Slow Down to Catch Up

Let's get it straight. Everyone wants to get back to school! Safely. However, one reason many are pushing for schools to fully

re-open irks me.

“The kids are falling behind. They need to catch up!”

Let me counter that position with a question of my own: When did education become a race?

Sadly, many feel the best way to “catch up” is to increase academic rigor, up expectations, and inundate students with the work they

missed while away from the brick and mortar classroom.

If there is any way to crush creativity, amplify anxiety, and eradicate the enthusiasm of getting back into the classroom, this would

be it.

Maybe the kids can “catch up” by slowing down.

That may sound oxymoronic, but in my experiences as an early childhood educator, I learn more by seemingly doing less. Forget

the image of a teacher lounging in a hammock with a cold beverage in your head? Instead, think of a duck. Calm on the surface but

paddling like crazy under the water.

When I say doing less, I mean saying less, directing less, and controlling less. In other words, slow down. Breathe. Observe. Think. 

We can only control what we can control. The pressure to pick up the pace, complete more in less time, and make up for

lost time will be incredible. 

The best way to push back on this unnecessary and inevitable pressure is actually quite simple. Play more.

Allowing the time, space, and opportunity to play will catch the children up. There is a disheartening misnomer out there that

equates play to be a waste of time and only utilized as a reward in the classroom, if utilized at all. The truth couldn't be farther

from the truth. Play is not a break from learning. Play is learning. Play is not an alternative to work. Play is work. Play is not a

reward. It is a right. In play, the skills necessary for academic endurance and achievement are practiced and perfected.

Want your students to be a problem solver? Play.

Want your children to improve communication? Play.

Want your class to express creativity? Play.

Want everyone to think critically? Play.

And don’t for one second think you can’t play simply because you are an adult. Play doesn't care. Play doesn't end in childhood,

or at least it shouldn't. Adults need play now more than possible ever before.

Schools, families, and communities have a chance to mold the “new normal” into whatever we want to be. Just think, with a focus

on play, we could replace this race idea which, like it or not, pits parties against each other, and instead foster a new educational

era of collaboration and cooperation.

Just by playing.

Let's slow down to catch up.