It is an Odyssey, a true adventure, for the 18-month old child to walk with her teacher through the halls and gardens of Post Oak School to get the mail. The act of walking itself is her focus. It is an accomplishment just getting all the way there and all the way back to the security of her well known home away from home. And on the way she looks up to everyone she meets — both actually and figuratively.
That’s why it is important for the rest of us to model appropriate and respectful behavior — she absorbs all that she sees and hears in the environment.
So began a conversation among the faculty about grace and courtesy, and the glorious challenge of working in a school with children ranging in age from 14 months to 14 years.
When an elementary child, absorbed by joie de vive, runs through the halls with a friend, it is a problem. It is a problem because we don’t want to trample any infants. It is a problem because we don’t want to crash into anyone else. It is a problem because we simply don’t run indoors — except in a gym; and it is a problem because we don’t want to model that behavior and thereby perpetuate it. We do want to model the self control of walking through the school. We do want to model knowing what is appropriate behavior in every time and place.
Faculty acknowledged that the elementary child has grown tremendously in her capacity to move with speed and coordination. She loves to run. But that does not mean it is OK to run through the halls and courtyards of the school.
We encouraged one another to set limits regarding this and other behaviors to do with grace and courtesy whether it involved children from our own classes or those from others. It takes a whole village to raise a single child. In other words, it takes all of us, working together, to establish clear expectations and to follow through on them consistently.
Middle school students were being loud and rowdy in the hall. It was disturbing one of the primary classes and the teacher came out to speak to them. “Please be quieter. Our class is sitting in circle having a lesson.” This request was expressed directly and quietly. And their response was respectful and appropriate. They quieted each other down, recognizing the importance of the work of the younger children, remembering when they had been in that class themselves, recognizing their membership in a community of adults and young people aged 14 months to 14 years.
We want to once again thank John Long and the Post Oak School for allowing us to republish John’s wonderful essays in Tomorrow’s Child and in our online resource collections.
