What Makes a Good Museum for Young Audiences: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Posted on October 23, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

SEEC’S LOVE FOR THE HIRSHHORN

Sometime back in the spring the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden closed a large part of its galleries to the public and the reverberations could be heard throughout SEEC. The Hirshhorn is hands-down one of our favorite stops along the National Mall. Thankfully, their second and third floors reopened this past week and they do not disappoint (more on that below).
The conversation among our teachers got me thinking: Why is the Hirshhorn such a favorite with our educators? I placed an idea web in each of our teacher lounges and asked them: Why do you love teaching at the Hirshhorn? What I learned in a nutshell: engaging collections + ideal layout = a great early childhood experience.

THE COLLECTION

SEEC’s teachers are, without a doubt, drawn to the modern and contemporary collection. One educator noted; “…so open ended.” Her comment encapsulates our approach to teaching at SEEC. Whether it be through play, engagement, or lessons/curricula, our teachers provide students with the chance to inquire, investigate and explore their own interests. Similarly, the Hirshhorn’s collections offer children (really, all visitors) works of art that are open to interpretation. Teachers feel comfortable using such artworks because their meanings are layered and can be adapted to a variety of themes that resonate with young children.

BROAD CONCEPTS

Of equal importance to our educators was that many of their exhibitions explore

Two-year olds visiting Gravity’s Edge Exhibit.

broad concepts. For example, in an exhibition like Gravity’s Edge, where gravity was a determining factor in the works on display, students were able to see multiple examples of a single idea and we know that children, and young children especially, benefit from such repeated exposures. Similarly, the Ai Weiwei zodiac animals fountain was a huge hit with our students. While the animals were not the work’s main focus, it was an exhibition that engaged our students and offered them a portal to learning more about the piece itself.

MATERIALS

Pre-K family workshop in front of Nick Cave’s Soundsuit.

Our educators also appreciate that the collections demonstrate a unique and varied approach to materials. The introduction of new materials helps children think about things from new perspectives and activates their imagination. A great example is Nick Cave’s Soundsuit, which is currently on display. Cave’s use of unorthodox materials is an attention grabber that uses objects familiar to young children. It also encourages young children to open their minds and be creative.
Varied materials can also be beneficial to the young learner because they appeal to more than just the sense of sight. A few years ago, Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Space captivated the whole school because it was just that – suprasensorial. Young children learn better when all of their senses are engaged. Children reacted to and interacted with these artworks through sight, sound, touch and smell. Teachers used that space to explore color, light, lines and even swimming.

THE SPACE
For young audiences, the layout of a museum or gallery can be almost as important as the lesson. Early childhood educators generally look for large spaces with little distraction and the Hirshhorn has all of that. Their spacious galleries make it easy for our teachers to have a circle and not block other visitors. The floorplan’s circular flow makes it easy and fun to move around. Teachers also commented on the building’s architecture and how its shape and outdoor sculpture appeal visually to our students. The fountain was also high on the list of why the children liked going there. (see our blog on fountains and learning spaces).

Having fun exploring the newly opened galleries.

On Thursday, I headed over to see the newly opened galleries and I was not disappointed! This piece entitled The Dangerous Logic of Wooing basically sums up why the Hirshhorn is so appealing to young audiences – playful, imaginative and whimsical. What more could you want?

New Classrooms: Welcoming Environments

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

The First Week of School

This week marks the start of a new school year at SEEC and I took the opportunity to walk around and see the classrooms. SEEC teachers have been working tirelessly over the past few weeks, so I was pretty excited to check out all their hard work. I was especially interested because the classroom environment has been a hot topic amongst my colleagues and over the course of the last year, I have really seen the teachers contemplating the meaning and importance of their surroundings. This shift was well illustrated in an earlier blog by one of our teachers entitled: Rethinking the Environment

The Power of the Environment

As early childhood educators, we think about arranging classrooms in ways that make sense – i.e. put the art area next to the sink or don’t put a reading area next to a noisy music area. We also think about safety and logistics too — all important. But the environment can be so much more – it can be a comforting, soothing locale that inspires children to learn, create and gain independence. Teachers are challenging themselves to think about how their classroom can engage and empower their students. The question of environment is, of course, of much broader scope than this blog, but I thought it would be great to look at some photos of our classrooms to see how our teachers are thinking about their classroom environments.

