Every Year Is a Journey

There is something special about autumn at Serendipity. Even when children are returning to a familiar campus, there is still so much that is new. A new classroom. New teachers. New routines. New friendships. New expectations. Inevitably, a new version of themselves begins to take shape. 

This year, we are thinking about that experience through the lens of the Hero’s Journey. Joseph Campbell wrote about the patterns that show up again and again in stories across cultures. Someone begins in the familiar, steps into something unknown, meets challenges and helpers along the way, and comes back changed by the experience.

 That feels a lot like a year at school.

Our kids may not be heading off to slay dragons, but every day they are being asked to venture just a little beyond what they already know. They encounter a math problem they cannot solve…yet. They share an idea they aren't completely sure about. They try a new material in Art, take a risk onstage, figure out how to join a game, work through a disagreement with a friend, revise a piece of writing, build something that doesn't work the first time…and then figure out what to try next. This is the messy and invigorating work of learning. And just like any adventurous  hero, they don't make the journey alone. Teachers, classmates, families, and friends all become guides and companions along the way.

Our three trimesters will follow this journey through Individuality, Discovery, and Community. 

We begin with Individuality. Who am I? What do I bring with me? What makes my ideas, interests, strengths, experiences, and ways of seeing the world uniquely mine? This is where student voice and ownership begin. Before children can confidently venture outward, they need opportunities to know themselves, see themselves reflected in their learning, and know that who they are and what they bring to our community matters.

From there, we move into Discovery. This is where things can get especially interesting! Discovery asks children to stretch beyond the familiar.  To wonder, investigate, experiment, take risks, change their minds, and sometimes get things completely wrong. We want our students to experience learning as something they actively do, rather than something that simply happens to them. There is so much growth in that middle part, when an answer isn't immediately obvious and children have the time and space to wrestle with an idea, follow a curiosity, ask a new question, or discover a path they hadn't expected to take.

By the final trimester, our focus grows outward toward Community, because a hero's journey isn't only about what happens to the hero along the way. It is also about what they bring back with them. For our students, that might be new knowledge, greater confidence, empathy, a new skill, a changed perspective, or the realization that their ideas and actions can have an impact on others. “Who am I?” and “What can I discover?” begin to grow into “What do I bring to my community?” and “What can we create  and understand together?

Of course, none of this happens in a perfectly neat line. Learning rarely ever works that way.  Children will move forward and circle back. They will have moments when they feel wonderfully capable and others when they need a little more support. They will ask for help, change their minds, practice something again and again, surprise us, and very often, surprise themselves. Our job is to give children the space, support, and encouragement to keep going.

By June, every child’s journey will look different, and that is exactly the point. We are not hoping that every child ends up in the same place. We are hoping that each child can look back and see how far they have traveled. Here is where I started. Here is something that challenged me. Here are the people who helped me. Here is something I discovered.  Here is how I have grown.

Maybe that is one of the loveliest things about a school year. Children begin the year as themselves, and through all of the wondering, risk-taking, friendship, challenge, and discovery, they somehow become even more themselves along the way.