海角大神

Just outside my principal鈥檚 window, the faces of the future are at play. There is fresh sand in the sandbox, and new sandbox players wriggle in their bright sneakers. I cherish all the hopeful possibilities of their giggles, and the learning from their squabbles. The life of the sandbox seems halcyon and the future far off. But it鈥檚 the far-off that can best help parents manage and evaluate the earliest years of their children鈥檚 education.

I don鈥檛 mean looking ahead to the usual goals of college or job, a view that causes parents to begin marching their young ones toward the perfect resum茅 before they can even walk. Instead, I suggest looking back, and from a different vantage-point 鈥� your child鈥檚 wedding, or even their first try at parenthood. Such a lens brings values and behavior sharply into focus. And it takes us right back to the pails and trucks at work outside my window.

At Back to School Night this year, I鈥檒l ask the parents of these sandbox players to adopt this special lens to examine the young school year. From my pulpit, I鈥檒l start: 鈥淒early beloved. Imagine that we are gathered at a celebration of love, joy, and families uniting with their two young people who have decided to get hitched.鈥� I鈥檒l go on: 鈥淚magine yourself standing at your child鈥檚 wedding. The occasion is the grand commitment of one person to another: partnering, marrying.鈥�

Now we are looking out from the future.

Here is a benchmark beyond the customary entry to middle school, high school, or college; beyond career explorations. Your child is finding a soul mate. Is your sandbox now in fresh, sharp focus?

鈥淪oul Mate 101鈥� is not in the core curriculum of any states, and certainly not a common Back to School Night topic. Yet there are very concrete hopes and achievements embedded in life events such as marriage and parenthood. How shall we meet the needs of these children as we look back from their future; from our future? What would you like to be able to say about your child鈥檚 character, ability to lovingly bond with a partner, or their competence and joy as a young parent presenting you with, say, a grandchild? What kind of parent will you have raised when a new generation arrives in your family?

Wasn鈥檛 it just this morning that your biggest worry was, 鈥淒oes my little Imogene have a best friend in kindergarten?鈥� But parenting quickly advances to careerism: 鈥淗ow will Max fare in the transition to middle school? Egad: math placement tests! Ability grouping! Then SATs, recommendations, and applications to college. Resum茅 building! Graduation! Job interviews!鈥� Relax.

Marriage and child rearing are what we parents and educators have been tacitly preparing for, but rarely discussing. They are pushed to the background. But herein dwell vital signs of life success and succession, accomplishment and fulfilling relationships. They require different skills from the intellectual ones posited by education reform, a myriad of proliferating school choices, and data-driven teaching. We鈥檝e grown accustomed to thinking ahead only in terms of the technical, so-called 21st-century skills to be required of our children in careers 鈥渢hat have yet to be invented.鈥�

The ultimate goal is to lead fulfilling lives, to renew wonderful families, communities, and perpetuate the joys of parenting. Though they seem remote, we can invite marriage and parenting into our core curriculum by living in a kind of simultaneity with the present and future possibilities of children. What happens in the sandbox, doesn鈥檛 stay in the sandbox.

Fortunately, we need not invent the desirable qualities of character and values. We already know the kind of families, communities, and societies we鈥檇 like to inhabit. What we hope for our children鈥檚 lives is the same as what we鈥檙e trying to achieve now in our own. But given America鈥檚 penchant for measuring intelligence by data, achievement by rank, wealth or celebrity, and fulfillment by material possessions, we鈥檙e in trouble. Our behavior is not the curriculum that will yield our core desires 鈥� the ones taking place spontaneously back in that sandbox.

Sponsoring a healthy sandbox will have more to do with each child鈥檚 success than obsession over placement tests or entrance exams. According to research, the sandbox has more to do with the qualities that predict effectiveness in future workplaces where teamwork and group decisionmaking are emphasized over the discrete intellectual prowess of individuals.

What today鈥檚 kids will need in an inchoate future are the lessons from the sandbox: honest and accurate communications, sharing, humor, fairness, and joy. A healthy sandbox includes a culture of play that sponsors everyone鈥檚 ideas and success; takes pleasure in everyone鈥檚 strengths and respect for their challenges. In other words, many of the crucial skills both for fulfilling lives and career success are the same simple ones. They鈥檙e not on the standardized tests measuring 鈥渁dequate yearly progress.鈥� But they are on the distant test of marriage and parenting. Let鈥檚 teach to that test.

I hope today鈥檚 negotiations for space, sharing the dump truck, or imagining the bridge- and tunnel-building partnership between young Imogene and Max will be the most enriched, powerful, and far-reaching learning possible 鈥� achievements we鈥檒l expect to celebrate in future rituals. The hypothetical wedding is a good vantage point, if only in our imagination. But that鈥檚 where the future starts. Suffice to say, good marriages begin in the sandbox, as does good parenting.
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Todd R. Nelson is head of school at The School in Rose Valley, preschool through 6th grade, in Pennsylvania.