“The class of 2001” ... I heard nothing of whatever else the announcer said ... only stared in stunned disbelief as the young, eager, bright, innocent faces of the students before me as I struggled to REALLY comprehend that these children would graduate high school in 2001!
2001 suddenly loomed almost menacingly, overwhelming in the implication of how much there is for them to learn and how little time left to learn it in. Could they possibly BE PREPARED? I felt a real sense of panic and wanted to start right away making sure they would be, to stop “fooling around” with grade school stuff and get right on to calculus and world history.
I felt a similar sense of panic upon leaving our first born at a distant college campus and when sending another son to a far-away land. How could these young people possibly know all they need? Had we done all we could to teach them? Where DID all the time and years go?
The reality is that grade schoolers are doing just what they should be doing, at the right time, in the right way, at the right age, so they will have the abilities required in the world they will face in the year 2001. When math, science, spelling and reading are taught appropriately in the lower grades, day-by-day, the abilities to do calculus and learn world history will be in place when needed. Schools, however, aren’t the primary influence on how well children learn and perform. Children learn day-by-day from parents and other significant adults, lessons which will influence more than any other factor their later success in college, in far-away places, on jobs, in marriages, etc.
Giving children time ... allowing them to have adult time, adult attention, adult interest and participation in their lives is how the day-by-day learning takes place at home, just as in school. Providing chunks of time for children takes real effort from parents. I read that the average father spends 17 minutes each day, 30 minutes on the weekend, one-onone with his child, the average mother spends 1 hour each day, one-on-one. This is probably true ... we sleep (supposedly) 8 hours, work away from home 9 hours, travel at least ½ hour or more, cook, clean, wash, work in the yard, pay bills, run errands, buy groceries, etc., at least 2 hours, spend 1 on personal care, another 1 on child care ... bathing, supervising homework, etc., use another 1 for eating. What is left? One and onehalf hours ... and divided among several kids and activities, that chunk gets smaller.
Every day children must have stories read, each day they must explore and discover and question with caring adults to help. When adults will STOP to listen to children’s questions, kids understand themselves to be important, to be valued. When adults support children’s play by providing “props” (like pans for mud pies and string and bait for fishing), children understand that their activities are useful and important. When children are small and adult time so limited, it is easy to think of “tomorrow” as a better time to ... go fishing, have a picnic, to read a story, to paint pictures, to build a cabin, to make cookies. We don’t postpone child growth by asking children to wait until we’re less busy, or not so rushed, or more rested. Children grow ON, with or without us.
“One hundred years from now it will not matter how big my house was, how large my bank account, or the kind of car I drive. What will matter is the difference I may have made in the life of a child”. We make that difference, day-by-day, by spending time, every time, the only way to assure ourselves that the class of 2001 ... and 2010 ... and of 2100 will face whatever comes with self-confidence and the knowledge necessary to be successful.