Research has proven that bright colors like red, yellow and orange, can often be over-stimulating. These colors solicit a calmer, more welcoming feeling.

This cozy corner provides a space for reading and a nook where a child can deal with feelings of frustration or anger. The canopy makes it feel especially protected and the green pillows evoke nature and feelings of calm.

These photos were posted along a seated area in one of our toddler rooms. It portrays something that all children can relate to from multiple perspectives adding a multicultural component.

"Computer lab" has never looked so good. The bench and the table are the perfect height for the 4's intro to technology.

“Computer lab” has never looked so good. The perfectly sized bench and table encourage the four’s to tinker with the computer.

Visual reminders of how a preK class wants to approach apologies.

These visual cues help SEEC’s preK class remember their classroom conversations about apologies.

Your Feedback

Teachers – do you have a space you are particularly proud of? Please share it with us. Museum educators – we would also love to see photos of learning spaces in your museums.

You Teach Art History to Preschoolers?

Posted on September 4, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Written by Carrie Heflin

Art History

Twenty five thousand years ago our rapidly-evolving ancestors discovered a network of caverns in the region currently known as Lascaux, France. What they did there made an indelible mark on our species and our planet.

For most of our early years, man was focused solely on our own existence. But these images on the walls of the caves at Lascaux were created by human hands. We don’t know why they were created or by whom. All we know is that, as our most ancient ancestors spent hours in the dark musty interior of the caves at Lascaux recording the world around them in a way that would preserve their thoughts and feelings for thousands of generations to come.

Today we seem to have lost sight of this earliest vision of our forefathers. As we slash budgets, we often do so at the expense of museums and their programming, art classes in schools, and extracurricular activities. Art and its history are not just some frill belonging to the upper one percent of modern society. They are an element of our most basic nature- a calling in our souls.

I am in my third year as a pre-kindergarten teacher at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center and I use my art history degree every day as part of the curriculum. I teach my children to be critical thinkers and careful observers from early on.

The Wizard of Oz

One of the first topics we explored at the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year was Frank L. Baum’s timeless classic, The Wizard of Oz. We talked about everything Oz, from men made out of tin, to things that melt when they get wet. At the end of the unit I had two anecdotes that reaffirmed for me that the way that I implement art as an educational tool in my classroom is vital. The first was from a mother who had spent the weekend trying to design her family’s annual Christmas card with her two sons. As they sat in front of the computer trying various filters on the images, her older son became intent on using the dreaded sepia tone filter that makes everyone look like they’re in an amusement park Wild West saloon shoot. To appease him the mother clicked on the sepia option and her younger son (who is my student) immediately pointed at the screen and yelled, “Hey, it looks like we’re in Kansas!” This comment refers back to the first week we studied Oz almost a month prior when we went to the Hirshhorn Museum to look at two Wall Drawings by Sol Lewitt. One piece was in color and the other on the opposite wall was in black and white. We explored the art and how it was created and then we talked about how different color schemes make us feel and how the filmmakers in the Wizard of Oz used this concept to show viewers how Dorothy felt in Kansas.

The second comment was made during a morning circle on the letter “B.” We asked the students to think of words that started with “B” and one boy called out “beryl!” We asked him if he remembered what beryl is and he exasperatedly explained that everyone knows it’s the main ingredient in emeralds. He is four. Did you know what beryl was before you read this paragraph?

