Afternoon Workshops

This is mildly divergent but I think it's relevant. This week, I had the priviledge of attending a series of workshops sponsored by the Rochester City School District. It was especially designed for School-Based Planning Teams. A SBPT is a small team (9-12 people)of administrators, teachers, parents, students and BENTE (professional non-teaching staff, I believe) making school- based curriculum/student achievement strategy-type decisions for the 1-2000 students in their school buildings. Apparently Rochester is one of the most progressive districts in the country right now. They are looking to take a more holistic approach to teaching children, improve parent involvement, partner with community organizations. Interesting?

I went to two workshops. The first one targeted community partnerships - ways that schools can utilize other organizations in the community to help facilitate parent involvement and student success - higher educational institutions (not just for student teachers but for mentors and programs done in conjunction with colleges/universities), businesses (raffle items to get people to school sponsored events, food, building postive neighborhood relationships, etc), faith communities (to provide school supplies, warm clothes, connective care, etc for families who literally can't afford them). Mavis G. Sanders, who is doing a lot of this research, lead the workshop. She also wrote the book Building School-Community Partnerships: Collaboration for Student Success. We had two copies per table so there will be one at school but I haven't read it yet it definately gets you thinking about possibilities.

For the second workshop, I didn't go to Team Building, Essential Standards, or Technical Assistance. This is my last year as a high school parent. I went to hear Retired Lieutenant Colonel Kickbusch (Educational Achievement Services, Inc.): Creating a Culturally Responsive Environment. I believe there's a documentary of her life airing September 7th. Please watch it, if you can. If you work with kids and ever have opportunity to hear her speak or work with her, please go! I can't do her justice here but she shared lots of stories about growing up Mexican-American in a very poor part of a very poor city in Texas and about some of the conflicts of culture that cripple kids from non-English speaking households growing up surrounded by traditions that are different than those of our middle/upper middle class school system. Check out her website. Lots to process.

As Christian Education/Children's Ministry people we have to understand that for most kids, not only are successful reading, writing, and math skills key to their success in other areas of life (their physical state, home relations, and spiritual developement are key contributing factors) but I think we have to remember that their success or failure in these areas as a school-aged child affects them emotionally and socially. And this affects learning, whatever they're leaning.

It was neat to be among people recognizing the need to see and consider the whole child, the role of the larger community, and the need for all these forces to join and support families and learning success. Public education has it's upside and downside, but I don't believe our nation would be what it is today (by the grace of God), without it.

The next chapter of Children's Spirituality just happens to be Chapter 18, "A Narrative of Children's Spirituality: African American and Latino Theological Perspectives." How 'bout that.

(do the links work? :-)