We started this school wide goal & conversation last year ~ HOPE! Earlier this summer, our SIP team talked about the importance of hope and how to keep it going this year. Hope is necessary, hope is critical and HOPE is who we will be this year. #elliotthope
At the beginning of the summer I pulled a book from my bookshelf. It was titled Rediscovering Hope: Our Greatest Teaching Strategy. It has one of the most boring covers I have ever seen, but the title just kept speaking to me. Richard Curwin is the author and he co-authored some of the Discipline with Dignity books along with others.
This book was written in 1992! Yes, 1992 … ponder that for a moment. By the way, that would have been my 4th year of teaching. I would have been leaving the beautiful scenery and most challenging teaching in inner-city East Palo Alto (San Francisco) for the opposite end of the spectrum as far as school districts go ~ Johnson County, Kansas (Blue Valley School District). I know my kids in East Palo Alto needed hope. I know my kids in Blue Valley needed hope. And I know that our Elliott kids need hope now ~ all of them! #elliotthope
I AM AMAZED at how timeless this writing is. Here are few of my ‘ah has’ from the book so far.
The most difficult students are those who no longer care, those who have lost hope for their future both in school and in life.
It is what students do under the conditions they are in, not who they are, that puts them at risk. Generally, for one reason or another, they have stopped learning, have stopped caring, have stopped believing that school will make a positive difference in their lives. They accept the limits others have given them.
More than discipline techniques are needed for these students. They need hope.
Educators are like doctors. Heart attacks are caused mostly by factors related to heredity, which are not controllable, yet doctors do not give up. They do as much as possible to understand what they can’t change and manipulate what they can. The result has been vast improvements in both the frequency and treatment of heart attacks. Educators do the same.
Schools can, at the minimum, provide an oasis for those children who desperately need one. The school may be the only place where all children are treated with dignity, where they learn to behave responsibly and discover the magic of learning.
For schools to reach and teacher high risk students, a massive dose of hope must be infused into every school, every classroom, and every teacher. #elliotthope