The Almond staff has come to learn that one of my favorite questions to ask is, “WHY?”  I have an insatiable curiosity to understand what is behind decisions that have brought us to our current practices, as well as those currently under consideration.

As a parent, I treasured those early years in my girls’ lives when I was incessantly asked WHY.  No really, I did!  Even at my most tired and exhausted, whenever I was asked WHY, I would do my very best to provide an answer.  More often than not, it would inevitably lead to another why question.  When I ran out of responses, I would resort to, “What do YOU think?”  After all these years of honoring their curiosity, my daughters have developed their own thirst to understand the world around them.  Lucky for me ;-), I get to be the target of their inquiries whenever I respond to a request with a no.   I have committed to never responding, “Because I said so.”  If those words are to ever utter out of my mouth, I believe that I have a responsibility to reconsider my decision or to be truthful with the why.  We’ve had to agree to disagree on occasions, and I’ve had to get out of my comfort zone on a number of topics as well.  The pay off though is way worth it.  Hopefully these two little girls will grow up into curious, strong-minded women that positively contribute to the world.

In my professional role, it is I that ask why.  Typically, the answers contain thoughtful and insightful rationales that line up with what’s best for children.  Amidst the collection of validating reasons for why we do what we do, there has come a time when the response has been, “Because that’s what we’ve always done.”  To me, this is akin to the “Because I said so.”  Such a response doesn’t get to the crux of the initial why question.  So, I revise my question to be more specific.  “Why did we start doing x,y,z?  What was the initial purpose and is it still relevant?”  This permits us to either reaffirm a commitment to a practice, OR to realize that the initial need no longer exists, OR to reexamine a different way to fulfill a need.  In such cases a HOW question emerges from the initial WHY.

In the recent weeks, I’ve been asking all sorts of questions that span the gamut of academic and operational.  One specific question I recently asked was, “Why did a student get hurt today during lunch recess?”  This question lead to a follow up question of, “Do we have the necessary systems in place to ensure student safety?”  And another, “Does everyone know what those protocols and policies are?”  And finally, “Are we all consistently adhering to these practices?”

There is a fine balance between constructing an exhaustive list of rules that confine children in an effort to safeguard them from potential injury and - no rules at all.  We have general guidelines that we covered with students at the beginning of the school year which included things like:  going down the slide (not up), traveling one direction on the monkey bars, NOT running on the play structures, using equipment properly, making safe choices, solving problems, etc…  We will be revisiting these guidelines and are ordering poster sandwich boards for the blacktop to serve as visual reminders of these expectations.

During recess, we have teaching and support staff on the blacktop and field area supervising play.  In the kinder yard, we have 4 staff supporting positive student choices.  On the blacktop and grass area of our main campus we have four monitoring stations: lower blacktop, upper blacktop, grass, and a floater.  During lunch, we have six paid yard duty staff; 2 people are tasked with upper grade and 4 individuals support lower grade.  These staff members follow the students from the lunch tables to the play areas.  Each of them wears a neon vest to ensure visibility for students.  We are in the process of refining zones and reviewing expectations to ensure we are offering the best safety support possible.

As this WHY question has been asked, we have discovered a need to have a more effective communication system that permits multiple people to be aware of a concern at one time and to enable us to work more cohesively as a team.  We are working through the details of this need and look forward to implementing a solution quickly.

Know that this is just one of the why questions I have recently asked and that I ask WHY questions daily, and often many times a day.

I’d like to offer you some why questions to ponder.

• Why is it important for my child to be on time to school each and every day?
• Why is it necessary for my child to check in at the office when arriving late?
• Why should I call the attendance line when my child will not be coming to school?
• Why must I be courteous when I drive through the parking lot at arrival and dismissal?
• Why is it not okay for me to leave my vehicle in the fire lane even for just 5 minutes?
• Why do all visitors to Almond need to sign in regardless of the duration of the visit?
• Why can’t I ride my bike at warp speed through the middle of campus between the hours of 7:00am - 4:00pm?
• Why is it beneficial to my child for me to be involved at school?
• Why should I speak directly with my child’s teacher if I have a concern about his/her learning?
• Why might it be a healthy practice for me to approach potential school challenges from a solution-oriented mindset?

May these WHY questions (and those bouncing around in your own mind) fuel us with reminders, wisdom, and perhaps even more questions to ultimately result in the best learning experiences for our children.