Greetings KCA!
I am not sure if everyone is aware, but I serve as the chapter counselor for my fraternity at Purdue. In this role, I mentor the president in leadership (and life) and also work with the overall health of the chapter to ensure that they are living up to their chosen values. Ironically, this work is not much different than working with the Preschoolers here at KCA. I find that many of the guys struggle with coping in situations where they lack control. They have been in a world where they have had "voice and choice". This catch phrase has been in education for quite some time and simply relates to the ideas that we should allow the learners to have voice in their world and choices in decision making. Think back to the time when children were "seen and not heard".....voice and choice is the opposite. The pendulum has swung to a point where the child is making all the choices and the only voice in the room. Many of you will remember when you had to wait on commercials to end to resume your programming. We used to listen to the radio and not playlists. Now, we have a culture where we can offer our children their choices at a moment's notice. I can Google a movie and POOF, it appears! I don't wait for it to come to me, I find it and automatically have my desired results. Seems great, right? Convenient, eh?
However, is real life like this? Does that driver in the left lane automatically move just because I want to use the left lane? Can I automatically choose the time of my next appointment for anything without having any hiccups along the way? The answer is simply, "No". As a result, I find that in many students, and adults for that matter (present party included), will struggle when things don't go their way. In these situations, they become frustrated, angry, upset....let's just say the bucket is dipped as we can't imagine their emotion. The goal then is learn to cope with the situation and make the most of it. Coping is a skill that needs to be learned. A baby simply cries when he/she doesn't get his/her needs met. They don't have coping skills to handle challenges. We try to pacify the situation (hence the term pacifier), but we all know what happens in the end: we have to learn to cope without the pacifier. Anyone who has had to break a child of a pacifier knows what I mean when it comes to the uncomfortable situation which arises when the pacifier needs to be discarded. Most children struggle and feel as though their buckets are dipping. However long that struggle lasts is irrelevant, we know the pacifier has to be removed for the benefit of the child. In many cases, that might be one of the earliest lessons we teach on coping to our children. From that foundation, we can then have more teachable moments where children have to wait and listen. They learn to be part of their world, rather than the center of their environment. These lessons don't come without pain and at times suffering, but on the other side, the child is more resilient for this world. These are the intangibles we can give our children. Please know that I am not saying that a child needs to suffer; quite the contrary. I am saying that children need to be uncomfortable so that they can learn to function in this world; progress in this world; succeed in this world. This is part of the philosophy that Jonella and I always believed. In no way am I saying that we are/ were perfect parents....trust me, neither of us earned that award....but we do strive to have our children's voices and choices heard in the appropriate time and place. The goal for us was having them understand when that time and place were appropriate and not just when they wanted.
We look forward to our annual Paths To Quality evaluation on Monday of this week. Wish us luck as we work to prove the great things that are being done at Kid City Academy.
We will also be having a Wear Teal for Ovarian Cancer Day on Wednesday. I will be honest, I am not sure how I will be on that day; nor do I know if I will participate. This is not to say that I don't support the cause, but this road in what I am coping with is far greater than I can manage at times and I have not been the most successful as of late. Honestly, I do my best and I am here for the kiddos and that keeps my mind at bay. I will always work hard for the students and stakeholders of KCA, but this is outside of KCA....very personal....
We are getting closer to Fall Break. If you plan to be out during this time, please let us know as we have some teachers that would like to be out as well and this helps with our scheduling :-)
Finally, we sent home picture forms on Friday. If you did not get one, please ask your teacher or stop by the office. I will post the schedule this week as we make last minute arrangements. There will be an opportunity for sibling pictures and I am doing my best to make a schedule work so that we can classrooms, individuals, and siblings done without having too many families spread over two days.
Enjoy your week.
Mitch