Adding Real Value To Students' Lives

From DNAinfo:

GREENPOINT — When they reach school-age, kids not only deserve to learn reading, writing and math, Danielle Mussafi says — they should start their quests for the meaning of life and God.

So Mussafi created the "Spiritual Explorers" group, an alternative to religious school that asks kids to "tap into that voice inside of them" as they navigate the world.

"We want them to focus on the questions and the mystery," said Mussafi, 30, whose new kids group is part of Original Blessing, North Brooklyn's first Unitarian Universalist congregation (and the second in all of the borough). The denomination embraces all beliefs and encourages a "free and responsible search for truth and meaning."

"God could be to them a man in the sky, laughter, music," said Mussafi of children's diverse beliefs and inklings. "They're already getting images and information...I want to foster spiritual exploration for them."

The weekly class, for children 4 to 10, will begin with a candle lighting or other ritual, and then each session will differ slightly, but Mussafi will often read a story that provokes discussion about a different theme (like "gratitude" in the month of November).

And each class will be coordinated with the congregation's adult services, which have been held in the documentary screening and production center Union Docs Center for Contemporary Art since last fall. Original Blessing is seeking a new space come November, when the Spiritual Explorers class begins, Mussafi said.

The theme of each children's class will correlate to that of the adult service, and afterward kids and parents can come together to continue discussing the topic throughout the week.

Mussafi, who grew up Jewish attending Hebrew school, but said she never bonded with her congregation, said she hoped to provide kids with an "intentional community" based on a value of nature, expression, social justice and the search for meaning.

"We want them to understand that they're part of something bigger than them," she said.

Before Danielson, before VAM, before APPR and the like, I used to see my role as a teacher in an English Language Arts classroom similarly to how Mussafi describes her role - to lead students to questions.

Why are we here?

What is our role in the world?

Are we here just to accumulate material goods, eat food and procreate or is there some other purpose to existence?

What are the myths we have grown up with in our families, our communities, our schools, our nation, our society that keep us from asking the questions we have deep in our hearts or keep us from becoming the free, unique individuals we yearn to be?

Literature is a great spark for these kinds of lessons, these kinds of discussions.

A bi-monthly written by teens for teens called YC Teen (formerly NYC Youth Connection) is another great spark.

So are journal writings, restorative circles, reflective quiet time.

I learned very early on as a teacher that if kids saw me as one of them - not somebody above them, not somebody smarter than them, not somebody with more answers than they have - but simply as another member of the human community struggling with life's problems, searching for answers to the eternal questions and mysteries of human existence, they would be willing to go to extraordinary lengths in talking about their own questions, their own thoughts, their own fears.

There have been some extraordinary classes where I have simply planned a theme, read something aloud to students, given them time to reflect upon the reading, write some personal response about that reading, then started the discussion with my own share that set the tone for a serious but revelatory back and forth where we spoke our own truths.

I have had assistant principals say to me more than once after witnessing this kind of class "Wow, that was really something.  I've never seen students so comfortable about sharing these kinds of personal questions, fears, concerns."

I have always taken pride in setting up that kind of trust, that kind of mutual respect between myself and my students, as well as between student and student, so that these kinds of class lessons could take place.

It doesn't work every semester or with every class.

Sometimes you have a class with one or two strong personalities or cliques that cannot or will not allow the class to go in that direction.

I've learned to let that go and be.

That was part of my own growth as both a teacher and a person - to let go of the need to control or impose my will on everything or everybody around me.

It was an important lesson for me to learn.

At any rate, the reason why I still teach is because I love to hold these kinds of classes and see the spark that comes across kids' faces as they realize those deep questions they have are questions that many of us have and it's okay to ask them.

Alas, under Danielson, under VAM, under APPR, there will be little time for this kind of class.

How do you measure this kind of learning?

Will it add value to the test scores at the end of the year?

Will it help the kids show growth on their performance assessments?

What would Danielson say about such an open-ended lesson plan that simply sets up a framework and allows for the class to go in many different directions, depending upon the class chemistry, the mood of the class and other variables?

The Danielson rubric is the work of a control freak with little aptitude or desire for sometimes just letting things be and seeing where they go, trusting to the universe that if you bring a certain intent to a lesson, consciously create the tone for the discussion, that it's okay to let it veer wherever it veers without the need to tie it all up in a bow.

It's been a long week and I'm not articulating this as well as I would like.

But the thing that kept coming back to me this first week at work, this first week under Danielson and APPR, was the regimentation and standardization that has been imposed on all of us and just how much joy and wonder it is already sucking out of the classroom and the school.

The political observer in me says it's not a mistake that this is the kind of education system an oligarch like Bill Gates promotes and funds all across the nation.

The political observer in me says it's not a mistake that diminished human beings like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee and Michael Bloomberg and Arne Duncan push this kind of dehumanized and dehumanizing system all across the nation.

God knows, they don't want to teach the kids to question anything.

Just sit down, shut up, do what you're told, believe what you're told, buy what you're told to buy and everything will be all right.

That's the kind of system perpetrated on America by the corporate education reform movement.

It's not a surprise, given that the corporate education reform movement is made up of corporate oligarchs and their political functionaries.

But I won't be a part of this.

I am going to attempt to continue to teach the way I always have and if they want to declare me "ineffective" and fire me, so be it.

I can't regiment myself the way they want me to.

I can't standardize how I teach.

It's not me.

More importantly, when I try to do these things, it doesn't work.

I teach from within, from who I am.

I do not lie to my students ever - I am completely open about why I teach the way I do, what I am teaching and why I am teaching it.

I will continue to do that.

And if that means that I am seen as a "bad teacher" by Andy Cuomo and NYSED Commissioner and three year teacher John King, then as I said before, so be it.

Declare me "ineffective" and move to terminate me.

I guarantee you that I will video tape my classes and get responses from my students about my effectiveness as a teacher to use in court when I sue Andy Cuomo, John King, the NYSED and the NYCDOE over my termination, however.

Maybe none of that will hold up in a court of law.

But I sure am going to try and make my case.

Teaching cannot be standardized anymore than living can be standardized.

The control freaks running the show these days may not believe that, but it's true.

And the universe often has a way of bringing that lesson home to you.

The more you try and control things, the more things ultimately get out of control.