The Art of Perseverance: Inspiring Our Youth

This week at school I have introduced our new value perseverance. The preschool children have enthusiastically demonstrated a predisposed understanding of this concept! While the students continue to have challenges with former values including sharing and self-control (as do most of us adults) this 12-letter word is a concept they have great insight on!

As I introduced “our new value” I was warmly surprised by one of my more challenging students, a 5y/o boy, who promptly reported “I was learning how to ride my bike and I fell off, but I didn’t give up. I kept trying and now I can ride! I stuck with it!” To my applause we happily shouted “that’s perrrrserverance!” Another young lady with seemingly underdeveloped fine motor skills shared that she too had an example of perseverance! She explained as she was learning how to button her sweater it was very hard but she had to keep practicing and “now I can button my own sweater without mommy or daddy!” Another example that children agreed upon included learning how to sleep in their own beds,  time and time again they would make their ways to parents beds, sharing “I had to keep trying to sleep on my own.” These honest and truly applicable explanations led us to the next part of our lesson.

Every value that I teach is accompanied with at least one pivotal story! This week our story is “The Tortoise and The Hare” by Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney. This particular edition offers dramatic illustrations that afford the children the opportunity to study and interpret the characters facial expressions and body language. As a Character Education teacher my goal is to teach children to understand, practice and apply the values we discuss with emphasis on recognition of and appropriate expression of emotions. The images and the repetitious phrase “slow and steady” is easily deciphered by the children.

I have found myself not only teaching but learning how to apply these values to my own life. Alpaca Sketchbook is a testament of my perseverance and I will approach this “slow and steady” much like the beloved tortoise.

Warmly,

Kelly