We talk, we google, we draw upon every resource possible to plan for our children. We spend hours rejoicing small achievements.  A spelling word that a child has mastered after weeks of hard work brings a happy smile or even happy tears on the face of a teacher.

As a school, we take months in planning something that lasts an hour! An excursion for us is not a chance to take off from school. It is a responsibility, which we happily take on because we want ‘our kids’ to learn from these experiences. 

So when well-intentioned bystanders question the TKPS or the MOE about the need to take children to the outdoor camps like Kota Kinabalu that was struck by the earthquake, I’d like to say…. take a break please! Give the school community space to come to terms with the tragic incident. School staff spends months on planning the trips to give children a more holistic learning. They leave their families and comfort to take their children for experiential learning. They try their best to shield their children from every possible stress. They ensure safety to the best of their capacity. It would be easy for them to stay in their safe harbour and not worry about anything, but they do it because they want to give ‘their children’ the best possible.  

Unfortunate incidents esp natural disasters cannot be helped.  It is unfortunate that the six children and their teacher lost their lives. But look at the teachers who shielded the children from the boulders by standing in front of them! That is a natural teacher instinct.  It is the confidence in that instinct that helps a school send children on excursions.

The Earthquake in Sabah is a tragic incident. Families that have lost the little ones must be in shock. The parents’ grief would be insurmountable. So would the teachers’. Do spare a thought to the teachers’ families as well. In a school community all staff members work for the children’s best. Spare a thought for the community and don’t question their good intentions, esp at this time. They would be doing a lot of questioning themselves. Trust me.