This year, I have had the pleasure of being in close proximity to both our PreK classrooms and developing unique rituals with each class; in the Mulberry room, it started with a special wave and grew to include the best jokes ever told. In the Pomegranate room, it’s been my newest title, Ms. Principal, and all things Taylor Swift, from A-to-Z song titles to lyric battles, which I almost always lose.
For the past few years, I have opened my celebration remarks with some obscure wisdom from boxers Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali and even a message from President Biden, reserving the wisdom of the Torah for the Rabbi.
About six months ago, I started thinking about what I wanted to say to these children and their families, and I remembered a book from the 80s, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which has spurred many spin-offs including my own--All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Taylor Swift lyrics.
In her song Cardigan, also a new vocabulary word, a sweater owned by Reese, Vivian, Ruben, and Arlo, maybe?
Taylor writes, “When you are young, they assume you know nothing.”
While I can’t speak about Taylor’s early childhood education, I can confidently say this is not a tenet of HEA Preschool. We believe our students come to us naturally curious and capable.
Recently, I started reading The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups by Erika Christakis from the Yale Child Study Center, where the author “identifies how brilliantly curious the minds of kids are” and that young children possess all the ingredients they need for learning, in any place and at any time. Parents and teachers bring one critical piece: the relationships they foster with growing children. I would like to thank our PreK Team, Brenda, Tyler, Mara, Whitney, Dora, and Ilyse, for the relationships they built and will continue to build with this group of children and their future students and families. Thank you for all you do for the children in this room. They love you to the moon and to Saturn.
Taylor Swift’s maternal grandmother was a famous opera singer and dancer. She inspired Taylor to write the song Marjorie. I think this is important for two reasons. First, it reminds us that our grandparents are awesome people, and second, as the song says, never be so clever; you forget to be kind. Our Mulberries and Pomegranate classes have been role models in our school to the younger students, their own siblings, and each other. I am not worried they will forget to be kind. It’s part of them.
Okay, enough about Taylor Swift; laughter is another important piece of the PreK classrooms. To reinforce the earlier message about relationships, laughing together connects us, and at HEA, we laugh a lot. Thank you to all the parents for sending daily jokes in lunchboxes and on popsicle sticks. We have had a wealth of material for our budding comics.
Studies show that children with good humor have strong verbal and reasoning skills. Also, bear in mind humor develops over time. The data supporting the benefits of humor comes from 6th and 7th-grade students, so I invite you to share some bad jokes with me now and for a few more years for laughter and connection.
Here's a classic. Pretend you’ve never heard it.
Knock, knock,
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who, repeat as many times as you’d like.
Knock knock,
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say Banana.
OK, let’s be serious for a second. I have some gratitude to share...
I am grateful to our preschool staff, the support of HEA, and all our families for trusting us to share in their children's lives. See you this summer and Shabbat Shalom!
