As I begin winding the school year down, my conversations with students in classrooms for the year, I am struck by how profound children and youth are when we make the time to hear what they have to say ~ especially about hope.
Yesterday a fourteen year old student eloquently described the difference between caring with and caring for. Because caring was one of his 7 C's of hope I was curious about how he described the difference. But there was another reason. I believe the Hope-focused Service-learning program is more a "caring with" program. The students description of the difference between the two describes why I think the Hope-focused Service-learning program is about caring with. He said, "Caring with is doing stuff with someone else. Like cleaning up the schoolyard together. Caring for is donating to someone or adopting." Caring with means interacting with another person or as another student described co-operating and communicating with someone to create hope.
Teachers, too, shared, books that they thought I should add to the Hopeful Picture Books bibliography that I am creating and will share on my website www.learningtohope.ca in the very near future. Since all books are essentially about hope, the bibliography will be arranged according to discussion themes like perseverance, courage, and imagination.
These conversations feed my hope to start planning for next year!
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