Kids should go to school because it makes them big and makes them small. Here is what I mean. School teaches us that each of us are incredibly important, and have the amazing power, inside us, to learn important things, appreciate beautiful things, and make choices that help other people. But school also teaches us that our importance has limits. People have been on this planet for millennia thinking great thoughts and doing great things, and we share it now with over 7 billion people. And who knows what other creatures are living in our universe? We are all a small part of a big and fascinating story. School teaches us to value ourselves, and how to see ourselves in perspective.
Kim Hendrickson
Kim Hendrickson
Why Do We Go To School?
Why do we go to school? Well, I think most people say to learn. However, as a teacher, I like to dig deeper. I believe that going to school gives you choices later in life. We are so Lucky to be American Citizens. We are so LUCKY to be here on Bainbridge Island and part of the Bainbridge Island School District. We are so lucky to have amazing teachers and staff that care so much.
School is a place to meet friends and to learn new things. School is a place to see the difference between you and other children and to admire and respect those differences. School is a place to feel safe and to grow. When you are at school and you are learning new things, your brain is growing! Why do we want your brain to grow? As your brain grows, it becomes capable of amazing things. It might one day find a cure for cancer. It might start an organization that helps people in need. It might find a way to land a person on Mars. It might help you to become a teacher that then shares why we go to school and keep this momentum moving forward. Well, aren't those some wonderful thoughts? I think so. It warms my heart to think like that.
I feel blessed to be a teacher here at Blakely. I feel loved and supported by everyone in this building. That makes me want to do my best. That is all we ask from each of you. That you show up - That you are kind - That you do your best.
What will you do with your brain today?
Melissa Knight
School is a place to meet friends and to learn new things. School is a place to see the difference between you and other children and to admire and respect those differences. School is a place to feel safe and to grow. When you are at school and you are learning new things, your brain is growing! Why do we want your brain to grow? As your brain grows, it becomes capable of amazing things. It might one day find a cure for cancer. It might start an organization that helps people in need. It might find a way to land a person on Mars. It might help you to become a teacher that then shares why we go to school and keep this momentum moving forward. Well, aren't those some wonderful thoughts? I think so. It warms my heart to think like that.
I feel blessed to be a teacher here at Blakely. I feel loved and supported by everyone in this building. That makes me want to do my best. That is all we ask from each of you. That you show up - That you are kind - That you do your best.
What will you do with your brain today?
Melissa Knight
For Zane:
We think education is important because…
We think education is important because…
- When you’re educated, you have a LOT more choices about:
- what kind of work you do when you’re a grown up. Which means you can choose something you think is THE MOST FUN EVER,
- and get paid to do it.
- what kind of work you do when you’re a grown up. Which means you can choose something you think is THE MOST FUN EVER,
- The more you know about the world, the more interesting it is. And the more interesting you are. And the more interesting your friends are. And interesting is FUN.
- An education lets you think for yourself and make your own decisions.
- The more educated you are, the more power you have to
- bring your ideas to life
- fix the things that need fixing
- help the people who need helping
- make the world just a little more AWESOME!
- bring your ideas to life
- An education can help you understand a lot of different people. Which helps you understand yourself.
- An education gives you the power to be who YOU are, without limits, while making the world a better place.
Why should children go to school?
I’ve spent the last month thinking a lot about this question and when I read it, I choose to emphasize the word “children.” Many of the essays and interviews have focused on school and what happens there. As teachers and administrators we put a lot of time, money and energy into what we teach and rightly so, the value of reading and math can’t be disputed. What I hadn’t ever really thought about before is the lengths that people all over the world go to just to send their children to school. Why?
I am a mother to five children and they are all the most precious and treasured things in my life. I love them fiercely and do a lot of things to protect and enable them. I buy organic vegetables which I make them eat. I make them brush and floss their teeth. I try at the same time to show them the world and protect them from it. And yet, just like parents all over the world, with a tear in my eye, I sent those precious babies to school.
Children are full of possibilities; they will explore, create, learn and invent things that I can’t even imagine. An education is what unlocks all those possibilities. The more they learn, the more possibilities they have available to them. People send their children to school because they believe in the future, they believe in those unimaginable possibilities. I think we send them to school for the same reason we do everything else for them, because we love them and we want to protect and enable them.
