Or to fill up the tank with gas.
I have spent the last four weeks as part of a community that is the most culturally diverse organism I get to experience: Elementary Summer School. And I LOVE IT! These kiddos aren't coming to summer school because they failed 2nd grade; these kiddos are coming to summer school because their parents are working hard to make the most out of their child's educational experience.
You see, all of my students this summer speak multiple languages and English is far from their first language. We have 92 different languages represented in our ESL department district wide. 92!
Much like my students during the regular school year, my summer students are bright, energetic, sponge-like tiny humans who LOVE learning and playing. We spent our first few days together making sure that they were comfortable with me and that I was comfortable with them. My main goal throughout the summer session was to communicate in verbal and non-verbal ways that their adventures into the world of English and their attempts at reading words and creating unfamiliar vowel blends was going to be met with patience, encouragement, and understanding.
I teach elementary music, and I believe that our music room needs to be the most emotionally safe room in the school. (I refer to is as "our room" or "our space" because the physical room doesn't belong to just me; I can't make all of this music alone nor am I interested in a room that can.) I whole-heatedly believe that children need to feel a sense of security in our space so that we can take the risks and reap the benefits that only fine arts experiences can afford. Creating an emotionally safe space in which my tiny humans can grow is ALWAYS my first goal in both the regular and summer sessions.
The bad current events are hurting our safe space right now. They're making the facilitator of the space (me) feel like I can't piece together the broken world and make it beautiful for my tiny humans again. I so badly want to create a safe space in my heart so that I can continue to facilitate the space for my students and so we can create together.
So, I offer this: a collection of quotes in an attempt to bring peace to the corners of our hearts and safety to our spaces.
Peace be with you now and forever.