Inquiry. Ask the right questions. Look deeper into the problem. Ask a friend. Ask three and then me. This week and the next we are beginning to think about how to be better learners and using Inquiry and the ability to ask questions since we start our expedition very soon! We need to get the kids into thinking more and being able to look at things with a more critical eye in the hopes that when they get started on the Revolutionary War they will have many many questions to ask and many many things to learn! For the most part today was uneventful minus a little breakfast blip… The blip being Jack, our favorite kid, was slurping Ben and Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream… Yes, you read that right. Ice cream for breakfast and NO this isn’t a dream… It was real. We had to discuss the nutritional value of ice cream for breakfast and how important it is to actually eat breakfast. It was amazing to me because having a conversation like this was totally new. We never had one like this when I was growing up. It was assumed everyone had eaten breakfast before coming to schoo. I took for granted being able to have breakfast at all; there were at least 5 of my kids who didn’t have breakfast today. I’ve been so blessed in my life all I could think about was how lucky I was and how being able to be in these kid’s lives will hopefully make them realize that they too can do anything. They are all so wonderful and I know they really will do great things as long as they stay in school. I wish there was more I could do for them. They all deserve so much support from everyone. Every kid in a troubled area needs support. We as a society need to realize that education is one of the most valuable tools we can give our citizens. Without it, it is nearly impossible to make the changes necessary for the world. We have a constitutional right to education and that means keeping our kids in schools, making sure they come to class with food in their bellies so that they can focus, and giving them the education THEY DESERVE. We need to have them realize the potential in all of them and not give up on that potential. These are the people who will inherit our pollution, our political policies, our international relations, and our culture. Do we want to show them that they can simply discount one of life’s most important keys? Sure there are some people who are able to accomplish incredible things without a formal education but they are the exception to the rule. And if there is one thing I’ve learned it is that you cannot teach the exception. It happens rarely. Instead you need to teach to the rule so that everyone has a fighting chance to stay out of jail, to not be a Teen Mom on MTV, and to be the change in the world that they see. Despite this only being week 3 these kids have stolen my heart, yes all of them, even Jack. It’s hard to when you see how excited they get just for multiplying 28x10 correctly, or identifying a poetry device well. They know they are special… do we as a society want to kill that or foster it so that it can grow into the next Internet or the next fuel-saving car? Give them a chance, give my kids a chance, and give EVERY kid a chance. Even if it’s just rounding up on the dollar at Whole Foods, somewhere in the US that $.34 is making a difference. It might be at my school and it might not be. Think back on your life, at some point someone gave you a chance, someone said you were special… Isn’t it time you gave that feeling back?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grh32BcjIRY
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