When my daughter, now 14, was in nursery school, there was this wonderful exercise in which the children were asked to share what they wanted to be when they were older. At that time, Elena was torn between becoming a ballerina (those dreams faded by 5) and a teacher (which was the default answer that day). Almost more than anything, we want our children to have passions and dreams—the sustenance of feeling good about your life and expectant about your future. Last night’s Blackboard Awards celebrated schools and principals, but it was the comments of a few girls that reminded me of what I hope and hold most dearly for my own children.
One of the night’s honorees, Principal David Getz of East Side Middle, which offers grades 6-8, invited three of his former students, about my daughter’s age, to join him at the podium, and after sharing a few of his own thoughts about his work and his school he asked the girls to share their thoughts on what the school had meant to them. There was some nervousness, but all three of them took the request seriously and each, in their own way, talked about how the school helped them see themselves as someone who could do special things. One mentioned that she had joined almost every club at the school, another, with tears, spoke about how it inspired her to want to be a writer.
This is what good schools—no, make that great schools—do, right? And I have no doubt that all of the wonderful schools and educators honored last night work comparable miracles every day. In fact, one of the honorees who followed Getz took a moment to compliment the three girls and thank them for sharing, because, ultimately, it’s the success of students like them that drives an educator.
But what about parents? With Elena now in high school, and Adam soon to enter middle school, I pine to share with them so many more things than I’ve been able to share so far, but often they resist on principle alone: The principle being that the idea came out of my mouth, or because it involved the word “museum” or some other painfully boring setting.
In the questionnaire that we asked all the honorees to fill out, Principal Getz said that one his school’s main goals is “to help our students discover and develop their ‘element,’ which [Sir] Ken Robinson defines as ‘the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.’”
Apparently, Sir Robinson has a really inspiring Ted Talk—or actually three of them. And I know just how to get my kids to watch them.
Either listen to him talk about these issues, or listen to me.
Eric Messinger is the editor of New York Family. He can be reached at emessinger@manhattanmedia.com.