As much as I would like to tell you that they are, my students are not all geniuses. They are not smarter because their parents read to them in utero or played Baby Einstein movies in their nurseries. They are able to process and retain knowledge because they have learned critical thinking skills the likes of which I was still honing in high school. They answer open-ended questions with thoughtfulness and clarity that floors me on a daily basis and they remember what they have learned and apply it to their future endeavors. These are the skills that we as educators strive to instill in our students because they are the tools to success. Being able to analyze and apply what you have learned is the only thing that makes knowledge useful.

I firmly believe that the work we do in the museums is the key to unlocking these skills at such an early age. Every day I see my students connect with art and with objects. I see their eyes light up when I tell them stories of people who felt and questioned long, long ago and who made beautiful wonderful things that we can see and explore today. I hear their questions as we wander the halls of our nation’s most expansive art collections- “Why is that so blue? Who made those statues? Is that a sculpture or a painting? Is that Hermes or Zeus?”- and I watch them implement their knowledge in their play. My students have used dress up to be French flaneurs and turned our climbing structure into a ship sailing to see Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. They can tell you who the Neanderthals were and what their favorite Shakespeare play is. They are sensitive and passionate and insatiable learners. My greatest fear is that they will leave our school and become less curious and more focused, less passionate and more dedicated to trying to memorize information and facts.

Final Thoughts

As we rang in 2014 the Smithsonian was preparing itself for budget cuts that may have required our nineteen museums to close one day a week for an indefinite period of time. One day a week, we were told, we might not be able to go see the art. While it was only one day, it felt like the beginning of something very big and very bad. When the largest and most renowned museum network in our country is forced to consider closing its doors it seems like only a matter of time before other institutions must follow suit. It didn’t end up happening, thankfully, but it did make me want to sit down and put my thoughts to paper. I didn’t write this article to protest government budget cuts.

There are already plenty of people doing that. I just hope that what I have to say can make my fellow educators stop and think about the enormity of the task before us and I want to offer a suggestion for a way to make it more manageable. Use the mistakes and triumphs of our species’ long and winding path to show your students a better way into the future. Don’t let those critical thinking skills that we worked so hard to develop be lost on a future generation of people with endless knowledge at their fingertips, because the more we depend on our gadgets for answers the less we will seek them ourselves. Instead, use the tools that you have been given- tablets, projectors, laptops, and yes, museums to encourage your students to seek out and interpret knowledge. Immerse yourselves in the passion of human creation and discovery and you will be amazed the places it will take all of you.

Classroom Snapshot: All that Jazz

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Our four’s camp was in full swing with their study of jazz this past month. Even though it is summer, our SEEC teachers are still thinking of innovative and creative ways to bring our museum objects to life. As a museum educator who spends a lot more time behind the computer than in front of the classroom these days, I was very jealous of all the fun the four’s were having.

The week begins with a study of jazz instruments at the National Museum of American History.

The whole class made it up to the National Portrait Gallery where they learned about Duke Ellington and made some jazz gumbo!

Next up: Billie Holiday. The class explored the voice as an instrument.

After all that learning, the kids played with some instruments of their own and created their own jazz ensemble.

The kids played with some instruments and created their own jazz ensemble.

These lessons take place over a period of time and typically take shape as teachers discover and nurture the interests of their students. If you have questions or comments, please let us know. We see our teaching practice as constantly evolving.

Educators: Want to learn more about working with museums and early childhood audiences, please visit our list of professional development offerings.

Parents: These snapshots can give you some great ideas of how to use museums with your children. You can also enroll in one of our weekend classes or our 2-day/week program for toddlers and experience it firsthand!

Sensory Learning – What and Why?

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Have you scrolled through Pinterest lately and seen all the preschool or parenting boards related to sensory play? Usually it involves some beautifully crafted photos featuring a young child participating in a hands-on activity, but sensory learning is so much more than just getting dirty. As the name suggest, it is learning through the senses. Often times, it is related to the sense o

f touch, i.e finger painting, water table, playing with sand. Sensory learning is not limited to touch and can encompass all the senses.

