Yesterday, I posed this question to our incredible Leaders who are participating in KIPP School Leadership Programs (KSLP) Summer Institute at NYU:
To ponder on this 4th of July: How do we hold our Kids' hands while helping them learn self-reliance and independence?
Mara Bond, one of 5 founding teachers at KIPP Raices, currently teaching 2nd grade, offered this jewel as her response, which she has given me permission to post here. (The Leadership Guides she refers to at the end of the paragraph are Institute coaches who are carefully matched with each participant.)
How do we hold our kids' hand while helping them learn self reliance and independence?
As a kinder teacher for 5 years and a 2nd grade teacher for one, this questions hits home! I feel like it requires an ability to embrace the chaos a little bit. You create structure, in order for children to create their own structure. Children also need to be part of the decision making process when you are creating structures (like lines, seat assignments, etc.) so that they understand the WHY. I also believe that you need to take time to talk and listen to your students, which requires TIME, but it is well spent. A lot of these moments are done quietly, not whole group, so that you can be a GUIDE for your students rather then their DIRECTOR. Interestingly enough, I am going full circle in my response, because I feel like in order to help our kids learn self-reliance and independence we need to be like our leadership guides.... listen, advise, and set free.
