We’re talking about creating emotional safety by guaranteeing the rights of freedom of choice, freedom of expression, freedom to make and use mistakes, and some personal and special rights.      Let’s look at Expression and Mistakes         

Express Yourself! – Expression is not merely talking, it is demonstrating learning and using gesture, sound, words, movement, sensory exploration, manipulation, construction, role play, and the arts to show all the aspects of self in body, mind, and spirit. Expression is a skill that includes articulation of personal need (Baby is hungry, so Baby cries); imitation of adults, others, nature, and media; use of words; conversations with others; the arts; and finally use of written words.

Each and every child must feel good about how and what he thinks, what he says and how he says it, what he can (and cannot) do, how he moves, and how he feels, For the teacher, there are two components to assuring this freedom – provision of the opportunity to express and acceptance of that expression.

Every day every child must have an opportunity to express himself by showing interest in and taking part in the experiences offered to him, and then talking, dancing, singing, drawing, writing, or recreating the learning he gained from the experience.

There must be opportunities for expression physically through dance, role play, music, song, and movement (on and off the playground). There must be opportunities for expression intellectually through the sharing of words, thoughts, plans, opinions, and appropriate humor. There must be opportunities for expression emotionally through group and cooperative play and by being given responsibilities for maintaining the learning environment. Expression through art is vital on a daily basis as art is physical, intellectual, and emotional expression.

But That’s Only the Beginning – Not only must those opportunities for expression be offered on a daily basis, but there must be full acceptance and respect for the expression and attempted expressions of each child. Acceptance of expression is not as easy as it sounds. Often we are so focused on “right” answers that when a child expresses himself in a way that doesn’t seem to fit those answers (he colors outside the lines, figuratively and literally, or “thinks outside the box”) we miss the value of his learning or fail to recognize it as learning at all.

Recognizing Learning – We need to very carefully and expectantly listen to and observe our children in the personal and individualized expressions of their comprehension. When we get ourselves stuck in that narrow place that only recognizes learning as successful when it meets our written standards or when we do not accept and respect the ‘offbeat’ expressions, we often miss the fact that successful learning has occurred.

Collins and Glover (authors of a number of books and articles from Heinemann Press) say that children’s expressions and attempts at expression and skills must be “Noticed, Named, and Honored”. I love this way of stressing the importance of seeing REAL learning, giving it a name or explaining to the child what he has accomplished, and then giving that learning recognition as REAL and of importance.

Children who express themselves “differently” from the standard expectations are sometimes not given credit for having learned when in reality they have REALLY, REALLY gained knowledge and are even moving that learning to a new level. Pay attention to the “odd” ways some children have of expressing their knowledge or out of the box ways some have of doing things.

I had a Two who said, “I not ready to go outside. I only have on one cloe.” It took me a minute to realize that she had grasped the rule of English grammar that says adding an “s” to most words make them plural and she was telling me that she didn’t have enough clothes on to go to the cool playground. This was not just ‘cute’ and not ‘wrong’, but a very real learned concept to be recognized as a high level language skill!

Next blog:  The Right to Make and Use Mistakes