You Can't Skip Caring!

I have to first admit, I love a good TedTalk. I spent half a year dedicated to watching one TedTalk a day-I needed to hear what other people were up to and how they were finding their way. Watch Mike Wesch reminded me of one of my favorite TedTalks by Rita Person about how students learn and how to value them.He talks about how students learn by being connected with and that every student has that innate desire to learn. Watch Pierson talk about her parents and her own legacy as an educator and champion for children. Every Kid Needs a Champion These two TedTalks feel like the intersection of how I engage with youth-through building a relationship. Wesch talks about being interested in the ways that his students learned that were not showing up in his classroom. He was interested in who they were and what they could learn in their relationship with themselves. Pierson talks about valuing her students as people and meeting them as people. The notion that they get to learn, make mistakes and be children feels like the first act to Wesch's college level second act. Both understand that there is power in relationships and were willing to do the work to offer students learning and growing opportunities where they were cared for by Pierson and Wesch. I'm thinking still of our "digital natives/immigrant" conversation this care is what was missing in the conversation for me. It lacked the humanity of dealing with human lives, emotions and inevitably their view of the world (even that view is them looking inward).

His yearlong project where the students become their own subjects feels profound because we do not offer that space as often as we should. Spaces that allow for curiosity, honesty and authenticity allow for connections and those connections often lead to community. When we are intentional and respectful of our charges to care for students we are more able to "know" who they may be influenced by. A student in a class where they are well connected can reach out to a classmate when they have an issue and may feel more comfortable building friendships that last longer than the class. That is the work that I want to do, connecting youth to each other. My hope is that the youth I work with have chances to meet, work together and get to know each other. Their relationship to me should be a connection to a wider youth and adult ally support network and I take that responsibility seriously. When we do the work alongside youth, sometimes that work is simply watching, we get to model what it means to be appropriately and well connected. I hope for more of this for all the youth we know!

I'm adding these two videos of my niece and my goddaughter from last weekend because I think it speaks to how quickly connection builds and adds to our lives. In the video my niece (in yellow shirt ) had already gotten on the wall by herself and got back down when my goddaughter (in blue shorts) was having trouble. My niece will climb, jump, tumble from and on anything and my goddaughter is much more cautious but they spend a lot of time together because of me. The way that they play together and separately, both being supported and cared for by adults, lets me know that they are getting it good. I love that she tries to help and looks back to me and when I say she can help her she trusts that she can. Watching them figure it out together with their little hands and no words between them reminds me that the connection to me should always include others in my network. We cannot skip caring on our way to impacting kids, the care is the impact.

Little Helping Hands

We Made It Together!