Partnering to Develop the Whole Child

With any good story, there’s usually a protagonist, or hero, that others rally around to achieve a common cause or goal. Heroes are selfless, bold, courageous, caring and steadfast. Heroes are easily identified; their struggle is real and felt by those following in their footsteps. Sometimes heroes go it alone and other times they achieve great things with the wind of many at their back.

Within our Don Benito community, we don’t have to look hard to find heroes like this. They lighten the load when it gets heavy. They step forward when challenges are great. They make the difficult seem easy (but we know it’s not). And we can see that they are there to help facilitate the joy of learning and make the story of education whole, for every child.

Just who are these heroes?

They are you. Through engagement in and around the classroom. By serving as room parents, science docents, art docents, readers, staplers, blue folder fillers, table washers, fundraisers, painters, gardeners, box carriers, pencil sharpeners, photocopiers, carnival organizers, tutors, poinsettia deliverers, line leaders, you give something of yourself that, while measurable in time, truly incalculable in value.

They are our teachers. They are the catalysts of learning. They greet your children with a smile in the morning and send them home with a hug in the afternoon. And in between, they enable discovery on every level. Don Benito teachers and staff are some of the finest of their peers and they collectively bring decades of experience to the table in ensuring that the knowledge your child gains is the right stuff to position them for success throughout their lives.

Our PTA program and service models are focused this year around a what we call the Classroom Partnership for a Whole Child and it builds on several core service components: First, it goes without saying that the teacher is the cornerstone of the classroom (and we are so lucky to have such marvelous teachers). Second, room parents embedded in each classroom help coordinate teacher communication and day-to-day support logistics to families. Third, art and science docents promote enriched learning and then finally, the family… those that nurture learning at home.

We think it’s fitting to honor all who come to this partnership and to give others who might participate a real incentive to become a part of the story. And so, our operating theme for this school year is Heroes of the Classroom and we think it delivers on our vision that a whole classroom builds whole children.  Our children look up to heroes, and their vision of the world is crafted by heroic ideals.