Don't Jump in Front of Trains, Mermaids, and Children!!

Let me preface this post by saying that I do not generally play the lottery.  I have always been of the opinion that every day that I don't play, I win a dollar. Don't get me wrong, if the Powerball gets real high and the entire school staff is going in on a pool of tickets, I'm in. I don't want to be the only one at work the next day. But in general, I am not pleased with the odds when it comes to such things.


Last Wednesday, my wife and I took our daughters to a concert at the Camden Waterfront.  We saw Train, The Script, and Gavin DeGraw. The concert was fantastic and all three bands put on great shows. Two days before the concert my wife and daughters found out that there was a radio contest. Apparently, if you show up at the concert dressed like a mermaid, you can have a chance to go onstage with Train (Train's latest album is Mermaids of Alcatraz). My 14 year old and my 7 year old were both set on making mermaid costumes and getting up on stage.

My first instinct was to tell them that the likelihood of getting up on stage with Train at the Susquehanna Bank Center was slim. That was my adult brain working there. I didn't do that. I'm not sure when it occurs that you start realizing the odds of things, but it sure isn't when you are 14 or 7. My daughters knew that they were going to get up on stage. As an educator, I always have to remember that sometimes the worst thing that we can do for children is to limit them by our expectations. I realize that the context of this is slightly different than reading or math achievement, but the principle still applies.

So, we went to the show and my daughters got their tickets for the drawing to go on stage since they were

picture from www.savemesanfrancisco.com

dressed appropriately and had their picture taken. We had lawn seats to the show and enjoyed the first two acts on a beautiful evening. Now, I should also mention that Train is my 14 year old's favorite band and this was my 7 year old's first experience ever at a concert. When it came time for them to go up to the front to see if they were chosen, my wife went with them and I remained with our things on the lawn.

As the 50 or so Mermaids began to come onto the stage I searched for my daughters' purple tank tops and mermaid bottoms on the stage and on the big screen. Lo and behold, there they were. They actually got up on stage in front of 20,000 people or so. I must admit, I started to scream my fool head off. Anyway, they were awesome up there (Here is a video from YouTube of the number).  One of my daughters got to sing into the mic and held the lead singer's (Pat Monahan) hand when they took a bow and the other one high-fived him and was having a great time singing and dancing. When they came back to the lawn my 7 year old jumped into my arms to show me the Train towel they gave her and shout how she got on stage. My 14 year old was basically shaking and stuttering in excitement and disbelief. My wife had a smile from ear to ear.

Now, why do I write this post? Remember what I could have said when they told me about the contest? I could have thrown their dream in front of the train instead of letting them be mermaids and have fun on stage with Train. I think that it is important to remember that the wonder and belief of children is something we should all respect; when it comes to crazy radio contests or when it comes to any dreams they may have.

You might be saying, "Yes, BUT what if they had not gotten on stage?" I say, "so what?" They had fun and that would have led to a great discussion on handling disappointment. Really, there is no downside to supporting them.

What do you think?

Related articles

• Train: Mermaids of Alcatraz Tour Review (freshbeatsandgoodvibes.wordpress.com)

It's Not a Competition, It's a Reading Challenge!

As I look around at the world all I see is competition and competition is a wonderful thing!  However, everything does not need to be a competition.  I think that sometimes in elementary schools we forget that a part of what we do is teach children how to compete.  How to win, how to lose, and how to deal with all that goes with both.  This is best done on a small scale in classrooms or the gym.  It is generally not an easy lesson to teach to a whole school at once.

At our school we have a reading challenge called, "The March Reading Madness Challenge." It's a wonderful event and I look forward to it each year.  The basic premise is that the children need to read 40 pages or 40 minutes per night for one month depending upon grade level.  At the end of the month, the principal does a wacky stunt if the school meets its goal.  Nine years ago when I began doing the challenges, we used to announce the classes and students that read the most at our culminating assembly and those classes would get an ice cream party (pre-nutritional guidelines) or a pizza party.

Over the years,

• I've been duct taped to a wall three feet off the ground
• I've been pulled to the ceiling of the gym with rock climbing equipment and read to the school
• I've dyed my hair blonde and shaved my beard
• I've been dunked in a dunk tank (cold day!)
• I've been raised to the roof of the school in the fire truck bucket and spent 24 hours on the roof (29 degrees that night).
• I've kissed a pig
• I've been wrapped in a boa constrictor
• I've demonstrated a big rolling tube that would be added to our field day (hard to describe, but the children loved it). 

Then, of course, there is this year.  Well just look below to see what I did this year.

If you prefer video, you can watch it here.

This is a wonderful time of year at the school.  The children always come up to me and tell me how much they have read and that they are going to meet their goal so that I will do the stunt.  Of course, the purpose of the event is to get children to read more.  Hopefully, after the month is over a few more children catch the reading bug and keep on reading.

Over the years, we have eliminated the individual and class rewards.  This was not met with support from all.  The reasoning was because the main goal of the reading challenge was for the school to work together as one community of readers to reach a goal and cause me to keep my promise to them.  However, at our assemblies early on it was clear that the triumph of the larger challenge was lessened because the majority of the school did not get the party.  We sat down and had a great deal of conversation about the goals of the challenge and among those goals was not competition.  I think that it is important to keep the goals in mind when deciding whether competition should be an ingredient in a lesson or challenge.

That was about five years ago and our students continue to read just as much as they ever did.  Competition does have its place; however, when working with young children it is wise to decide where and when.  This may be a somewhat Pollyanna viewpoint, but as I said in the beginning, competition is everywhere and they will get a chance to compete probably more often than they want.  What are your thoughts on competition?  If you are so moved, please comment below.