Excerpts fromWhy We Teach: Learning Laughter, Love and the Power to Transform Lives
by Linda Alston, Scholastic 2008.

This IS the American dream…the conviction that education can give EVERY child equal opportunity.  Linda’s classroom is a place where young children learn to love one another, to honor their families, respect their community, challenge their minds, and discover their own gifts.

When children cross Linda Alston’s threshold, they enter a world of fresh-cut flowers, silver tea services, appealing wooden learning materials, a sense of wonder, and a sense of order.  Linda guides her students to become “their most magnificent selves” by helping to reveal the gifts within each of them.  They find their gifts through song, dance, memorization, study, exploration, art, and storytelling.

Ms. Alston “lifts children out of poverty” through reading, writing, history, the arts, play, character building, grace, and belief in self.  Linda’s students – no matter what their backgrounds – have reached high levels of achievement because she adjusts her teaching to the unique needs and emerging interests of each new group. (preface by Mary Ann Bash, literacy specialist)     

I ue every possible opportunity to infuse my language with rich vocabulary for the children.  They acquire big words easily and effortlessly because they are immersed in them.  In our classroom, we don’t just have helpers.  We have a Class Logistics Team.  The jobs of the Logistics Team include the historian, who identifies the date on the calendar and any important upcoming events like assemblies, back to school night, or upcoming holidays; the meteorologist, who tells us about the weather for the day and what season it is (along with advice about proper dress to protect us from the elements);the facilitator, who reads the name and job of each child in order from the Logistics Team wall chart; the couriers, who messenger things to the office and bring papers back to us; the botanist, who waters our plants; the zoologist, who cares for the animals by feeding them and giving them water; the distributors and collectors, who pass out supplies; the custodians, who make sure we all clean up after ourselves and push our chairs under the tables; and the vision keeper, who reads our class-generated “vision” statement every day.

I create jobs on the Logistics Team as they become necessary.  I make sure to give each job a title that sounds important and dignified.

Contrary to what some people believe, educators included, most children are not shy or afraid to perform before large audiences.  Or, I should say, my students are very confident in front of a crowd.  We practice speaking, listening, and performance in the classroom every day.  There are usually a few natural “stars” in any class who don’t mind working a crowd.  My experience has been that the children who are inclined to feel more self-conscious or shy will feed off the starts and a synergistic effect is unleashed.  Leading off with the eager performers makes it easier for the shy ones to follow suit.

Children are children, and I am a champion of their right to have the experience of childhood.  While we must make sure they get a good education and solid foundation for the future, the beauty, magic, and wonder of childhood is right now.  Children are creative and imaginative.  We all have curricula that we must follow, but we teach the required lessons and teach them well, while allowing children the opportunity to express their creative genius.