I recently saw David Brooks, author of “How to Know People,” on several TV shows. He talks about the importance of connecting with others on a meaningful level and how we as a society are torn by fragmentation and misunderstanding.
I'm a substitute teacher, and hearing this reminded me of something that left an impression on me at all the elementary schools I've taught at: morning meetings. The format varies slightly depending on each classroom, but the basics are the same. Students sit in a circle, make eye contact with others and greet them in a sincere manner, or ask questions and listen to their answers. Even in kindergarten classes, students are developing this habit.
A front-page story in the Summit Daily on Monday, January 22, outlined the less-than-ideal performance of Summit students on the standardized test CMAS. I thought about how education students gather information from morning meetings. It cannot be measured with a paper-and-pencil test. It reminded me of when my younger sons attended a Jeffco Public Schools charter school. One of the underlying foundations of the program was that each student was assigned an advisor and advisory group where they learned how to be a community together, make decisions, and learn about government. Being a charter school means having an at-will contract, and one Friday afternoon my son's advisor was given his walking papers. She called to let me know, but when her son got home from her work, he called her first and asked, “Are you okay?” I would have been so happy if her self-absorbed 17-year-old got nothing out of that school other than learning how to care for adults. Again, it's not something you can measure with a test.
