An Ode to the Foot Draggers
Pictured here is ‘Ted’ the latest addition to our family & the brain child of one of my kids, created by their own little mind & willed into being by their brilliance & determination. Sir Ken, I think you’d be proud. Sir Ken Robinson died over the weekend. What a legend he was; a champion of human potential everywhere, an educator, a government advisor, an original and creative thinker, with a huge passion for the arts. An incredible human.
Did you know that his Ted talk in 2006,’ Do schools kill creativity?’ remains the most viewed TED talk of all time, having been seen over 65million times. You can view it here.
The title of his talk is an interesting point to consider. In short, I think in whatever system exists there is always a squashing of creativity but equally the opposite is true, when part of a system we have to be creative in how we operate. The point for me being, there is no perfect solution. School, home school, no school- They all have limitations. What’s important is how we live through the systems in congruence to ourselves and as advocates for our children be they ours or otherwise connected to us.
One of my favourite quotes from him goes like this;
“We have to recognise that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development. All you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish.”
This is a favourite, because when I was teaching in schools & under pressure to produce evidence to quantify children’s learning you couldn’t predict or squash young children into boxes because life, life is unpredictable. All I could do was create a rich learning environment & let the results speak for themselves good, bad & indifferent. Despite management staff being unhappy with me at times, I can look back & know that I did my level best for the children in my care that year, sometimes contrary to nonsensical (in my opinion) local authority achievement targets. Now as a parent, a homeschooler & a nature school business owner all I can do is my best to provide the right environment & conditions for children to flourish. I do this with my whole heart.
As schools reopen after a long time off for children to have had plenty of time and space explore, expand and be curious and now we’re all heading back into a new term with increased structure and rhythm. It’s a big transition for us all. Especially after having navigated through so much as individuals, families, communities and nations, I want to wish all the new starters and back to schoolers well! One which I’ve been on both sides of the door for. There’s no denying there'll be a lot of big feelings going on. Some are entirely ready for school to restart and some are entirely not ready for school to restart. It's a tricky thing to manage. A knife edge. You may well even have two children at polar opposites in their disposition too. I was that parent with polar opposite children; one completely thrilled and exhilarated to be starting back and one completely reluctant and dragging their feet at every possible opportunity.
I think I have some insights and tips gathered along the way to help kids and parents of kids who are feeling a little overwhelmed about going back and find it so hard to navigate transitions. It used to help my reluctant school goer to navigate the mornings and transitions in general, it still does. The mornings were torture. I used to find it so difficult to know what was okay (yes even though I was a teacher, ridiculous right!?). I didn't want to get the label as being an awkward parent. I had ‘those’ parents when I was teaching and ashamedly I didn't cope so well with them, neither did I have kids at the time so I wasn’t as understanding as I could have been. Now, with hindsight they are heroes, heroes for their children and themselves.
I’ve divided it into 3 sections to help. Before School: transitioning into the school building: after school - you can download it as a PDF here.
Finally, a note to say, if school feels overwhelming to your child and maybe to you right now. That’s okay. Take lots of deep breaths and find an empathetic ear on the staff. If you struggle to do that, ask yourself this. Is this situation improving overall and over time or is my child regressing and becoming less of who I know them to be?
If starting school or turning to school doesn't work out, this time- there are options. All is not lost, you and your child will be okay. You will find a way to educate them that doesn’t induce trauma or scar them for life. The brilliant thing to remember is that you are noticing the struggle and communicating to your child that they matter. (because you’re trying to do something about it) That is an excellent message to communicate to your child whether that is in a verbal or non verbal capacity, well done, keep going.
This book was incredibly helpful to read too.
