Just having passed the mid-term reporting period, I want to give you something to think about. We talk about how our children are “doing” in school. It’s a phrase I remember using my entire life – I’m sure that my own parents thought about how I was doing in school.
Today I’d like to suggest that we think about how students are “being” in school. What’s the experience of daily life in school like for this young person? Are they honored in school? Are they made to feel important, like they truly matter? What is their own sense of who they are in school and how does it differ from how they perceive themselves out of school.
When a student and a school are a poor fit, it creates an essential disconnection in their lives. Their being becomes a fragmented thing, the place they spend every school day is a place of frustrations and failures. So when we consider how they’re doing and the result of that question is an unfavorable one, we need to dig deeper and examine how they’re being. If we can begin to shift this question, it will lead to a much better analysis of our schools, our children, and how to most effectively serve who they are and want to become.
Don Adams, Head of School