Meagan Greiwe
Mom
1st Grade Teacher
I’ve spent the last month thinking a lot about this question and when I read it, I choose to emphasize the word “children.” Many of the essays and interviews have focused on school and what happens there. As teachers and administrators we put a lot of time, money and energy into what we teach and rightly so, the value of reading and math can’t be disputed. What I hadn’t ever really thought about before is the lengths that people all over the world go to just to send their children to school. Why?
I am a mother to five children and they are all the most precious and treasured things in my life. I love them fiercely and do a lot of things to protect and enable them. I buy organic vegetables which I make them eat. I make them brush and floss their teeth. I try at the same time to show them the world and protect them from it. And yet, just like parents all over the world, with a tear in my eye, I sent those precious babies to school.
Children are full of possibilities; they will explore, create, learn and invent things that I can’t even imagine. An education is what unlocks all those possibilities. The more they learn, the more possibilities they have available to them. People send their children to school because they believe in the future, they believe in those unimaginable possibilities. I think we send them to school for the same reason we do everything else for them, because we love them and we want to protect and enable them.
Meagan Greiwe
Mom
1st Grade Teacher
Eight-year-old, Seema, lay in darkness the entire day, unable to move. Her world went black when, on April 25th, the ground around her shook like never before. She was caught in Nepal's magnitude 7.8 earthquake which hit her village at 12:56 pm on a Saturday. She was at home, the one day a week when children aren't in school in the Himalayan nation of Nepal.
It was her father who dug her out from under the enormous pile of stone that was once her home. He thought she had perished, along with the 350 other people in the village who were lost. But there she was, still breathing and asking if her mother and older sister were still alive. The stones had cut off the blood circulation to her right leg and she could no longer walk. Severed ligaments for 24 hours means she can't move her foot or feel her lower leg. When she realized she may never walk again, her first words were, "But how will I get to school?" Little did she know, her school was reduced to rubble in the quake, just like her home.
After the April event rocked Nepal, an estimated 8000 schools were damaged or destroyed, leaving nearly one million children school-less. The 90 seconds of shaking, plus the thousands of aftershocks, has left an already struggling educational system in an impoverished country gridlocked. It has taken the drive to learn from school-less children like Seema to bring about a worldwide effort to rebuild the schools and the hearts and minds of a nation that wants what we sometimes take for granted: the gift of an education.
My children and I met Seema and brought books and toys for her. We asked our family doctor to join us during our relief work in Nepal, partly to see if he could help Seema learn to walk again. There are no doctors in her village because the kids haven't had the luxury of a school system that sends its students on to higher education. In the hour and a half that Dr. Bruce worked with her, Seema learned how to do simple exercises to strengthen her leg and to wear a small boot that could support her so she can walk tenderly on her own. She's a remarkable little girl driven by an eight-year-old's desire to run the 20 minutes down the path from her home to her tin-walled school so she can learn about the world. It is her biggest dream today - to sit at a desk, next to her friends, in the one-room school down the hill.
Liesl Clark
It was her father who dug her out from under the enormous pile of stone that was once her home. He thought she had perished, along with the 350 other people in the village who were lost. But there she was, still breathing and asking if her mother and older sister were still alive. The stones had cut off the blood circulation to her right leg and she could no longer walk. Severed ligaments for 24 hours means she can't move her foot or feel her lower leg. When she realized she may never walk again, her first words were, "But how will I get to school?" Little did she know, her school was reduced to rubble in the quake, just like her home.
After the April event rocked Nepal, an estimated 8000 schools were damaged or destroyed, leaving nearly one million children school-less. The 90 seconds of shaking, plus the thousands of aftershocks, has left an already struggling educational system in an impoverished country gridlocked. It has taken the drive to learn from school-less children like Seema to bring about a worldwide effort to rebuild the schools and the hearts and minds of a nation that wants what we sometimes take for granted: the gift of an education.
My children and I met Seema and brought books and toys for her. We asked our family doctor to join us during our relief work in Nepal, partly to see if he could help Seema learn to walk again. There are no doctors in her village because the kids haven't had the luxury of a school system that sends its students on to higher education. In the hour and a half that Dr. Bruce worked with her, Seema learned how to do simple exercises to strengthen her leg and to wear a small boot that could support her so she can walk tenderly on her own. She's a remarkable little girl driven by an eight-year-old's desire to run the 20 minutes down the path from her home to her tin-walled school so she can learn about the world. It is her biggest dream today - to sit at a desk, next to her friends, in the one-room school down the hill.
