[Guest Author: Lisa Borah-Geller has been a curriculum developer for eleven years at the Developmental Studies Center, a non-profit educational organization in Oakland, CA. Prior to that she was an elementary school teacher in the San Rafael City Schools in San Rafael, CA. Lisa lives in San Francisco and has two children, Lila, age four, and Lucas, age two.]
I am a San Francisco parent of a prospective kindergartener, a former elementary school teacher, and a curriculum developer for a non-profit organization in Oakland, California. Many parents (including me) look at test scores, facilities, program offerings (i.e., music or art programs), teaching, and principal leadership to judge the quality of their school. While these school characteristics are important, I encourage parents to also consider the school environment and how it fosters children’s social and emotional development. This is equally as important.
Knowing my daughter will enter kindergarten at a new school next year has made me reflect upon what kind of school environment I want for her and how that environment can help her develop into the kind of person I hope she will become. I would like my daughter to treat others in a respectful, fair, and caring way and take responsibility for herself. I also believe that if my daughter feels happy, supported, safe, and engaged in school and learns to work well with others, she will feel comfortable enough to ask questions, explore new ideas, and learn more deeply.
I hope that her new school will foster a sense of community and teach children these values. Research shows that creating a strong sense of community at school increases students’ academic performance and has a positive influence on students’ behavior. When students are in caring school communities, they are more likely to like school, enjoy challenging learning activities, and help others. In addition, data from a study on adolescent health, found that students’ sense of connectedness to school (and family) were linked to a decrease in a range of problem behaviors, including: the use of alcohol, violent behavior, emotional distress, and early sexual activity.
When my daughter attends kindergarten, I will ask about programs the school has to promote caring classroom and school communities and students’ social and emotional development. Fortunately, many of the schools in San Francisco implement either the Tribes Learning Community or Caring School Community programs. Both of these programs help create a positive classroom and school environment. My non-profit employer developed the Caring School Community program.
Recently, as part of my work, I had the opportunity to observe a class-meeting lesson in a kindergarten classroom at an elementary school in San Francisco. In class meetings, children get to know each other, discuss issues, identify and solve problems, and make decisions that affect classroom climate. The teacher was very kind and caring and also had excellent classroom management. The children seemed very happy and eager to participate. The teacher engaged the children in authentic discussion with each other as they talked about how to act for substitute teachers. Talking about how to treat substitute teachers and committing to positive, helpful behaviors prevents problems and makes the classroom run more smoothly when the regular teacher is absent. Ultimately, a child who discusses and learns why she should treat everyone respectfully (including substitute teachers) is beginning to develop into the kind of person I hope my daughter will become—a good, caring, and responsible one. I encourage all parents to advocate that their children’s schools help students develop socially and emotionally and foster a caring community.
