Longhouse School

8:00am, Lolita. I’m in Oliver with my BFF Lori. We finished running on the County road, breakfast at the Diner, another run to the Park, and laps in the heated pool!

The owners left last night for a holiday weekend escape so the Maracles and I agreed that Lori would spend the night with me, no late night pick-up necessary.

We ordered pizza and she joined me and Kitten on our nightly FB call. I love listening to Lori’s chatter and her take on life. She refuses to talk to me and Kitten about the other kids because the “Constitution” forbids talking behind someone’s back. “Come on, Lori,” teased Kitten, “just a little bit of gossip?” NOOOO!!! she said and wouldn’t budge.

Kitten was telling us about some feedback the Jammy Girlz received from Professor Kurtz on their Sinatra song, “Indiscreet,” which they sent him as an MP3. He provided a lot of “hot and cool” feedback to the girls on their individual performances. But the big thing he noted is that before he felt they were playing for the approval of their audience. This time he heard them interpreting the song and not caring so much about how the audience perceived it. “The band is reaching a different level of maturity and taking risks,” he said. They have their performance on Sunday night at the Restaurant and we wished them the best.

After the call (I am writing this with her permission and suggestions), Lori opened up a lot about her experience at the prior school. [EDIT: I withheld publishing this until I had her parents’ permission.] She had many of these stories locked up inside of her and never shared them. I insisted that she needs to share them with her parents and counselor. She promised she would. I said I was going to follow through.

Lori is like a Pippi Longstocking (“Who’s Pippi Longstocking?” “It’s the title of a book. Let me download it on Kindle and we’ll read it together later”) who simply doesn’t belong in a classroom. She’s a free spirit and needs the air and sun. Lori’s ahead of the other children in her ELA and math skills (from my limited perspective). She’s the tempest in the teapot. No wonder why there were such clashes with her in Kindergarten and First Grade at the other school!

She’s sitting across from me nodding her head in approval.

After the call with Kitten (“Can I call her Kitten?” “No, you call her Heidi or Ms. Heidi!”), we watched some videos about Jane Goodall who passed away last week. Then we cuddled and took turns reading out loud Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi. What fun!

Thanks to Julie for writing about yesterday at Longhouse Elem (and for her nice comment about me!😉).

It’s been a while, but can I quote some of Vasyl Sukhomlynsky’s thoughts about a class as “a friendly family”? They are so applicable to our work at the Longhouse School—and also my relationship with Lori and her parents.

From the very first days of our School of Joy, I tried to foster a spirit of family warmth, intimacy, empathy, mutual trust and assistance. (p. 108).

This took place in the years soon after the War so several of his students had never had their birthdays celebrated before!

In childhood every person needs love and affection. If children grow up in a heartless environment they will become indifferent to goodness and beauty. A school cannot completely take the place of a family, especially the mother, but if children are deprived of affection, warmth and care at home, we, as educators, must be particularly attentive to them (p. 108).

Although all of his children were the same age, some were physically smaller than others. He encouraged the bigger children to take care of the smaller ones. Also, the kids started to visit and check up on friends who didn’t make it to school on a given day. Were they all right?

He wrote about their walks along the road and meeting some elderly people who were in deep suffering from the loss of family members. They “adopted” a couple of them and decided to bring them some joy.

A feeling of attachment forms the basis for an important spiritual imperative, without which one cannot image communist relations between people — the need for human fellowship. I tried to ensure that each child found happiness and a rich emotional life in communicating with their friends through a mutual spiritual exchange. Each child must bring something unique to the group, and create happiness and joy for others. (p. 109).

(PS: I gulped, too, when I read the word “communist!” Sukhomlynsky lived in a different era and had his own superiors to pacify.)

I know that many educators believe they should maintain a respectful distance from their students. I recognize the potential pitfalls of relaxing roles. But isn’t there an even greater danger in not blurring those roles, in not forming a family-friendly classroom?

Dei and her parents are picking up Lori soon and she will spend the night with them. Then comes Sunday and Monday when Dei camps out with Lori and the Maracles. Except there’s no room in an Oliver trailer for a fourth person! Lori has it all figured out, though. She and Dei will sleep in my bed, and I’ll sleep in the small single bed here.

Did I have any say in this? No! (Lori is laughing across from me!)