Support Each Other – Geese fly in a “V” formation, providing lift for those in the rear.
Understand Your Role – When the lead goose gets tired, it falls to the back and another takes over.
Protect Each Other – If a goose gets sick or wounded, 2 others follow it to the ground and stay with it until it can fly again.
You Can’t Succeed Alone – If a goose falls out of formation, it works hard to get back into position.
Provide Encouragement – The geese at the back honk to encourage those up front to keep going.
When I was an elementary classroom teacher, I had the “Lessons of the Geese” typed, laminated, and posted on my wall. I can’t recall where I first came across this text, and I don’t know if it’s scientifically accurate, but it was a central part of my classroom community building process.
On Monday, April 15th, SK students in grades 1 through 8 spent the day at Ann Arbor’s Leslie Science and Nature Center for a day of service. Students pulled weeds, filled seed packets for Earth Day, and created materials the center uses for its educational programming. Toward the end of the day, students enjoyed the slippery tunnel slide. Barbara, SK’s 1st/2nd grade teacher, and I were watching the kids as they came whizzing out of the slide, laughing as they hopped onto their feet at the bottom.
When it was time to go, Jackie, one of Barbara’s second graders, gleefully explained the system she and her classmates had developed at the top of the slide: Of their own volition, they had come up with specific roles that each student played in the act of sending one person down the slide. A seemingly solitary activity, this class of 1st and 2nd graders had made the act of sliding down the slide a collaborative endeavor. Everyone had a purpose and played an important role. Whereas some groups of kids may have competed for the next turn on the slide, this group of children cooperated in such a way that sliding down the slide was not the only fun thing to do. They invented many different ways to be a part of a team so that everyone could play together
What a wonderful reminder: play is important. Kids nurture each other’s imaginations. They teach one another how to cooperate and solve problems. They learn how to create systems and organize themselves in meaningful ways. They laugh, run, climb, breathe, shout, slide, and cheer each other on. They have fun and genuinely enjoy one another.
The way in which Barbara’s class played together reminded me of the Lessons of the Geese. Adults, sometimes we just need to get out of the way so that kids can find (and celebrate) their own ways of being together. Adults, maybe we need to play together more often too.