The beauty in the messy…
Yesterday we took an hour at the end of our day - to build boxes. HUH? Where’s that in my state standards?
It’s not, but it’s going to play a KEY role in how everything else plays out this year.
Our kids use these boxes daily - to hold treasured notebooks FULL of learning. We used to send them home a few days before school, ask families to buy duct tape to make them sturdy, and to send them in ready to go the first day of school.
Students would walk in holding their stickered up, personalized perfection. We’d compliment them on the effort they put into making their box, and more times than not, they would reply, “Thanks, my mom helped me with it.”
Hmm. There’s some layers there. When we hear that, there’s a level of, “I don’t own this success.” As parents with the best of intentions, we sometimes jump in and “help” a little too much.
This year, our plain cardboard boxes didn’t arrive in time. Instead, we spent two weeks managing things on desks – clutter and disorganization ran amok.
But the “fabulous struggle” of managing all those things on the desks actually taught a lesson too. The kids literally cheered (teachers too) when we heard they had arrived.
So we had a “Duct Tape Party.” Kids brought in the materials, teachers set aside time. That’s it.
Teachers dipped in and out of pairings around the room to watch, encourage, and coach. Students held the tape, scissors and dreams.
The results are not aesthetically the same…but students were more than eager to show us and triumphantly exclaim, “Look what I made!” “My partner and I figured out…” Their smiles said it all.
Pause to also think about all the other lessons they learned in this 60 minutes:
pride in independence
working together
helping each other
building friendships
building trust
making a memory
building a skill
problem solving
managing emotions
Learning from each other
So from now on, “Duct Tape Parties” are a new norm at the beginning of the year. No, they’re not the prettiest, but really, does it really matter anyway?
