As the school year draws to a close, I have been reflecting on how tremendously fortunate I am to be an educator. I feel I am one of the luckiest people in the world. I was born into a family of modest means. However, growing up I wanted for nothing and spent my childhood exploring, dreaming, playing sports and Star Wars, skateboarding, going to the beach, and climbing trees. I was surrounded by people who loved me and encouraged me to try new things. Now I am married to a remarkable woman, have a healthy and happy daughter (with another daughter on the way!), live in a foreign country that I love, have a challenging and rewarding job, and work with people I adore. What more could I ask for?
There is often a feeling that the more our personal circumstances improve, the more we will be able to inoculate ourselves and our children from anxiety, heartbreak, and difficulty. This is simply not true. All of us will experience hardship and heartbreak. Our daily lives may involve less struggle than others in more impoverished situations. However, the depth of our heartbreak and our children’s heartbreak will tend to be consistent no matter what our circumstances may be, and every one of us will experience great loss. How do we teach our children to be resilient as well as be grateful of all they have?
The amazing children's books If the World Were a Village and If America Were a Village highlight just how tremendously fortunate our children are simply to have a roof over their heads, warm running water, and a place to go to school. I encourage you to read them to your children and gently remind them of how deeply fortunate they are. The books can be found online, at the library or at your local bookstore.
While teaching our children to be grateful for all they have, we also need to prepare our children for the future. We need to do this in ways that will empower them and ensure that they are resilient and strong enough to face the inevitable hurdles that they will have to overcome. While we cannot predict what careers our children will have in thirty years time, we do know that for them to be successful, they will need to be able to problem solve, innovate, and overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. We need to prepare our children for these obstacles and try not to remove the obstacles from their way.