Dr. Phoebe Chapple
The principal goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done; men and women who are creative, inventive and discoverers, who can be critical and verify, and not accept, everything they are offered. -Jean Piaget, psychologist (9 Aug 1896-1980)
Health officials announced a polio epidemic centered in Brooklyn, New York. As was typical with polio outbreaks, infections surfaced in the summer months.
More than 2000 people would die in New York City alone. Across the United States in 1916, polio took the lives of about 6,000 people, leaving thousands more paralyzed.
Summer epidemics would come to be common in this era and would lead to widespread closures of pools, amusements parks, and other places where children gathered.
Curiosity
Curiosity is the ability to seek and acquire new knowledge, skills, and ways of understanding the world.
Curiosity facilitates engagement, critical thinking, and reasoning.
We nurture children’s curiosity and other life-long learning skills when we encourage them to identify and seek answers to questions that pique their interests.
Sociability
Sociability is the joyful, cooperative ability to engage with others. It derives from a collection of social-emotional skills that help children understand and express feelings and behaviors in ways that facilitate positive relationships, including active listening, self-regulation, and effective communication.
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to meet and overcome challenges in ways that maintain or promote well-being. It incorporates attributes like grit, persistence, initiative, and determination.
We build resilience when we push students gently to the edges of their comfort zones. Our encouragement as they take risks, overcome challenges, and grow from failure helps them learn to bounce back from life’s ups and downs.
Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the ability to examine and understand who we are relative to the world around us. It’s developed through skills like self-reflection. It’s situated at “true south” on the compass to symbolize that introspection is about looking into ourselves. Self-awareness impacts children’s capacity to see themselves as uniquely different from other people.
Integrity
Integrity is the ability to act consistently with the values, beliefs, and principles that we claim to hold. It’s about courage, honesty, and respect in one’s daily interactions — and doing the right thing even when no one is watching.
Resourcefulness
Resourcefulness is the ability to find and use available resources to achieve goals, problem solve, and shape the future. It draws on skills like planning, goal setting, strategic thinking, and organizing.
Creativity
Creativity is the ability to generate and communicate original ideas and appreciate the nature of beauty. It fosters imagination, innovation, and a sense of aesthetics.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to recognize, feel, and respond to the needs and suffering of others. It facilitates the expression of caring, compassion, and kindness.
We influence children’s abilities to care for others beyond themselves by creating meaningful relationships with them, ensuring that they are seen, felt, and understood regardless of how they learn.
Pathways to Every Student’s Success
Picasso is sitting in the park, sketching. A woman walks by, recognizes him, runs up to him and pleads with him to draw her portrait. He’s in a good mood, so he agrees and starts sketching. A few minutes later, he hands her the portrait. The lady is ecstatic, she gushes about how wonderfully it captures the very essence of her character, what beautiful, beautiful work it is, and asks how much she owes him. “$5,000, madam,” says Picasso. The lady is taken aback, outraged, and asks how that’s even possible given it only took him 5 minutes. Picasso looks up and, without missing a beat, says: “No, madam, it took me my whole life.”
The Dancing Lesson
Thomas Eakins, 1878
Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.”
Frederick Douglass
We are seeing colds and Strep. Parents always ask how can they tell a minor cold from something more serious. You can not easily tell the difference. One child may have a minor cold and a sibling may have a more serious strep infection. Even a viral illness such as RSV and influenza can be life threatening. How to treat the cold symptoms are a common concern with most parents. Review my post on how to treat fever and Cold medications. Keep in mind that most uncomplicated colds will resolve within 10-14 days without any treatment.
Diphenhydramine – Benadryl dose
Usually as we approach Thanksgiving we start to see RSV infections. Around the Christmas holidays is when we usually start to see Influenza. There may be different strains of flu each year. Some years we will see both Influenza A and B. In 2009 we had quite a large outbreak of H1N1. The 2010 and 2011 were unusual in that they were mild and occurred later than usual. However 2012, 2013 , 2014 were very busy flu seasons. This year is just starting to peak and we are seeing both Flu A and Flu B
With most respiratory illness the most vulnerable are the very young and the elderly. Take precautions. Wash hands. Do not share drinks. Avoid crowded places. Do not take small children to gyms. Do not visit if you have cough or cold symptoms, even if you are “on antibiotics”. Be considerate of others.