Liesl Clark
Children go to school so that they can become zealous, life-long learners. In their classes, they learn and hone skills they can use their entire lives to continue exploring the world around them. The joy of learning and the thrill of discovery will fuel them even after they graduate. Children who go to school are future scientists, artists, stewards, and leaders.
Jeannie Patterson |
For London + Leo,
I want you to go to school! At school, if you work really hard, you will learn how to be a great student in life. The key to a happy life is to be forever learning, and school will start you on that journey! Love, Mom |
Children Should Not Go To School
Children should NOT go to school……!!!
“Children should not go to school!”
says the evil dictator
“They should stay and fight my war
and help me even tribal scores!”
“Children should not go to school!”
says the cruel commander-
“They will learn that I tell lies
and fight the rules I want them to live by!”
“Children should not go to school!”
says the big man running the mine.
“They will get a job without a hitch
and who will work to make me rich?”
All around the world
there are crazy, mean, banditos.
They try to steal the hopes and dreams
from any one they can, it seems.
And all around the world
there are battles of good and evil.
Some are very big and scary
and some are smaller than the tiniest fairy
Right is might and in the end right surely will prevail.
And bad?…… bad will MOST definitely be defeated.
But the world needs lots of help to win
so the battle can end and the healing can begin.
So go to school and study hard.
Make friends, play games, grow big and strong.
Learn history, science, English and math
But mostly learn to find YOUR path.
IN FACT, the most important thing
that school will help you understand.
Is in the battle of good and evil – in those final hours
Knowledge will give you the ultimate, most best, most awesome, most important winning power.
The power to do great things
The power to do fun things
The power to do brave things
The power to do kind things
The power to do YOUR things
These are the powers that school brings.
Jamie Bechtel
“Children should not go to school!”
says the evil dictator
“They should stay and fight my war
and help me even tribal scores!”
“Children should not go to school!”
says the cruel commander-
“They will learn that I tell lies
and fight the rules I want them to live by!”
“Children should not go to school!”
says the big man running the mine.
“They will get a job without a hitch
and who will work to make me rich?”
All around the world
there are crazy, mean, banditos.
They try to steal the hopes and dreams
from any one they can, it seems.
And all around the world
there are battles of good and evil.
Some are very big and scary
and some are smaller than the tiniest fairy
Right is might and in the end right surely will prevail.
And bad?…… bad will MOST definitely be defeated.
But the world needs lots of help to win
so the battle can end and the healing can begin.
So go to school and study hard.
Make friends, play games, grow big and strong.
Learn history, science, English and math
But mostly learn to find YOUR path.
IN FACT, the most important thing
that school will help you understand.
Is in the battle of good and evil – in those final hours
Knowledge will give you the ultimate, most best, most awesome, most important winning power.
The power to do great things
The power to do fun things
The power to do brave things
The power to do kind things
The power to do YOUR things
These are the powers that school brings.
Jamie Bechtel
Potential
by Laird's mom
You bore of sitting at a desk,
Fidgety, confined, and sluggish
But one day, you will experience a wider world,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You tire of early mornings,
Dark, cold and dreary
But one day, you will rise to a shiny great adventure,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You worry of making a mistake,
Stress, dismay and glum
But one day, you will create with meaning and purpose,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You weary of the teachings and advice of adults,
Old, strict and rusty
But one day, you will possess the power to think for yourself,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You rankle at rules and consequences,
Mean, useless and absurd
But one day, you will manage challenge and responsibility,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
Now is the time to learn my dear child,
Bright, Curious and Loved
For one day, this education will assure your unique potential,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
Fidgety, confined, and sluggish
But one day, you will experience a wider world,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You tire of early mornings,
Dark, cold and dreary
But one day, you will rise to a shiny great adventure,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You worry of making a mistake,
Stress, dismay and glum
But one day, you will create with meaning and purpose,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You weary of the teachings and advice of adults,
Old, strict and rusty
But one day, you will possess the power to think for yourself,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
You rankle at rules and consequences,
Mean, useless and absurd
But one day, you will manage challenge and responsibility,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
Now is the time to learn my dear child,
Bright, Curious and Loved
For one day, this education will assure your unique potential,
Amazing, exciting and beautiful
WHY KIDS SHOULD GO TO SCHOOL
I liked school because when you learn about things with other people you learn about yourself too. School is different from home, teachers are different from parents, schoolmates are different from family and some friends. These differences gave me perspective about the community that I lived in. This was helpful when I had to make decisions about things like what kind of work I wanted to do, where I might want to live, who I would want for closer friendships. There is so much to learn about life outside of school but being in school is a safe way to start off, especially when people care like they do at Blakely.
