At HOPE we spend a lot of time talking about the gap, but what is the gap? The gap between the children and women we serve and everyone else? the racial achievement gap? or the gap between the end of one school year and the beginning
of the next? I am sure we are talking about all the above. But I think their is another that may impact our children even more than we know. When I was a kid we called the gap between the end of school and beginning of a new school year summer vacation, and it was just that, a vacation. With the days getting longer and no homework or school, we spent the summer months playing outside. We explored our neighborhood, fell in the brook, and caused some mischief without causing any real trouble. In those days your parents put you outside in the morning and called you home for dinner that night. Unfortunately times have changed and in an effort to keep our kids safer we hover over their every move and they don't have an opportunity to explore, make small mistakes, and socialize with kids their own age without parental intervention. With a focus on academic success, standardized testing, and social change, we have given our children less time to socialize in an unstructured manner. This seems to create a situation where they have less "practice" as children and therefore may have more social trouble as teens and later as adults. While we do not have all the solutions at HOPE we feel that we do have some insight into helping children succeed both academically and socially. In order to be successful as an adult you have to be successful as a child. How can we assure this? Educational scholars like Howard Gardner, Tony Atwood and Maria Montessori would tell us to pay attention to the child; look at and listen to our children. The first step in teaching is observing. Do we find this method being used in our classrooms and in our homes? Sometimes knowing something is not good enough we have to remind ourselves and then apply it.
So where is the gap? In our children, or in our interactions with our children?
What do you think?
Christian Orobello
House of Peace & Education Inc.
Executive Director
of the next? I am sure we are talking about all the above. But I think their is another that may impact our children even more than we know. When I was a kid we called the gap between the end of school and beginning of a new school year summer vacation, and it was just that, a vacation. With the days getting longer and no homework or school, we spent the summer months playing outside. We explored our neighborhood, fell in the brook, and caused some mischief without causing any real trouble. In those days your parents put you outside in the morning and called you home for dinner that night. Unfortunately times have changed and in an effort to keep our kids safer we hover over their every move and they don't have an opportunity to explore, make small mistakes, and socialize with kids their own age without parental intervention. With a focus on academic success, standardized testing, and social change, we have given our children less time to socialize in an unstructured manner. This seems to create a situation where they have less "practice" as children and therefore may have more social trouble as teens and later as adults. While we do not have all the solutions at HOPE we feel that we do have some insight into helping children succeed both academically and socially. In order to be successful as an adult you have to be successful as a child. How can we assure this? Educational scholars like Howard Gardner, Tony Atwood and Maria Montessori would tell us to pay attention to the child; look at and listen to our children. The first step in teaching is observing. Do we find this method being used in our classrooms and in our homes? Sometimes knowing something is not good enough we have to remind ourselves and then apply it.
So where is the gap? In our children, or in our interactions with our children?
What do you think?
Christian Orobello
House of Peace & Education Inc.
Executive Director
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