Semi-Charmed Kind of Life (part two): Learning how to connect with every child
SpeEdChange.at.Medium
The kids on the margins, the kids on the borderlines, the kids who seem irredeemable.
What are those kids in your school(s)? Are they “the problem”? Are they silent? Are they ignored? Are they regularly diminished by other kids? by adults? Do they get laughed at in the teachers’ lounge? Or would they say that they are fully valued and fully accepted throughout their school day?
I’ve lived a long time and experienced a lot of things. There are the lived experiences of myself and my friends as children. There’s my time as a cop in New York City. There is the quarter century in education.
I’ve looked into the eyes of thousands of children and adolescents, and finally I think I might have boiled down what kids need from us to four basic concepts: Abundance, Access, Attention, and Acceptance.
I’ve asked a lot of questions in my 25 years in education, and I can describe maps of hope and maps of inspiration, but I can also draw a very detailed map of pain.
