Maslow before Bloom: Love becomes educational strategy during COVID-19 |
On Board Online • May 18, 2020
By Jeffrey S. Handelman
Director of Human Resources and Operations
With schools physically shuttered but still responsible for educating students for the remainder of the year, it is essential that students feel valued and connected to their schools, according to the authors of books on school culture. You might call it the strategy of love.
On Twitter, educators across the nation have been encouraging each other to show love for students in postings using the hashtag #MaslowBeforeBloom. The phrase refers to the idea that a student's basic needs must be met before one can expect a student to make progress under Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of learning (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating).
According to the famous theory of psychologist Abraham Maslow, basic needs include food, shelter, health and safety, as well as "love and belonging."
"If the human side of things is addressed, true learning can occur at a high level," according to Bryan Pearlman, author of Maslow Before Bloom: Basic Needs Before Academics. The same idea is expressed in the popular phrase "educating the whole child."
Pearlman, who has worked as a teacher, school administrator and mental health therapist, recommends that educators prioritize relationships with students by checking in on them and finding fun, creative ways to show caring.
During the pandemic, that approach has become nearly universal in New York public schools. Heartwarming stories about car parades and other outreach efforts fill newspapers and seem to end every nightly news broadcast.
The strategy of love also can be seen on social media in weekly video messages from superintendents, musical parodies, funny and self-effacing videos and countless photos of teachers holding signs with positive messages.
Now that we are in graduation season, districts statewide are honoring seniors in creative ways. In the Naples Central School (Ontario County), lawn signs say, "NCS Superhero Lives Here." The Sidney Central School District (Delaware County) posted senior profiles on social media including a quote from each student. And school personnel in the Cato-Meridian Central School District (Cayuga County) used a decorated school bus to visit each senior at home and provided them with t-shirts and lawn signs.
Cayuga County sheriff and fire departments provided an escort, and teachers rang cowbells and blew bubbles to announce their arrival.
Can any of that substitute for all that these seniors have lost, including sporting events, proms, graduations and other milestones? Obviously not, but neither have the efforts gone unappreciated. "We had a tremendous response," Cato-Meridian Superintendent Terry Ward told On Board. He noted that a district video on the "Class of 2020 Caravan" has been viewed on Twitter and Facebook 10,000 times.
At our request, Ward forwarded some emails he received from students and parents. "On behalf of the high school's student body, I want to take this time to thank you for everything you have done for us during this time and before," wrote senior Jayla Phillips, the student body president. "We appreciate the amount of work you have put in to make the school a better place and to make our lives easier and safe during this strange time."
In a senior essay published in the Olean Daily Messenger, Liam Prendergast of Marcus Whitman wrote: "If this quarantine has shown us athletes anything, it is that we love these sports because of the people they bring us closer to, not solely competing with and against them."
Ithaca City School District superintendent Luvelle Brown contends that love can be an organizing principle for school districts.
In a book entitled Culture of Love: Cultivating a Positive and Transformational Organizational Culture Brown writes that the key is understanding that improving school culture involves changing practices and behaviors, not just expressing feelings and emotions. The goal, he writes, should be to create a "loving economy" where relationship building, trust, patience and forgiveness are the norm.
How will students remember this time? Will all the outreach and expressions of love stick with them in some way?
Your guess is as good as mine. But let me tell you a story about my first grade teacher, Mrs. Fusco, who died last year. When I was sick at home for a few days, Mrs. Fusco visited me to see how I was doing. I can still remember how excited I was to show my beloved teacher my prized childhood knick-knacks, and how happy I was to see her. It is one of my most vivid memories of childhood.