Fairness
I just high-fived 200 children as they exited the Fairness assembly I'd organized this morning. We have a citizenship program at this school and focus on 4 values: fairness, kindness, respect and acceptance. They all go hand in hand, don't they?
Fairness is such an abstract concept to convey to kids. What's right for you might not be what's right for your neighbor. That kid who gets to do all the fun stuff for the teacher actually has a need to be walking around more than the others. Kids just see it as unfair. Fairness isn't equal. It's getting what you need in order to be successful.
Look at the animal kingdom. The kids go nuts when I compare elephants to birds and then get them to picture a flying elephant. They understand the difference and why it's senseless to say that it's not fair that an elephant can't fly.
Humour is such a great teaching tool.
At a certain point in our lives, we become self-sufficient individuals and release the "it's not fair" record from our proclamation repertoire. We stop the pouting and the arm crossing and the stomping of the feet, but fairness is still something we have to deal with. It just becomes so much more personalized for us since we're older and have a life to run.
What we think is unfair turns into "that's life." Thinking things at a certain point are out of our hands, like finding a significant other (COUGH) or not getting the job we interviewed for, or not not NOT etc. As I said to the kids this morning, focusing on all the things we don't have will make us miserable, but if we pay attention to the things we do have or are good at then we feel great.
As I was high-fiving the kids exiting the gym, one of them casually mentions to me, with a classic eye-roll, as if to be super humble, "I can't believe I made star of the month," and then he high-fived me extra hard and kept walking.
Damn. I wish grown-ups could get star of the month too, for just like, survivin.' Instead we get people telling us to get the f*ck over it already. But those people might as well be named teachers because they come to us at the right time when we need guidance.
Kids playing outside,
Katie
Fairness is such an abstract concept to convey to kids. What's right for you might not be what's right for your neighbor. That kid who gets to do all the fun stuff for the teacher actually has a need to be walking around more than the others. Kids just see it as unfair. Fairness isn't equal. It's getting what you need in order to be successful.
Look at the animal kingdom. The kids go nuts when I compare elephants to birds and then get them to picture a flying elephant. They understand the difference and why it's senseless to say that it's not fair that an elephant can't fly.
Humour is such a great teaching tool.
At a certain point in our lives, we become self-sufficient individuals and release the "it's not fair" record from our proclamation repertoire. We stop the pouting and the arm crossing and the stomping of the feet, but fairness is still something we have to deal with. It just becomes so much more personalized for us since we're older and have a life to run.
What we think is unfair turns into "that's life." Thinking things at a certain point are out of our hands, like finding a significant other (COUGH) or not getting the job we interviewed for, or not not NOT etc. As I said to the kids this morning, focusing on all the things we don't have will make us miserable, but if we pay attention to the things we do have or are good at then we feel great.
As I was high-fiving the kids exiting the gym, one of them casually mentions to me, with a classic eye-roll, as if to be super humble, "I can't believe I made star of the month," and then he high-fived me extra hard and kept walking.
Damn. I wish grown-ups could get star of the month too, for just like, survivin.' Instead we get people telling us to get the f*ck over it already. But those people might as well be named teachers because they come to us at the right time when we need guidance.
Kids playing outside,
Katie
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