During
spring break, Kristi and I entertained some friends and family for a few days
and spent time unpacking the last few boxes from our move. We also caught up with our reading and
watched some of our favorite shows. We saw an advertisement for a new show,
Little Big Shots, with Steve Harvey as the host and decided to watch it. For
those of you who have not watched this show, Steve brings out children who have
special talents and talks with them. Some of the things the children say are
amazing!
All
of us in education know that our students say some amazing things. After
watching one of the Little Big Shots episodes, I reflected on a story about our
granddaughter, Chloe, from two years ago. Our daughter, Monica along with Chloe were
living in Seoul, South Korea, as our son-in-law was stationed there in the
Army. When Monica became pregnant she
and Chloe came to live with us to have the baby in the U.S.
Thus,
“Papa” as I am called, was going to have a granddaughter attending our
elementary school as she was in pre-kindergarten at the time. Chloe had visited
us several times prior to going to Korea and spent time at my office, and going
to the playgrounds. She was now proud to say she is going to “Papa’s school”. It had been a long time since I walked a child
to school. It was a special moment as Monica and I walked Chloe to her
classroom her first day.
Ms.
Wyble is a wonderful pre-kindergarten teacher and has spent most of her career
in pre- kindergarten. During Chloe’s first day, the children were on the
playground during recess. All of a sudden, Ms. Wyble saw all the children
gathering around Chloe. Ms. Wyble very quickly ran to the children thinking the
students were bullying the superintendent’s granddaughter on her first day.
When Ms. Wyble approached the students she asked one of the boys, “what are you
doing?” The young child responded, “we are lining up.” Ms. Wyble asked the
child “why” and the child responded “because Chloe told us to!” Chloe thought it would be cool to help Ms.
Wyble as she had heard her Papa say many times that he is here to help the
teachers.
Children
are always listening. As educators we have a tremendous responsibility in
shaping their lives to be productive in their adult lives. You never know how
children will interpret things, as you see in the story about my granddaughter
or in some of the things on the TV show Little Big Shots. The late Rita Pierson spoke at a TED
conference last year and stated “every child deserves a champion, an adult who
insists that they become the best they can possibly be.” Thank you for being the champion our students
deserve!
Happy Easter!
No comments:
Post a Comment