“Kix are for kids” was a slogan for a breakfast cereal in years past. A simple string of four words made it neat and repeatable. More importantly, the writers struck a then unique chord by aligning Kix with a target consumer group, kids. At that time, adults were the constant market of advertising. General Mills got it right by pointing Kix at kids. Public education should take note. “School is for kids” should be our overarching slogan.
The slogan, school is for kids, tells us that in the center of every decision about school should be this concern – how does this affect kids? How does this improve education for kids? How does this make school life better for kids? If there is not a “kid” in the conversation, we need to consider if we are talking about the right things.
What does it mean to put kids at the center of the discussion? Consider your school mission or philosophy statement. Most speak of “excellence in student learning”, “promoting student growth”, “preparation of students for the 21st century”. Teachers, coaches, directors, and administrators are the agents in the mission statement for causing student learning, growth, and development. Putting kids at the center of the conversation aligns what you do with what you said you would do. We will still do a lot of adult school business, but even that can be linked to student outcomes. Discussion of curriculum and instruction should be pointed at student learning. Employment contracts should be considered as they affect student education, supervision, health and nutrition, and transportation. Most non-administrative positions can be characterized as contributing to the academic, activity, arts, and academic programs for kids.
What if every school rule were written for the purpose of enhancing a kid’s school experience and a kid’s daily learning? Would the rules change from how they now read? Consider our use of the clock. We look askance at a child who has to go to the restroom 20 minutes after class begins. “You should have taken care of business before the bell.” Say what? Or, a child who has 15 minutes to eat lunch after standing 10 minutes in the cafeteria line and needing five minutes to return a lunchbox to her locker. Say what, again?
Or a child with a child’s brain and immature concepts of problem solving who pushes a classmate in a playground disagreement. Safety first, we say, not always connecting behavior with executive functions at the child’s developmental level. Or a child who is so excited to answer a question in class that she waves her hand, her arms, and rises out of her seat. Calm down, we say, but why? In so many ways schools are run on adult rules for adult purposes.
The slogan “school is for kids” does not ask children to be teachers, principals, superintendents or school board members or food service, custodians, or bus drivers. These are essential adult roles. However, school is not about these people. They all are agents working to cause student learning, growth, and development – a repeat of an essential statement.
Every now and then, a child-based concept is discussed that challenges our traditional orientations to school. The concept of a child’s biological clock versus the school clock is an excellent case study. There is evidence that children require eight to ten hours of sleep each night for restoration and reading for growth purposes. There is evidence that family life is creeping later and later into the evening and nighttime hours. Supper is later for working parents. Family activities that are post-supper push bedtime later. There is evidence that high school children in are not biologically ready for school until mid- to late morning. Yet, the alarm clock in the morning must sound loudly for a child to be in a school desk around 8:00 the next morning. For children who have an hour-long bus ride or 45-minute walk to school breakfast was before 7:00 and competition for bathroom time meant that the alarm sounded around 6:00. The school clock is set on an adult and industrial time schedule. School employees work an eight-hour day, typically 8:00 to 4:00, that is matched with the work hours of other adults in the community.
Consider usual school rules and protocols about eating in the classroom, chewing gum during class time, sitting in rows, walking single file, walking in the hallways, allowed recess activities, appropriate school clothing, calling on the first person to raise a hand, reading rounds and waiting for your turn to read your sentence or paragraph, simplification of facts to true and false statements because they are easiest to correct. The examples pile on – school is organized by adults for adults in the name of kids only.
Interestingly, kids might not change the rules or protocols much, but their conceptualization of rules would change. School designed for kids would not be a Lord Of The Flies chaos. In the presence of adults, children still look to adults for guidance and supervision. Believe it or not, Ripley, but kids want order in their world. Their orderly world is not necessarily an adult’s orderly world.
This piece is written to push school adults to stop and think about the school they have organized and operate. Don’t turn it over to the kids but remember that the reason you have the authority and opportunity to lead a school is because without kids there would be no school.