An update on our learning community:
We have officially exited the “honeymoon” period of the school year.
Unconsciously, most of us wore raincoats of caution at the beginning of the year, protecting ourselves from getting soaked by the unknown rain of each other’s actions and reactions. Just as those coats insulated us from others, they also sealed in some of our own expression. We wondered how people would accept our weather: our moods, our ways of interacting. Many of us kept much of that safely hidden inside our brightly colored exterior.
During the initial weeks we have made rules together, and broken some of them. We have made mistakes together, and succeeded together. We’ve learned how each other’s raindrops of personality feel when they land. For the most part, we now feel safe together.
The coats are off.
We feel safe together. Safe to take chances and see what others like and don’t like. Safe to experiment and find out that some people don’t actually like to be repeatedly tapped on the head, or to have their block tower knocked down. Some children feel safe to let their anger come out without traveling through the language center of the brain. Safe to try various ways of communicating.
As for me, I joked with a student last week, ending the joke with a farcically scary face. The student laughed, and everything seemed fine; we went on with our day. Later, the parent emailed me to say the child wanted to know if I was still mad. We talked on the phone and gained a still deeper understanding of each other and the student. I checked in with the student the next day and straightened it out. We both learned a great deal.
So, yes, the coats are off, and sometimes we’re getting each other uncomfortably wet. However, with our coats off we get so much more. With our raincoats off we can get wet, and we’re OK. And better still, we can also enjoy each other’s light. We can enjoy mutual comfort, share jokes and goodhearted teasing, help each other overcome obstacles, build camaraderie, ask questions, answer them and much more.
On its hook — that’s where I’ll keep my raincoat.