We want education to be the platform for change. We want the classroom to represent a small society where things are going to go wrong, children are going to be mean, some will cry while others laugh.
Our classroom should function as a small democracy. One where the teacher is not the boss or the rule maker, the children are.
On the first day of school the children talk about their experiences, the things they love about school and the hardships we have faced. “I love it when people are kind to me but when I feel left out it can be really lonely.”
If we can build this confidence that their words, thoughts and experiences will be heard by the us and from those words a class manifesto will appear. A contract that everyone will adhere to, for the children and by the children.
Then we may finally see a world where we care and understand everyone’s perspective.
I see education as the tool to change the world. If our children can understand that we are all human, no matter our race or gender. All equal with the same love in our hearts.
Then maybe, just maybe we will look at refugees fleeing persecution with their families, as people we should help, not people we should be afraid of.
Humanity should be on everyone’s spelling list this week.
❤️
