The 4 Agreements in Classroom and Life (Last Part)

Life Rehearsal inside the School

Yes, the school in itself is a separate culture from than of outside its walls and the school administration, staff, and faculty members are all but a part of the building of this culture.  When a student enters the school, it is the responsibility of the aforementioned group of people to make sure that the culture a student will live in is a culture that will enable him to grow as a person and not a culture that will rob him off of his self-esteem and self-worth.  And yes it takes that long of a rehearsal to ensure that a student is deeply imbibed with a culture of values and principles so that he can face even more challenging tasks ahead of his life when he’s no longer inside the school wall.

The first 18 years of life are the most delicate years in one’s development.  Freudian and even Eriksonian psychology have both proven how issues in these first few stages are carried on to adulthood and how adults struggle to put things together in perspective in connection with their childhood and adolescence conflicts.  Naturally it follows that aside from the family home, the school culture is the next of kin that molds students.  As students grow older, they spend more hours at school, probably even more hours than they spend being with their family.  A high school student approximately spends an average of 10 hours to 12 hours a day with school people and 8 hours sleeping.  That would leave them 4 to 6 hours as time for themselves and talking to other member of the families.  If you do the math, you’d figure how their social life is centered on the school system.  This system is what schools have to work on to protect so that an average of 10 to 12 hours a student spends in its walls shall count on his young life.

It is an amazing realization on my part that four simple agreements can make a difference in a child’s life if these agreements are lived by to heart in the school.  It is yet one of the most brilliant and straightforward ideas those teachers can reinforce from time to time in the classroom and in the school as a whole.  It is with fervent hope that when we release the students to join the world out there, that they may choose their thoughts carefully and speak only about the best of people, and situations no matter how hard it may be; that they choose integrity, word of honor, and positive language in their communication; that they choose to smile at others and be compassionate to those who may look at them as enemies instead of violently fighting back – this is because their self worth is not something others can steal because they understand that they shouldn’t take things personally; that they are clear with their communication and they are responsible at any given time because they don’t assume; that in every minute of the day they choose to live their best self because that’s what these agreements are all about; that as educators and builders of school culture we let students become this because, as well, we are impeccable with our words, we don’t take things personally, we don’t make assumptions, and we always do our best.   Yes, 4 simple agreements to keep rehearsing our students to be the best people they can be everyday.  Everyday, the curtain opens.  As teachers, we get to teach.  As students, they get to perform.  Curtain calls.