#223: School's Lasting Lessons

Corey's piece encapsulates many thoughts and perhaps concerns that have been circulating my brain since March in terms of education. It also renders many memories for me from elementary school... all of which are emotional (the humorous games of tag at recess, the feeling of presenting a hands-on science project I was so proud of, the time my best friends and I made desk mailboxes for passing sweet notes, the time I got in trouble with my first grade teacher for not wanting to share the Legos...)

With the upcoming changes in the structure of schools now and in the years to come due to the pandemic, I'm now thinking this: if it's the case that students remember emotional memories most strongly and fondly (times of joy, sadness, disappointment, excitement, pride, etc.), I wonder if, moving forward, schools could place an even greater emphasis on socio-emotional learning and directly teach kids how to navigate those feelings in order to expand their world/heart and grow individually. I truly believe that when young children can understand/acknowledge their feelings, they can better understand themselves and their purpose. I hope you enjoy this thoughtful piece below - thank you for sharing your personal experiences, Corey. 

- Amanda

School's Lasting Lessons

Back to school week was always special to me. The time when the weather got cooler, friends were reunited in community (sometimes against, sometimes in support of the new teacher), and days regained routine. The sense of normalcy, predictability, and routine that the locker-clad walls and scent of books, pencils, and chalk dust created for me still feels tangible to this day.

Though I certainly think I learned a lot academically, I really can’t recall most of it. Where does all that information go? Neuronal connections were pruned shortly after the chapter test or semester final was taken, perhaps. Some of it comes floating up as I teach my kids this or that, as if surfaced from some deep ocean of collective human knowledge. 

The learnings I remember vividly are all social and emotional. The weight of wicked words slung by another student. The heart-swelling honors of a teacher’s commendation. The stupefying speculation of the secret structure of the world “holding us scholars captive”. These are the clips in the mental highlight reel of my school years; I can still feel the emotions, sense the room, and see the faces of these performers-past.

Growing up as an introvert, school was my laboratory to discover who I was in relation to everyone else. It offered me the chance, every day, every class period, or break between (seeing your friends, passing notes) to work toward being a clearer version of who I wanted to be. Not something that’s not possible in your home life when you’re younger: living with your parents, who have set expectations of who you are and how you behave day to day.

As officials consider the public safety consequences of opening or not, I’m stuck in the nostalgia of my own experience. If others don’t follow a similar path to mine, how will they make the mistakes and learn the lessons I did? Perhaps the facts and figures will always be there, and are now available to be absorbed through other sources. However, what about the feelings and personal discoveries, the emotional bruises and spiritual expansion, the development of humility and humanity that all happen within a community? I wonder if these lesson plans are in the virtual class syllabus.