“You see parents standing around at the playground, a more community-based approach towards educating children. You see parents in the hallway tutoring kids that are reading.”
Sam Tower and Sarah Storm-Tower have a lot of experience with youth and education: Sam was a 4-H experiential educator for 23 years, and Sarah a science teacher for fifteen years, both in Washington State. Having worked as Play for Peace trainers for well over a decade, they have spent countless hours sharing our methods and core values. Although they have helped abroad, and continue to do so on a trip-by-trip basis, most of Sam and Sarah’s peace work is done at home in Tacoma, Washington. The couple relishes being able to watch their community improve over months and years.
As Sarah notes, “One of the reasons we put aside our international work was because we wanted to see things grow, right here”. Recently, the two began working with Bryant Montessori PK – 8. They were particularly excited about this school’s curriculum, which they describe as having a peace foundation. What this couple often sees is kids overburdened by standardized testing, too much screen time, and too little parent-teacher interaction, despite the positive intentions and initiatives on both sides. What they saw at Bryant was different: “You see parents standing around at the playground, a more community-based approach towards educating children. You see parents in the hallway tutoring kids that are reading.”
As with any PFP Practice Peace Session, the event began with simple play. “We opened our training that first day by playing for the first hour and twenty minutes before we ever said anything,” recalls Sam. That is usually the first thing that all mentors and trainers do: “experiencing the joy of play,” as Agyat Mitra, veteran PFP mentor, calls it. The session then moved from games to more specific initiatives and activities. This is an important distinction for Sam and Sarah. A game is for fun and speaks for itself, whereas an activity or initiative is geared towards specific educational goals. Making this distinction to administrators is important: it can determine whether PFP becomes an after-school or in-class activity. So what initiatives were undertaken at Bryant Montessori?
The training was done in collaboration with the school’s science teacher, who recruited a group of 6 - 8th graders, as well as some staff and faculty. Even the public was welcome! The initiatives were geared towards understanding the children’s perspective on the world: helping them to articulate how they feel, and then asking them to explore those feelings. One example of this kind of initiative was called the Critical Cross. In this activity, two pieces of webbing were placed perpendicular to one another, creating four quadrants in which kids could situate themselves. At the end of each line were opposing statements. One axis included “Don’t be a snitch” and, opposite, “If I see something, say something.”
The other line addressed a related topic: “Adults can be trusted” or “Adults cannot be trusted." Why is this useful? It helps children and teachers understand their needs, as well as the needs of their peers. It also opens up a dialogue about the advantages and disadvantages of certain worldviews. Trust, for example, is a major issue for kids. And what Sam and Sarah have found is that trust comes with time. Too much change in faculty - a common tactic for failing schools - can create a communication gap. When I asked what the kids said in this session, Sarah told me:
"They trusted adults that they had known for a long time, and they really trusted adults that trusted them. It is an honour when adults trust them. These kids realized - they had a kind of ‘aha' moment - that they had four new students that didn’t have a long history of connection in that school, and that these particular kids might need some extra support."
Aware of this issue, their peers and teachers can now assist them in the trust-building process. After and during this discussion, kids were then invited to switch quadrants and make up their critical crosses.
Thank you, Sam and Sarah, for your work with Bryant Montessori! [gallery ids="5213,5211,5210"]
