The Kitchen Table

Where did you do your homework after school? Where did you share the ups and downs about your day where someone was listening to you? Where did you let everything out that you had bottled up in front of your friends all day? Where did you ask someone wiser advice about a problem with your best friend or what to say to that cute boy or girl in your class? The kitchen table is the meeting place where many children dump their bookbags, eat a snack, and begin the toturous night of the homework mountain. I'm sure you can hear them...the groans, the sighs, the complaints, the arguing. Then, and if you're not careful you can miss it, very quickly as they begin....something happens. Something good. They share their life. They express what is important to them. I did this as well, as my mom often cooked dinner. She didn't realize what she was doing. I'm sure she was more concerned with what she was cooking and making sure our families chaotic life was in order, answering a call from Dad or helping my sister. However, I watched her so much then. I watched when really listened to me. She didn't have to say anything although she often listened and gave me advice or helped me understand how life works. These moments are often so small and can so easily go by without us knowing.
This evening as I was ready to leave school, I had a boy who was so frustrated about his homwork. He was worried it was going to take forever and that he wouldn't understand what to do. I sighed and told him to pull up a chair to my desk and I would help him after school. We started out with me trying to convince him that it wouldn't take very long. There was some groaning and sighing. However, by the end I realized how important this time was. As he was working out his problems, he began to talk. I let him talk. As I was finishing my things, he talked more. And more. He told me what "REALLY" happened at school. He told me what he did over Spring Break. He told me how he felt about things. He told me why he thinks he says certain things to people. Was this all it took? A chance to listen? I would like to recreate this Kitchen Table experience in the classroom. I am still brainstorming how best to do this. I think it is an important time to teach children their value and importance in this world.