For me, a “coffee date” with a friend almost always begins by catching up on family…significant others, kids, and ‘big family.’ As I think about my friends and their families, as I experience my own, I realize family is such a tumultuous and vibrant topic; educators and families are intimately entwined. There’s always something new.
From the perspective of an educator, I believe that we are all around The Table of Learning: educators, parents, and children. The family is playing a critical role. We need to work together.
As my blog series on families takes shape, I realize there is a #LearnForward family profile. A #LearnForward family can have any number of members and comes in all varieties! It isn’t a home that follows any particular program or routine, but rather it holds some common values, expressed in any range of ways.
One example of a commonly held value in #LearnForward families is this idea that school is not the isolated space where learning happens, but rather life is a wide range and breadth of opportunities to grow, expand, and change. Home, as much as school, is a place of being, becoming, and believing as our school manifesto declares.
Recently, we enjoyed a breather from real life and vacationed with our extended family. I realize this might not be the idea of a good time for everyone, but we’ve committed to this idea of inter-generational experiences. It is always a vibrant bag of discovering ourselves and one another in a different space.
We’re a normal crew with warts and wrinkles, insecurities and anxieties. Awareness is a good thing. We have this messy sort of way of being together that usually includes meeting up for the dinner meal and various combinations and groupings during the day for activities.
What I noticed though is that a process oriented approach was clear: a common undercurrent of being willing to ask good questions, probe the collective wisdom on issues, and share the simple miracles of each others’ lives.
There is a great grace within the #LearnForward family because everything is shaped in ‘process.’ Nothing has to be immediate and all good things are discovered or developed ‘in time.’
Embracing life as a learning table, being willing to be process oriented, cultivating experiences together as opportunities to be real; these are the flavours that permeate the #LearnForward family.
In May’s #LearnForward family series, we will explore these issues in-depth and use more specific colours to shade the landscape. I have some amazing resources to share with you, that have helped guide me through many seasons. And of course, our faith is ever-present, offering new mercies every morning.
Please consider sharing with the community about a time when your family embraced the “process of learning.” What did that feel like? How does that impact education? What are other #LearnForward values that support the “being, becoming, and believing” in children? I’d love to hear your thoughts!