The kids in my class need some things. I don't mean material things, I mean experiences.
I came up with a list because I am a great list-maker. I love marking things off a list. Sometimes I will put something on the list that I've already done, just so I can mark it off the list. What an accomplishment!
My kids need things that suburban kids get without a second thought. Suburban parents think about signing their children up for something and then they do it. The cost is there, but it won't be at the expense of groceries next week or paying the electric bill.
I am not defending the choices some of my parents make when it comes to money - but people in generational poverty think about money differently than people in middle class. That doesn't make it right, it just explains it.
I have a list of things I want my kids to have:
1. Music lessons: I want the kids to learn how to play an instrument. The latest brain research about music shows that it uses some of the areas in the brain used for mathematics. Music enriches life and it is a skill that nobody can take away from you. I haven't met ONE person, ever, who complained about having music lessons when they were younger. This is not to say that they didn't balk at practicing or try to get out of a lesson or two or three - but the payoff in adulthood is priceless. I get all goosebumpy just thinking about all those extra neural pathways that get built when one learns to play a musical instrument.
Here's the catch and here is why I can't mark this off my list: I don't know how to play a musical instrument. Other than "Silent Night" by numbers (9, 10, 9, 7... 9, 10, 9, 7...) and the two-fingered version of Chopsticks, I can't play a thing. And singing? I am the reason God invented CDs.
2. Art: All of my children have such potential. The directed drawings we do on a regular basis are getting better and better. Their recent portraits of President Lincoln are breathtaking. They are so good I am mounting them and laminating them. If money were no object, I would mat and frame them.
They love painting but get so few experiences that most of their attempts are filled with the enthusiasm that results in repeated applications of paint. Then they wonder why everything looks brown and their masterpiece resembles a Brawny paper towel. This same problem occurs when they use chalk, water colors, and tempera.
I don't know the first thing about properly teaching children about art. They need real lessons from a real teacher of art, in a setting that doesn't rush them because of all the academics we are forced to cram into our school day.
3. Dancing: They love to dance and so do I. But having no formal training, and being only lukewarm-successful on any dance floor, ever, the only thing I can do is move around with the rhythm and hope for the best. I loved Tap Dancing as a child and teenager - so much so that I still "tap" when the urge compels me. But, here's the thing - I remember about five tap steps. That's all. The tap shoes I could get - I could find used shoes online and rassle up some music. But 5 dance steps does not a dance teacher make.
4. Sports and P.E.: I need to teach them how to play certain games. This I think I can do. But I need to learn how to be a P.E. teacher for my kids and I learn best by doing. My sister shows me stuff and then I forget most of what she said by the time I get back to school.
5. Gardening: This I can do but you would think the school was being asked to excavate graves or something with the tepid support I get when I broach the subject. We can't compost because of mice. Never mind that mice won't bother a properly maintained compost pile - somebody once told somebody else that mice are attracted to compost piles. With mice come snakes and that is something we don't need. We can plant - but there is no water supply and no promise of a water supply and the dire warning that NOBODY will maintain what we plant in the summer. This I was told in an eMail.
The school will create a sprinkler lake in the front lawn every third day, allow sprinklers to cover sidewalks and driveways, fail to collect rainwater, throw out perfectly compostable food and let trash accumulate all over the campus - but no support for a teacher's effort let her children work with the soil.
That is my short list.
I would like to cross something off.
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2 comments:
I love your blog!
Can I make some suggestions? There are many senior citizens who would LOVE to teach art, and art is easy to work into your standards.
Also, about that gardening . . . try container gardening, it works great in limited space.
At my school in Los Angeles, we "won" a grant for garden in every school. They came to the school and built us boxes near our classrooms, filled with good dirt and even gave us some plant starts and seeds. Now I was in Kindergarten -- I mean a teacher of K -- at the time and we had 4 classes that had to share the one tiny box on our side of the building. I "roped off the box diagonally and that gave each class a triangle to plant seeds.
In the midpoint section it was triangular for each class. That's where we planted Cosmos for the butterflies to come. Then we planted radishes in the front long side because they grow the fastest and kids could still have a taste of them before school got out. We planted peas in the rest because kids could eat them raw and they were an early crop also.
In a big (about 12 in in diameter and 16 high) flower pot, we put soil and planted cucumbers which grew outside the pot overflowing the edges because they crawl but long as we watered it all worked out. Those took longer to grow and were given to the food bank in the summer because there were no kids to maintain, just me. They did gt to see the Cosmos grow and the butterflies come and eat some radishes and peas. We watered by sorinkling can. We also took time to weed and learn the reason for it and watering.
Every school I have been in had a different garden in small places but kids learned about the importance of veggies and how easy it is to grow them even in small, odd places. Give it a try! Also look up "Garden in Every School" on the internet. They may still be giving grants away?
Also, you can have a worm bin. Get a plastic container with a lid. Put in veggie scraps only from the lunchroom that would be thrown in trash anyway. Look it up. . . no onions or banana peels. No meat. Just things that compost. You can buy some worms from a fishing place. You need a little soil to start with before the worms compost if I remember right. Check worm composting out on the internet.
This is one that is doable if you have a little sink in the classroom and a small place for that garden box and a bin for worms to keep indoors. Happy Gardening!
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