The children loved our school - in PreK, in 2nd grade, in 4th grade, and even in 6th grade. Halfway into 7th grade, they usually turned sour, and their behavioral infractions spiked. I witnessed this for a dozen years of working there. Our administrators, for the most part, would just chalk that up to “adolescence.” I did not want to give up so easily on the thought that 8th graders could potentially still love their school.
I made it my graduate degree Inquiry and Intervention project to address this. I learned that the number one predictor of student behavior in a school is the degree to which they feel they belong, that they feel “connected.” Intervention required a budget of maybe $50 and fifteen extra minutes of work each week, but we created three simple initiatives that had the effect of fostering connectedness in the 8th grade. From that point on, that class became the most engaged, happiest, and unified class of graduates we had ever had up until that point.
When we humans feel “at home,” we are much more positively engaged. This applies to 8th graders as it does to humans in any team, neighborhood, organization, or family.
Our goal at S&H Healthy Schools and your goal as a school leader is to help the members of your community feel at home in your school’s culture and mission. If members feel a strong sense of connection to your school as a home away from home, it is likely that your school will grow. Your students will learn better. Your teachers will choose to pass up other teaching opportunities at better paying schools to stay “at home.”
Home is a stable, safe place to be oneself, and to plant emotional and spiritual roots. It is more than a physical place, which is why alumni donors are usually happy to continue giving back to their alma mater twenty, thirty, or fifty years after they physically are no longer there. In so many words, they still feel like it’s home. Some homes do this better than others.
Some schools thrive at helping students, faculty, staff and parents feel connected and rooted. We have learned from these schools, and want to share this with every school.
“Belonging Leads to Believing” is how Frank Donaldson captures this in a phrase from his book 25 Lessons Learned: in 25 Years of Catholic School Development. Schools that thrive do so in large part because they foster a sense of belonging. The corollary is also true, “Believing Leads to Belonging.” Shared root beliefs, clearly articulated, are the spiritual and invisible walls that frame the home.
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