Last year was a good year in terms of efforts to address the topics and subject matter from which so many shy away in education, and there is some good stuff happening lately with regards to a focus on the social and emotional needs of kids. I am somewhat excited. I am happy to say that I do see a passionate focus on this work, and I look forward to the days and months ahead. There are administrators who believe this is the “good or important stuff.” Yay!!!  I will share more as things transpire.

I also have found myself asking,

“Are the questions and focus I present geared toward getting for children the socio-emotional support they need or are they more in the name of garnering the behavior we as adults would like to see?”

I still believe in working with kids around reputation, and I believe their consideration of the way others see them is beneficial to their well-being. At the same time, I am thinking that such a focus is also about getting kids to behave the way we think they should. Questions and activities centered around ways that kids conduct themselves and the resulting reputations that may be developed could easily wander toward getting them to curb certain behaviors for our benefit over helping them to be seen in the most positive light and being treated as the gems that they are. I want to be sure to be careful not to have my wishes for behavior drive my work to the point of moving away from what I believe is most important which is the social well-being of children and the emotional well-being of children. Ask yourselves,

“Is this ultimately going to benefit me and the adults and is this about behavior management or is this really aimed at positively affecting the happiness and socio-emotional well-being of children?”

I may be a bit too reflective. At the same time, I totally believe in reinventing oneself whenever the need arises. We are looking for a way for you to weigh in on such matters. If we can get feedback to post here, we will. Otherwise, we may need to open up Facebook for your posts. In the meantime email us at the addresses in the “Contact Us” section.

Bill