This spring schools closed and classrooms were moved online. Confusion and anxiety ensued, revealing strains in relationships within school communities. It also revealed strength of character and resilience. But I believe with a shared love and celebration of learning, we can restore trust and a sense of school community that has been gradually lost Post-9/11, NCLB, Sandy Hook, and pandemic. 

I believe we can reaffirm a lost sense of trust and community by routinely asking its members to contribute to shared celebrations. This belief was tested in the spring as students and staff were suddenly homebound. In my school, my elementary colleagues got together and created opportunities for students to reconnect and feel a sense of belonging to an entire community. 

We invited students to help produce videos by submitting short clips related to a theme.
There was the 3 Words video project, in which we asked students to show us three words that represent how they're doing. There was the Life Goes On music video (left) in which we combined performances from adult and student musicians, as well as video and photos showing students playfully thriving at home. There was a music video of This Pretty Planet, sung by second grade students. And teachers also collaborated on an original poem, in which they each drafted a sentence, and then recorded themselves reading a line. 

Our K-5 students also provided the content for an entire Earth Day Assembly. They pitched in with drawings, photos, videos, and poems (left). And finally,  5th grade students served as live Talent Show emcees, introducing videos submitted by schoolmates. We've done many school talent shows, but this was the first produced online!  All events were well received by students, parents, and teachers. Many responses were emotional and  joyful, and for those who organized or contributed content to the events, there was gratification in being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Community service is about appealing to the heart. It's about summoning that natural goodwill we keep in reserve for those in need. Caring for others comes easily to children. When parents and teachers model empathy and compassion, children are quick to demonstrate it right back each time a friend stumbles on the playground or is just having a bad day. Children were born to nurture friends and classmates back to good health and good cheer.

When we give our students the opportunity to explore problems in their world and devise ways to act upon them, we are lighting their path to a larger calling that involves global citizenship. Lately, I feel our school has not been lighting that path. We have not been endorsing their pursuit of solutions to global problems.

For years in our school, civic engagement has been encouraged, with adult mentoring. Students were allowed to set a course for research as they followed their hearts in understanding a problem, raising awareness, and creating a call to action. Members of our Knitting Club (right), have for years donated their blanket to a local children's hospital. Knitting was a fun social learning experience, but their efforts came with the heartfelt bonus of providing for someone with needs greater than theirs. Their stories were shared in the local paper and at school assemblies. There were two girls who interviewed a local librarian about her efforts to gather books from the community to donate them to non-profit groups (right) and then they wrote her story in the school's news outlet Edgewood News. On another occasion, students read a story about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and held a fundraiser for the Ocean Conservancy. They raised over $400, selling ring pops to sugar-starved classmates, during and after a school wide presentation.  There are a number of examples like these through the years.

But in recent years, our well-intentioned parents have begun organizing a schedule of charitable events. They organize  events across the calendar to prevent "donation fatigue" among parents. But they overlook disengagement among students. These events are highly organized right up to student assignments, which often involve carrying in a donation from home or taking part in a template driven art project. No research. No grassroots energy. No need for personalized expressions of empathy.

This must change. And students must be placed back in the driver's seat. My hope is that we can redirect the energies of parents to supporting grassroots fundraising events driven by impassioned students. We must also implement a media and marketing campaign. I hope a renewed effort of Civic Media by way of news articles and video stories presented through Edgewood News will validate the importance of students mobilizing schoolmates for good causes.