Why bother with all of this – children and adults learn best through their senses. Sensory learning also helps children retain information. Think about it this way: if you are cooking and your child inquires about the rosemary you are using you can, A: simply describe it as something that adds flavor to your dish or, B: hand some over and give them the opportunity touch, smell and examine it. I can guarantee that your child will be able to recount their rosemary experience better if they are given the sensory option.

Once a child begins to explore something through their senses, a lot of other things can happen. They can use the experience to practice and build upon their vocabulary. Ask them questions: “What color is it?; How does it feel?; What does it smell like?. A parent can also enhance this experience by adding objects that can be used for comparison purposes. , Add parsley, for example, and encourage basic math skills by asking them to find shapes or compare the size of the two herbs. You can also stimulate critical thinking by adding elements like, scissors or water. These elements prompt children to conduct experiments: i.e. “What will happen if I cut the rosemary – will it still smell? or, What will the rosemary feel like when I pour water on it? Adding these components not only gets them to investigate and hypothesize, it also gives them the chance to practice their fine motor skills. Cutting and pouring are everyday tasks that they hope to master one day and using these skills will also aid in developing the coordination required for writing.

You can take the sensory experience a step further by adding some art supplies too. Put out some glue and construction paper, but don’t give them explicit instructions. Let them be inspired to create what comes to their mind. You’d be surprised at what they can come up with! Finally, try including a friend or sibling in the experience, which will encourage social interaction and compel them to practice taking turns and listening to one another. It also encourages them to work as a team and build on each others ideas.

So the next time you see a beautifully crafted sensory experience pop up on your Pinterest feed, don’t feel daunted. Remember, sensory learning can happen organically during the course of the day and you can add to the experience by simply including common art tools and other found objects in and around the home. Too busy to clean it up? Don’t worry leaving it out for awhile and letting your child return to the materials will actually enhance the experience.

Parents Are Part of the Class Too

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Besides being an educator for the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center, I am also a mom. I know all too well what it is like to be unsure of oneself as a parent. That is one of the reasons we have set up our programs with the parent in mind. We want to encourage your confidence as a parent and, as your child’s first teacher.

One of the ways we do this is by encouraging one-on-one interaction during the museum visit. Often we ask parents to lead simple activities in the galleries that are open-ended and encourage observation and conversation. For example, we might ask infant/toddler parents to find all the boats in a gallery space or simply describe an object. If it seems odd to talk about having conversations with your little one, remember recent research is making direct correlations between how much a parent talks to their child and their literacy.

Preschooler families might be asked to create a story or make a list of questions they have about an object. In both of these scenarios, we are encouraging independent thinking, literacy and providing time for you and your child to learn together. It is also giving the parent practice having open-ended conversations and ideas of how to use museums when there is not an educator around.

All of our classes include a classroom component, where teachers have carefully thought out and prepared art projects, dramatic play areas and sensory experiences. The classroom experience is less structured and gives you and your child time to explore their interests. In order to help our parents make the most of their time, we make the following suggestions:

1. Let your child choose the activity and how long they want to stay at that activity.
2. There is really no wrong way to do something – let them be creative and get dirty.
3. If they are frustrated, ask them if they want help. Otherwise, let them solve the problem on their own.
4. While you observe your infant, narrate what they are doing. Ask older children about what they are doing or why they made certain choices.

With these guidelines, parents can feel confident that they are giving their child autonomy and encouraging their interests. They are also giving them space to figure out problems on their own – this will lead to more confidence.

Are there things that you struggle with as a parent when participating in classes with your child? Let us know, we would be happy to help.

What is a Smithsonian Early Explorer?

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Recently SEEC and the National Museum of Natural History formed a new partnership. We are already lucky enough to have two spaces inside this amazing museum and now, we will be offering a very special program in NMNH’s Q?rius jr. Discovery Room. This brand new early learning initiative, Smithsonian Early Explorers (SEE), builds on SEEC’s 25 years of success combining the best in early learning practice and the rich environments of the Smithsonian Institution. A small cohort of young learners, together with their caregivers, will have access to the best of the Smithsonian Institution and a curriculum focused on STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art and math.