Niels Berg
Niels Berg
Going to school gives you opportunities to think about all the possibilities your future has to offer. School teaches you to think about ideas in many different ways and from many points of view. When you have the ability to study and learn, you will have the tools in your head and in your heart to make the world an even better place for yourself and for future generations.
Pam Opalski
Pam Opalski
To Bea and Alice Skipton,
Kids these days. Why should you go to school? It's about finding work. It's about currency (otherwise known as money, or what ever has value that you can trade for something else that has value). But what kind of work? And what kind of currency?
We want you to have the opportunity to apply your skills, diligence and talents to work that can support you in mind, body, and soul - work that feeds you with every kind of currency. And this work should also feed the world. We want you to have the skills, diligence and talent to tackle those tasks that the world needs help with.
Where does your passion-or what you love to do-meet the world's need? That's what we hope you find through your education.
If our schools and homes provide an environment where curiosity is encouraged and everyone is treated with value, if you are taught how to be organized and manage your time, and allowed to figure out those things that you enjoy and are good at, if schools and your family helps you figure out how best to work in teams, then we will have done our job in laying a foundation for lifelong work that matters.
Love,
Mom and Dad
Kids these days. Why should you go to school? It's about finding work. It's about currency (otherwise known as money, or what ever has value that you can trade for something else that has value). But what kind of work? And what kind of currency?
We want you to have the opportunity to apply your skills, diligence and talents to work that can support you in mind, body, and soul - work that feeds you with every kind of currency. And this work should also feed the world. We want you to have the skills, diligence and talent to tackle those tasks that the world needs help with.
Where does your passion-or what you love to do-meet the world's need? That's what we hope you find through your education.
If our schools and homes provide an environment where curiosity is encouraged and everyone is treated with value, if you are taught how to be organized and manage your time, and allowed to figure out those things that you enjoy and are good at, if schools and your family helps you figure out how best to work in teams, then we will have done our job in laying a foundation for lifelong work that matters.
Love,
Mom and Dad
Dear Elliot and Sawyer -
Isn't learning fun?! I loved learning in school - and I'm still learning! There's so much joy in discovery. Think about the first time you rode your bike without training wheels or counted to 100 on your own. When we learn, we grow. And when we grow, we send our roots like mighty trees deep into the soil and strengthen our hearts, minds, bodies, and voices. Mighty trees are rarely knocked down by the storm. Would you like to be like a mighty tree?
In the next several years, school will no doubt teach you much more about squares, circles, and triangles, too. The funny thing is that some of this stuff won't be of much use to you in 50 years unless you become an engineer, an architect, or an inventor (and you might). You may also read stories from some of the best-loved writers ... but only remember them if you become an actress, an editor, or a historian (and you might.)
But one thing I can promise you is that no matter what you choose to do in life (for you will always be shaped by your choice) school is a chance to grow in a community. Think of your classmates and teachers like the soil for the tree: they'll help you learn about empathy, sharing, giving, taking, helping, trusting, speaking, teaching, and playing. In the fertile soil of school, I also hope you'll learn to fail. This is especially important as you discovered when you practiced counting and bike riding. Wasn't it the falling down that taught you how to stay upright a little longer on your next ride? School is a pretty safe for failing and falling gracefully - as long as you always get back up and commit to doing your very best.
Finally, let's return to those shapes for a moment, and to what may be the most important thing of all: as you figure out the shape of your own heart, I hope you'll share your heart with others. Why?
The world has great need of all your gifts. Give them freely and give them fiercely because you're the only one who can.
Love,
Dad
Isn't learning fun?! I loved learning in school - and I'm still learning! There's so much joy in discovery. Think about the first time you rode your bike without training wheels or counted to 100 on your own. When we learn, we grow. And when we grow, we send our roots like mighty trees deep into the soil and strengthen our hearts, minds, bodies, and voices. Mighty trees are rarely knocked down by the storm. Would you like to be like a mighty tree?
