22/08/2021
The voices telling us our children are falling behind have been louder than ever over the past year. They have told us, over and over, that with less classes, subjects, tests, benchmarks, progress, grades, awards, expectations and pressure our children are not moving forward as they should be.
But the idea of falling behind only exists if your goal is to arrive at a specific place within a specific period of time. Childhood is not, and should never be, a race. It does not have to end at the very same place for everyone. It is, and should always be, a journey that has many paths and endings, and many different measures of progress and success.
Let’s compare two children:
The first, an avid reader, writer and artist. Not a square inch of his bedroom clear of his own illustrations. Inhaling books as if they give him life. A beautiful writer with a voracious appetite for creating his own work. Matching and exceeding academic standards in his sleep. A delight to teachers.
The second, almost the opposite. She needs to move, to make noise, to express herself physically. She learns by doing, tinkering, exploring, experimenting. By breaking and fixing. She cannot sit still long enough to meet any standards that require her to. She is a headache for teachers.
If we set the same academic finish line for these two children, one will always be ahead and one will always be behind. One will always hit the split times, while the other will always struggle.
We have listened to the voices telling our children they need to go faster, to keep up, to relentlessly push towards that one finish line, for over a hundred years. Today, together, we will make *our* voice heard:
You cannot fall behind when your goal is to live the best version of you.
