Notes from Public School - Day 67

As a writer, I’m a creative.

This means I have the ability or power to CREATE instead of just imitate.

I try to use this ability and power in my 4th grade classroom.

Oh, I work hard to teach the SC State Standards in ELA, Reading and Social Studies.

I work hard to help my students meet and exceed those standards on their end of the year SC Ready and SC Pass tests.

This is the ‘nuts and bolts’ part of my daily work.

But I also work hard to help my students…well, to help them be creatives.

I want them to develop the ability or power to CREATE instead of just imitate.

So you can imagine the smile on my face (and in my heart) when Jhoan walked up to me this morning and said, “Mr. Barton, look what I CREATED. Can you guess what it is?”

“Hmmm,” I said, “Is it a model of a boa constrictor that ate an elephant?”

For those of you who know the story The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exuperéy, you’ll get the reference.

For those of you who don’t know the story, please read it.

You’ll want to be the kind of person who knows the difference between a hat and a boa constrictor with an elephant in it’s belly.

And you’ll want to be the kind of person who knows that “it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye,” as Saint-Exuperéy so eloquently says.

“I don’t know, Jhoan,” I admitted, for it is always good for teachers to admit to students that there is much we don’t know.

“Is it an airplane?”

“Nope,” he said. “It’s a BOOMERANG!”

“What?!” I said. “A BOOMERANG? And you made it yourself? Does it work?”

We stepped outside.

He threw his boomerang.

It whirled around the school yard.

And came back to him.

I was astonished.

That is a feeling I like to feel every day.

“Jhoan,” I said, “You are amazingly awesome and awesomely amazing! I’m thankful you are you.”

I can assure you that “How do you make a boomerang?” will not be on our end of the year, high stakes, SC Ready test.

But look into Jhoan’s eyes.

Look into his heart.

See what is essential.

Know that creativity goes a long way toward helping the world become a better place.