Safety

Our visit today from the Ski Patrol to help us all learn about safety in avalanche conditions prompted me to think about the broader issue of safety in our children’s lives. Here in Steamboat, we and our children are very involved in outdoor activities, some of which carry inherent risks. We cannot help but be tuned in to physical safety as we ski, snowshoe, and snowmobile in the winter and as we hike, bike, and swim in the summer. At Whiteman Primary, faculty, parents, and students talk about and engage in safe practices as they hike and swim at the fall camp trip. The Winter Skills trip and our spring trips provide further opportunities for students to learn, share experiences, and teach others about how to be safe in the wild. The newspaper reminds us to pack our cars with winter safety kits, as it shares news about the tragedies that can befall those in treacherous conditions and those who were not prepared.

Keeping ourselves and our children safe extends beyond trips and outside activities to our homes and school. At school we have fire drills, and the students learn directly from the Steamboat Fire Department how to be safe if there is a fire at home. Children take those lessons home and share what they’ve learned with their parents. This same experience of using the lessons from school to make a change at home is something I remember from my own childhood. I vividly recall asking my father to take me to a marine store to buy a very thick rope which we then tied to my bedframe so that I could escape from my second story bedroom in case of a fire —just knowing that rope was there made me feel so much safer. One of our parents recently shared how proud she was of her kindergarten-age daughter for coming home and helping the family plan safe routes from the house. Good job, Tinsley!

But safety extends beyond the physical, and as parents and teachers we are equally concerned with emotional safety. As Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs reminds us, once our physical needs are met, the need for safety is the most basic (http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Hierarchy_of_Needs.asp). The old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” resonates with many of us from older generations. But we also remember that even while reciting this, possibly out loud, we were actually hurting inside from other children’s words. At school, we discuss with students how to use their words and actions to bolster others’ feelings, and we help them use the inevitable mistakes they make as learning experiences.

Just as our children will suffer physical hurts and recover, they will suffer emotional pain that if understood well enough will help them grow into strong adults. In the same way that we arm children with skills to avoid and deal with physical harm, we need to explicitly prepare them for the emotional harm they will encounter. Sometimes that harm will be accidental (a fall or an unkind “foot in mouth” word), and sometimes that harm will be intentional (a push or a mean-spirited comment), but in all cases, it is our hope that our children will be resilient, will learn to understand why the hurt happened, and will fully recover. We can help our children take measures to avoid pain, and we can help them use each painful experience they encounter to learn better ways to keep themselves safe. Since we cannot be with our children at every single moment of every day, our teaching them the skills to protect themselves is essential to keeping them safe both physically and emotionally.

A Mission

We’re a bit more than half-way through the first month of January, and it’s a great time to think back to our resolutions and our progress along the way. We’re also nearly half-way through the year for Whiteman Primary. Our Upper Primary students are receiving their mid-trimester reports and thinking about what they’ve accomplished and what progress is still necessary to get them where they want to be at the end of the trimester. The school is finishing its 19^th year and heading into its second decade, and it’s a time for us to review our mission statement to see if it still provides proper guidance for the school’s direction.

We all live with goals, and to the extent that we can keep our “eye on the prize,” we find ourselves able to grow and become the people we want to be. Without goals, we struggle to find a reason to get up each morning. With goals, we find a way to make it through even the hardest day. This is why students start the year with identifying their hopes and dreams for the year, and why they ask themselves each week how they’ve done meeting their own and their teachers’ expectations. Faculty do the same, setting goals at the start of the year, examining their progress toward their goals midway through the year, and reflecting upon their work within the classroom on an ongoing basis.

A school’s goals are embodied in its mission, and Whiteman Primary has spent the first part of this year revisiting its identity to ensure that the goals that are central to the school are best represented in the mission statement. Our new mission statement describes both the love of learning we hope to develop in our students as well as the way we work toward that goal. As you read our new mission statement, you will understand what our school is all about:

“We inspire confidence and a passion for learning through a curriculum that stresses academics, personal accountability, experiential and outdoor education, and responsible local and global citizenship. We provide a creative environment that includes multi-age and socio-economically diverse classrooms, low student-teacher ratios, and active parent participation.”

Each of us should have a mission that gives us purpose, just as each school needs a mission to guide its direction. Our school’s mission guides the school as a whole, our faculty’s goals provide guidance for each classroom, and our students’ hopes and dreams give them motivation. As we move into 2012, what gives you direction and motivates you to follow it?

The Pleasures of a Good Book

          Winter Break gave me some time to do one of my favorite things – read! I hope that all of you were able to take advantage of the holiday season to read some things that you really enjoy. Whether we are students in school or parents at work, we read all the time. It’s a part of what makes us human – that ability to read. I remember as a child reading everything that passed across my eyes. The cereal box in the morning, assembly directions that my dad refused to read, those funny “do not remove under penalty of law” labels on pillows…absolutely anything with words on it. As a parent, I remember the days when my daughter was first learning to read. The wonder on her face as she found that she could read the signs on the walls in the airport while we were waiting for her father to arrive home from a trip brought tears to my eyes. The beauty of reading was, and remains, something very special in my life.

            But I also remember the arguments I had with my daughter when, as a teenager, she insisted upon reading Stephen King above all else. We all have our guilty pleasures (mysteries are mine), but I just could not understand how Rebecca would want to read Stephen King when so many wonderful classics were at her fingertips. It took me a long time before I realized that reading for pleasure requires that it be pleasurable! It seems so self-evident, and yet I struggled with wanting to guide my daughter to “good literature,” refusing somehow to see that reading – reading anything – was building her vocabulary, developing her understanding of syntax, helping her develop the “ear” for how proper language works, and yes, providing pleasure. It was also giving her a common experience to share with other adolescents, even if she shared little in “real life.” She learned how to discuss fiction, and by extension literature, through talking about these fantasy/horror novels.

            As we sit down to read a book or magazine that interests us, it’s like slipping our feet into a set of warm and comfortable slippers. We sit in our living rooms with a good book, and we can be hundreds or thousands of miles away, making contact with environments, cultures, history, science, music, and people we would never otherwise have the opportunity to meet. Our minds are exercised and expanded, our verbal skills become stronger, our ability to concentrate is reinforced, and we find ourselves able to leave our troubles behind. All of this is true regardless of the genre or the literary noteworthiness of our reading material. What matters is that we love what we read.

            I hope that the type of reading material that appeals to you surrounded you during break, and I especially hope that was true for your children. As you look to 2012, talk with your children about the books that appeal to them and then be sure to provide an environment that is rich in that sort of book. At school, your children will have many opportunities to experience new genres and will read things that stretch them beyond their comfort zones. Be sure that at home they have the chance to slip those warm comfortable reading slippers on and relax into a good book. And don’t forget to do the same yourself from time to time.