Empowering our Learners
A note I sent to our parents today.
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Hello Parents -
I'm a few days late on this but a note about making a 2023 resolution....
Christmas Gift of Empowerment
If you look at a "Montessori room", you'll see everything is low to the ground – the toys, crafts, furniture... even the artwork. In a Montessori-inspired bedroom, you'll see floor beds.
It's all done to empower young children and give them confidence that they can do things on their own.
It's not always easy – toddlers will still drop things. As they explore, things are still bound to break. Just as they did when they learned to walk, they will fail and fail often. We accept it knowing that through this failure, they will learn. And empowerment, failure, and learning is a part of growing up.
In her interview with Jimmy Kimmel a few weeks ago, Michelle Obama talked about her own Mom wanting to become "obsolete" or "be put out of business" as a parent. In the interview, Michelle Obama recalls her mom getting her an alarm clock as a kindergartner and telling her to use it to get up and "be responsible for your education". (The 2-minute clip is here if you'd like to watch it:
https://trimyoutube.com/edited-video?vid=%22.DderdnKnjTE.%22&start=%22.876.%22&end=%22.996.%22)
Alarm clocks as kindergartners. Wake up on your own. Take responsibility for your own education. Such as small but powerful gesture of empowerment.
This past winter break, we started thinking about the ways that Zuvi was still reliant on us and how we might be able to empower her.
One thought came immediately to mind... Filling up her sippy cup.
From the moment she could drink water, we've been filling her sippy cup. It was time to empower her. Our Christmas gift to her was a water dispenser (I know... parents of the year – lol).
She loves it! She can fill up her own sippy cup and it saves us a trip to the sink.
One small but important change towards empowering Zuvi to solve her own problems.
Empowering Eagles at Home and at Acton
A number of you asked over the Journey meetings what you could do to support your Eagles. One common answer I had was to work to instill the love of reading. That is so important for self-learning.
Here's another one and one that may be a resolution for you for the full year.... Find ways to Empower your Eagles.
Just some examples – big and small that I believe may be helpful:
Do they pack their own lunch? Could they?
Do they forget their water bottles? How can they solve for this?
Issues with core skills software during break? Could they reach out to me directly?
Eagle has a concern with something at Acton? How could they solve the issue on their own – call for a peace table, email me or talk to me directly?
From my side as a Guide, there is one change I'm planning to make immediately. I often send you a message and play that intermediary role to resolve an issue (e.g., Eagle isn't feeling well, Eagle forgot her/his lunch, etc). I'm going to try and limit / avoid that and ask Eagles to reach out directly to you.
Empowering our Eagles works to give them agency over all aspects of their lives and allows us to become “obsolete”… or in the words of the Guide-Eagle contract, empowerment allows us to “fade away.”
I would love to hear about ways that you plan to empower your Eagle or have done so in the recent past. This could be a really helpful exercise for all of us here... including for me as Nadia and I figure out our own ways of empowering Zuvi.