Here’s a small taste of what to expect.

Museum

Classroom

Working with Peers

Free Play

Fun

Learn More

Smithsonian Early Explorers FAQ’s
Registration
Cynthia Raso: rasoc@si.edu or 202-633-0121

Fountain Fun

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Pools, beaches, lakes, sprinklers…it’s that time again! Children all over the US are enjoying summer-time to its fullest and likewise, parents are looking for water-inspired activities. Here in DC, we are lucky enough to have a number of public fountains that are both beautiful and refreshing. Fountains capture the imagination of children, so why not take this opportunity to create a learning experience?

Infants
Infants often have mixed feelings about water, it can be both scary and exhilarating. Why not introduce them to water through their senses, especially sight, sound and touch. Simply draw their attention to different aspects of the fountain.

Do they hear that sound? Mimic the roar of the fountain.
Describe the color of the water.
Connect the fountain to the actual feeling of water by getting their hands wet.
At home, identify other places where you might find water and remind them of their visit to the fountain.

Toddlers

Toddlers are excited by new things and fountains are no exception. Take the time to explore the fountain and ask simple questions about its design:

What direction is the water moving?
Is there water that is still, where?
From where do you think the water is coming?
What else do you see besides water?
Do you see any pictures or decorations?
Try making your own fountain at home with a hose and baby pool.

Preschool and Up

By now your child has seen a few fountains and you can begin to investigate the concept further. Here are some fun multidisciplinary ideas:

Rainbows, light and water. This blog has some nice experiments you can easily duplicate.
Experiment with force and getting water to move in a certain direction. You can even perform this experiment at home if you are feeling adventurous.
Discuss why fountains are used: are they pretty, do they help us remember something, are they for cooling off, do people seem to like them?
Ask them to choose a location in your community and design their own fountain.

Favorite DC Fountains

Fountain at the Hirshhorn

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

National Museum of American History (Constitution Ave. Entrance)

US Navy Memorial Plaza

National Gallery of Art

National Museum of the American Indian

Senate Fountain

WWII Memorial Rainbow Pool

Bartholdi Fountain

What is your favorite community fountain? Leave us a message!

Ready Set Go

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Post by Betsy Bowers, Director of the Center for Innovation in Early Learning
As another school year comes to a close and we begin to say farewell to the many children who have spent the past 5 years or so with us, it’s hard not to wonder what’s ahead for them. Our educators tirelessly support SEEC students as we help them make sense of the world, love learning and grow into thoughtful young citizens. Over the course of this past year, a group of SEEC educators discussed what our students should be able to do when they leave SEEC.

Focus, persistence and determination.

Critical thinking and analysis.

There’s quite a long list. A few of the things we agreed on were that our students should leave SEEC being able to solve problems, be responsible, take risks, understand their role in the community and their ability to affect change, have compassion, respect and empathy for others, and communicate their ideas.

It’s a lot to ask a 5 year old if they know how to solve a problem or be responsible, because of course they will say, “yes.” We are, after all, working on having them leave SEEC with self confidence so a positive response is expected. Because I wanted to find out if our 5 year olds are entering Kindergarten as independent thinkers, I asked a few of them this more indirect question: “If I told you that five of your friends wanted you to climb up the Washington Monument so that you could jump off, what would you say?” One student gave me an odd look and responded, “That’s not really a good idea.” One student did say, “Yes.” We’ll hope that she has some clever ideas about how to do that safely. One student simply said, “Ouch,” while a few others were much too busy to want to elaborate and so responded with a “no.”

Ability to share ideas.

The response, though, that reminds us that all these skills are intertwined and expands our notion of “independent thinking” was this – “Only if we could jump off like a cannonball and onto a big trampoline!” Of course, why didn’t I think of that?

Collaboration and teamwork.