In the next several years, school will no doubt teach you much more about squares, circles, and triangles, too. The funny thing is that some of this stuff won't be of much use to you in 50 years unless you become an engineer, an architect, or an inventor (and you might). You may also read stories from some of the best-loved writers ... but only remember them if you become an actress, an editor, or a historian (and you might.)
But one thing I can promise you is that no matter what you choose to do in life (for you will always be shaped by your choice) school is a chance to grow in a community. Think of your classmates and teachers like the soil for the tree: they'll help you learn about empathy, sharing, giving, taking, helping, trusting, speaking, teaching, and playing. In the fertile soil of school, I also hope you'll learn to fail. This is especially important as you discovered when you practiced counting and bike riding. Wasn't it the falling down that taught you how to stay upright a little longer on your next ride? School is a pretty safe for failing and falling gracefully - as long as you always get back up and commit to doing your very best.
Finally, let's return to those shapes for a moment, and to what may be the most important thing of all: as you figure out the shape of your own heart, I hope you'll share your heart with others. Why?
The world has great need of all your gifts. Give them freely and give them fiercely because you're the only one who can.
Love,
Dad
Knowledge is the most wonderful gift in the world. The opportunity to be taught the things others have discovered is a privilege.
Knowledge allows people to help each other, solve problems and have a better connection to the world.
School teaches us knowledge and the skills to apply that knowledge to open our hearts and minds for the betterment of humankind.
Drew Reynolds
Knowledge allows people to help each other, solve problems and have a better connection to the world.
School teaches us knowledge and the skills to apply that knowledge to open our hearts and minds for the betterment of humankind.
Drew Reynolds
Children need to go to school to receive a consistent organized delivery of basic knowledge and skills to be an active member of society. This knowledge and skillset should be independent of their parents’ level of knowledge. It is essential that this instruction is offered to all children and provided in a group setting to help minimize the societal burden of educating each child individually.
Children need to go to school to learn about themselves. School offers a wide variety of experiences and challenges, both social and academic. These experiences help children identify with the social norms that flow through our society. School is a place to learn what you are good at and what you need to work on as you grow up.
Some kids need to go to school to have a safe place where they can see adults in a positive setting, receive a healthy meal and enjoy childhood in the carefree way that it should be. For these children, school is a sanctuary and the nurturing they receive is equally as important as the education they receive.
Sandy O’Hare
Children need to go to school to learn about themselves. School offers a wide variety of experiences and challenges, both social and academic. These experiences help children identify with the social norms that flow through our society. School is a place to learn what you are good at and what you need to work on as you grow up.
Some kids need to go to school to have a safe place where they can see adults in a positive setting, receive a healthy meal and enjoy childhood in the carefree way that it should be. For these children, school is a sanctuary and the nurturing they receive is equally as important as the education they receive.
Sandy O’Hare
Why Should Children Go to School?
My childhood is a photo album full of amazing school moments: Playground memories of monkey bars and tether ball; field trips to see art, hold sea creatures, and watch a model of the Bay Area change with the tides; and teachers who cared, inspired and pushed me to succeed. Many of the schools I went to were unassuming on the outside and although I may have had days that could have gone better, my primary recollections of school are happy ones which I would not trade.
So, when asked to ponder "Why Should Children Go to School?" I hardly know where to begin. We are all the sum of many parts - our family, our community, the era in which we were raised, our friends and without a doubt, our education. Children should go to school to find out what they love, how they learn and who they are. They should go to school to learn and to teach others; to find friendships in unexpected places; and realize the many different things that they have to offer the world. School teaches us tenacity, patience, wonder, creativity and curiosity.
Children should go to school so that they grow up to become informed adults who know how to work as a teammate and partner and how to come to their own independent opinions about issues that matter. Children should go to school to have fun, to be engaged and to find social connection.
School matters.
Carrie Newman (Arlo's mom)
So, when asked to ponder "Why Should Children Go to School?" I hardly know where to begin. We are all the sum of many parts - our family, our community, the era in which we were raised, our friends and without a doubt, our education. Children should go to school to find out what they love, how they learn and who they are. They should go to school to learn and to teach others; to find friendships in unexpected places; and realize the many different things that they have to offer the world. School teaches us tenacity, patience, wonder, creativity and curiosity.
Children should go to school so that they grow up to become informed adults who know how to work as a teammate and partner and how to come to their own independent opinions about issues that matter. Children should go to school to have fun, to be engaged and to find social connection.
School matters.
Carrie Newman (Arlo's mom)