Recently I attended an open house for a doctoral program where the professor running the information session used the term, “passionate scholars.” When completing her own doctoral program, she came across an article with this title. It intrigued her so much that her thesis stemmed from the topic and she researched what it took to be a passionate and successful doctoral scholar. As she talked, I kept thinking about the phrase, “passionate scholars” in reference to my own students.
What does it mean to be a passionate scholar in Kindergarten? Can young children really be passionate scholars innately or is it something they learn how to do? I think it happens to go both ways.
An example of interactive writing by our class.
To me, I see it in students who come in with their own interests or hobbies that make them excited about learning new things. I see it in children who challenge themselves to keep going even when something new might be difficult for them. I see it in children use their creative thinking to change ordinary things into extraordinary ones. I see it especially as we come into the spring and the children are becoming more independent and confident in their skills and abilities.
In our art workshop, children created their own books with words and pictures. Every child was “passionate” about their book because they were able to choose their own topic. The books will make it home soon, but first we are author sharing them at morning meeting! They love sharing their stories with their peers!
The children have also become passionate about writing. We are doing more modeling of writing as a whole group and children are taking turns “sharing the pen” with me. On Friday, children wrote pieces for St. Patrick’s Day about what they would do if they found a pot of gold. They came up with some great ideas! It is now a class book in our classroom library.
It is our role as adults to model how to be passionate scholars. I’m sure many of you are doing this without even knowing as you answer your child’s questions, or take them for a walk around the neighborhood to look for signs of spring, or even when you are reading good night stories to them. I do it as well at school by modeling the purposes of reading and sharing with children about my interests and hobbies outside of teaching.
One final note, the doctoral program I visited unfortunately turned out to not be quite the right fit for me. It is more for people in higher education rather than K-12 education. Knowing this as I left, I did let the professor know I was glad I came just to hear her speak so passionately! Hopefully soon I will find a program I am passionate enough about to start going back to school!