Here’s hoping that this playfulness, creativity, critical thinking and overall healthy outlook on the world that we have worked so hard to nurture is embraced by our elementary school colleagues and the world. Good luck, dear friends, as you now go and bravely pursue life.

Self esteem and confidence.

Caring in the Classroom

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Cynthia Raso

Posted on behalf of SEEC teacher Carrie Heflin:

Hello Fellow Champions,

Whether you are a parent, grandparent, teacher, babysitter, or just an awesome person, you are reading this right now because you are a champion for the embattled cause close to all of our hearts- childhood. Day in and day out you find yourself concerned with nurturing the growth of another human being in a world that seems determined to fight you every step of the way. As a teacher preparing to enter my fourth year in a pre-k classroom, I just want to say that I know what you are feeling. I know that there are days when you feel utterly and completely defeated.

This is how I was beginning to feel every time I, as a classroom educator, had to mediate a forced apology between two or more of my students. Do you know what I mean by a forced apology? It’s what happens when Johnny knocks over little Suzie’s carefully-constructed block castle with his super-laser-rocket-robot feet and she yells, “Hey!” and shoves him into Tommy who falls and bumps his head. At this point, all three children are crying and screaming for justice and you get to take on the coveted role of apology-enforcer. Wrong has been done and the only way to make it right is to frog-march Johnny over to Suzie and coerce him into mumbling, “Sorry I broke your castle,” with liberal amounts of eye rolling. At which point Suzie must chime in with a completely unrepentant, “Sorry I pushed you,” and you are so tired from the twenty emotionally-trying minutes spent wringing these two “heartfelt” apologies out of Suzie and Johnny that Tommy, the innocent victim, has to make do with a back pat and you saying, “Sorry you got knocked over,” as you make your way away from the ticking time bomb that is Johnny and Suzie (who are both still angry at each other and currently plotting their revenge).

After three years of these incidents, I was beginning to lose hope. I had spent countless hours stewing about my inability to create an effective apology scenario in my classroom. I had tried every way I could to talk to my students through their disagreements in a way that would make them see the situation in a rational way, but the fact of the matter is that once a problem is already happening, both parties are too emotional to see reason. My co-teacher and I had done our research and we knew the problem. We were trying to force empathy on people who just hadn’t developed it yet. All the experts agreed. The children with whom we work are just too young to possess a developed sense of empathy. I suppose we could have just accepted that fact and moved on with business as usual, but the issue still rankled both of us. We knew that in today’s zero-tolerance-for-“violence” world, we were doing our children a disservice by continuing the forced apology routine. What was it teaching them? Did they really understand that hitting was wrong or did they just continue hitting with the understanding that a couple words makes it all better and then you can go back and do it again the next time you’re upset?

So we put our heads together and decided that we needed to make some changes. We knew that it wasn’t practical to expect our students to develop empathy overnight or to make them want to apologize just by using different words. The change had to be big. We wanted to do something that would help make our students more aware of the needs and feelings of others. That way, they might consider those needs and feelings more within the context of the choices they make. The result of this epiphany was a unit that we began in February and continued singularly for about a month and a half. The theme of the unit was, Heroism.

The foundation for the progression of our lesson plans was psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s Heroic Imagination Project. This is an initiative, created and implemented by Zimbardo, that claims it is possible to teach and learn heroism. There are three basic phases: 1) define heroism 2) explore examples of heroism and its obstacles 3) practice heroism in your daily life.

We used these principles in our lessons by first focusing on defining heroism (we talked about the difference between heroes and superheroes, the difference between being kind and being heroic, people who we think are heroes). Next we looked at some real life heroes. We visited exhibits featuring Nelson Mandela and Gandhi and brought police officers and EMT’s into the classroom to talk to the children. And we talked a lot about how it is often hard for heroes to be heroic, but they choose to do it anyway. When we talked about Mandela and Gandhi we looked at how hard it was for them to stand up against the governments with whom they disagreed. The kids were amazed that they were willing to give up their personal freedom to change something that wasn’t right.

