Friday at 4:00
October 7, 2022
FROM THE DESK OF MRS. RIVERA
We wanted to do something a little different this week and share with you what we, as professionals in education, understand our role to be when it comes to challenging our students. We ask that you take a moment to read the short but enlightening passage below so you also may understand that education is not just dissemination of information from adults to students -- it is the opportunity to prepare our students for the much broader, wider world that we share with each other and to give them the strength they need to navigate it responsibly.
"Once a little boy was playing outdoors and found a fascinating caterpillar. He carefully picked it up and took it home to show his mother. He asked his mother if he could keep it, and she said he could if he would take good care of it.
The little boy got a large jar from his mother and put plants to eat and a stick to climb on in the jar for the caterpillar. Every day he watched the caterpillar and brought it new plants to eat.
One day the caterpillar climbed up the stick and started acting strangely. The boy worriedly called his mother who came and understood that the caterpillar was creating a cocoon. The mother explained to the boy how the caterpillar was going to go through a metamorphosis to eventually become a butterfly.
The little boy was thrilled to hear about the changes his caterpillar would go through. He watched every day, waiting for the butterfly to emerge. One day it happened -- a small hole appeared in the cocoon, and the butterfly started to struggle to come out.
At first the boy was excited, but soon he became concerned. The butterfly was struggling so hard to get out! It looked like it couldn’t break free! It looked desperate! It looked like it was making no progress!
The boy was so concerned he decided to help. He ran to get scissors and then walked back (because he had learned in school not to run with scissors). He snipped the cocoon to make the hole bigger, and the butterfly quickly emerged!
As the butterfly came out of the cocoon, the boy was surprised. It had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. He continued to watch the butterfly expecting that, at any moment, the wings would dry out, enlarge, and expand to support the swollen body. He knew that in time the body would shrink, and the butterfly’s wings would expand.
But neither happened!
The butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
As the boy tried to figure out what had gone wrong, his mother took him to a local college to speak with a science professor. He learned that the butterfly was SUPPOSED to struggle. In fact, the butterfly’s struggle to push its way through the tiny opening of the cocoon pushes the fluid out of its body and into its wings. Without the struggle, the butterfly would never, ever fly. The boy’s good intentions hurt the butterfly.
As students go through school, and life, keep in mind that struggling is an important part of any growth experience. In fact, it is the struggle that causes them to develop their ability to fly."
As educators, our gift to our students is to make sure they develop strong wings. Sometimes that means a bit of frustration for our students when it comes to the content they are learning in class; sometimes that means having a consequence for an action that is contrary to classroom rules; and still sometimes, that means learning to cope with being in a different class than their best friend. Occasionally, well-intentioned parents, like the boy in the passage who was just trying to help the butterfly emerge from its cocoon, try to prevent these crucial moments of struggle for their child. Whether it's because they don't want to see their child frustrated by homework or because they don't want a bad grade posted on the portal, they are essentially robbing their child of a moment to strengthen his/her wings. These opportunities to strengthen their wings are essential to each student's social, emotional, and academic progress; they also become some of the MANY life lessons children need to become independent, productive, confident members of our society. We ask that you allow your children to have these growth experiences as we continue to prepare our students for a beautiful future where they can spread their strong wings and fly.
Have a wonderful weekend, and be on the lookout for next week's Friday at 4:00!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Rivera
3rd Grade STEM Challenge
Jolly Holiday Show-SAVE THE DATE!
That's right, ladies and gentlemen! Riviera Day School is THRILLED to bring back its annual Jolly Holiday Show! Over the years, we've dressed up like the characters of the Peanuts cartoons, and we've donned costumes that represent all of the toys in the Toy Story saga. This year, we will have a musical with songs and acting in addition to performances by our chorus.
P3 -1st grade will be on 12/13 at 6:00 PM
2nd -5th grades will be on 12/14 at 6:00 PM
How Bulldogs Keep in Touch!
Email: riviera@rivieraschools.com
Website: rivieraschools.com
Location: 6800 Nervia Street, Coral Gables, FL, USA
Phone: (305) 666-1856