HEALTHY BALANCE
Everything I Really Needed to Know
I LEARNED IN LIFE CLASS “Learning to maintain happy, healthy, and balanced lifestyles empowers students to live out Ensworth’s mission and become positive contributors to society.”
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ll schools have established curricula to help students develop the hard skills they will need to be college and career ready. Older educational journals refer to the basics as the “three Rs” of reading, writing, and arithmetic. But what about other “Rs” such as respect, relationship, and resilience? These soft skills help students succeed in leading healthy, balanced lives and are cultivated thoughtfully and intentionally through Ensworth’s Life class curriculum.
As Director of Counseling Dr. Ellen Reynolds recalls, the Life class curriculum has been in place at Ensworth since the 1980s. Over the course of the program and its growth, the classes have continued to address many of the same topics while incorporating new materials that better fit the time or relate to issues that are current within the community. “We use at least 40 different resources, and ultimately, we always try to tie everything we do back to our Mission,” she says. Dr. Reynolds and fellow counselor Shari Harjo plan and collaborate together, keeping running Google Docs so they can easily shift and change things as needed. Dr. Reynolds shares, “The teachers work closely with us relative to topics and issues that are timely. And we also build off many student-led discussions and ideas. Life class is fluid; we don’t mind getting off-topic if something arises that is more important.” In Kindergarten through Grade 3, Life class meets once per month with an additional responsive classroom circle once per month in Grade 3. Kindergarten students begin to learn the characteristics and skills important for living together in a community. Through stories, conversations, games, and poems, students are encouraged to be truthful, to support one another, to express gratitude, to be gentle and strong, and to appreciate and respect each others’ differences. In first grade, students develop an understanding of their relationships with others, their personal responsibility for their actions, and the power of their words. By focusing on responsibility, students examine positive self-awareness, practice making good choices, and learn how to exercise their independence. As Grade 2 students begin to make more independent decisions, Life class helps them to understand the need to be inclusive, the expectation for good manners, and respect for the property of others. In third grade, students start to explore how it feels to fail and how to learn from mistakes. A study of nutrition is incorporated to help students learn the value of making healthy choices.
6 | ENSWORTH ENSIGHTS