The final step was practicing heroism in our own lives which we accomplished through a series of service learning projects. We wanted to make sure that all of the projects we undertook were actually heroic (as heroic as is possible in a pre-k classroom) rather than just kind, so we made sure there was an element of choice and sacrifice for the children in each task. One day we asked another class to leave for the playground without cleaning up their classroom. We told our class that they had to leave in a hurry and didn’t have time to clean. We showed them on a timer that they had 30 minutes of play time before lunch and that they could either stay in our room and play or use some of that time to go clean up the other classroom. Three quarters of the class went and cleaned the other classroom and they received individual thank-you notes from the other class. The rest of my students really regretted not going to help and the next time we had a project they were ready and willing to participate.

The next project involved giving back to the greater DC community. We did a lesson one day on a painting in the National Gallery of Art that tells the story of the Prophet Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath. In the story, Elijah is traveling through the town where the widow and her son live. He comes across mother and son and asks them if they have any food to spare a weary traveler. Even though she knows what it will mean for her and her child, the widow uses the last of her food supplies to make Elijah a loaf of bread. In return, Elijah blesses the widow with enough food to feed her and her son for the rest of their lives. My class struggled a lot with the context of this story. “Why didn’t she go to the store and get more bread,” they asked.
-Because she didn’t have any money with which to buy more food.
-“Why didn’t she go get money from her bank?”
-Because the bank doesn’t give you money for free. You have to put your money in and they hold onto it until you need it. She didn’t have any money to put in the bank. A lot of people don’t have any money to put in the bank.
-“How do they get food?”
-They don’t.

It was a hard lesson to hear and a hard lesson for me to teach. Afterward, my co-teacher and I knew it was time for our next project. The following week we told the kids that there was a special place in DC called Martha’s Table where you could take food for people who can’t afford to buy their own. “We have lots of food in our kitchen at my house,” one girl said. “I’ll bring some to school and we can send it to the Martha’s Table.” It was a sweet offer, but it didn’t require any heroic action on the part of our students and it didn’t teach them anything other than how to ask their parents for food- which was always available to them. So we told them to go ahead and bring some food from home to flesh out our donation and then we put our grand plan to a class vote. We told them that what we really wanted to do was to make sandwiches to take to Martha’s Table and that we wanted to use the sliced bread that was going to be delivered as a side dish for the children’s lunch the next day. The vote was unanimous. We used all of the bread that was delivered the next morning, made 30 sandwiches, loaded them in a wagon along with 50 additional pounds of food and took them on the metro to hand-deliver them to Martha’s Table. The kids were so proud of their work and I was so proud of their choice to take food that was meant for them and give it to someone who needed it more.

We got an overwhelming amount of positive feedback on the Martha’s Table project from the parents of our students. They told us how their kids talked about the project at home, how it really resonated with conversations about privilege that they had struggled to have with their children, and how grateful they were that we had taken the time to teach this important lesson. Heartened by these results, our class forged ahead with new projects. We were inspired by an elementary school class whose story we found online. They started a “Kindness Club” to send cards to people who were ill, hurt, suffering a loss, etc… Our first batch of cards went to the Children’s Hospital. The second batch was hand-delivered to the security staff in our building. After that, the students began bringing in their own requests. A cousin with a broken leg, a grandpa with a hurt shoulder, and a grandma recovering from surgery have all received cards so far.

Needless to say, things have changed in my classroom a little in the past few months. The kids are still kids. They have ego-centric disagreements and sometimes they get physical instead of using their words. What has changed is my response to these circumstances. When a child comes up to me screaming, “Miss Carrie she hit me,” I smile and turn to the offending party and say, “What would a hero do?” This one tiny question stops my students in their tracks. The other day I said it to a little girl who answered, “but I’m not a hero,” to which I responded, “but you could be.”

Sincerely,
A Happy Teacher