PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A creative unit is helping show seventh-graders at Presque Isle Middle School that being different is OK, and that everyone has their own unique strengths and abilities.
According to Kevin Sipe, English/social studies teacher, a yearlong goal of the seventh grade is to help students build empathy and understanding for all.
Sipe recently brought his students to the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library where they helped with the day’s “Toddler Time.” They interacted with children during story and song time, helped them make a craft, and then broke into smaller groups where they read to the children and played games.
“As bullying in schools continues to be a problem, having students interact with the toddlers helps them understand the value of everyone,” said Sipe. “How better for them to see the value in all than to watch a mother interact with her toddler — and to see the unconditional love and acceptance that a mother gives to a toddler — and to remember that everyone is still someone’s little boy or girl no matter how old they are. I tell them that they would never think of doing anything mean to that little toddler, yet why are people willing to do something mean to someone who’s 12 or 13 years old?
“Additionally, students get a chance to interact positively with the toddlers and share their goodness and have their goodness reinforced by the toddlers who are non-judgmental and welcoming of all as we want our students to be,” he said.
Sipe said the Toddler Time activity fits into both the English and social studies curriculum.
“In social studies we’re talking about issues of anti-bullying, acceptance of others, and differences, and we’re finishing a unit on prejudice and discrimination,” he said. “This is a way to get the kids out into the community and interact with different age groups and people of different abilities.
“We’ll also do an exchange with OTC, we do a visit to the nursing home, and we try to expose the students to different members of the community that they might not always see on a regular basis and give them the sense that it’s one big community and they’re not just this isolated school separate from the rest of the world,” said Sipe. “It also fits in with English in that we’re looking at literacy skills and reading, so it has those components, as well.”
Sipe, who has been bringing his students to the library for the anti-bullying unit off and on for the last seven years, said the project is also good because it allows the students to “get out of themselves a little bit.”
“Sometimes students can be focused on themselves and their own needs and interests, so this forces them to focus 100 percent on what they can do for this little person,” he said. “They’re all focused on making someone else happy or trying to help someone else do something. They like giving of themselves, and they find that doing something nice for someone else is much more gratifying than ever being a bully or being mean to someone. There’s a deep satisfaction that comes from that.”
For students Zack Fletcher and Paige McHatten, Toddler Time was a great way to make an impression on some of the community’s smallest residents.
“I think it’s great that we can work with the little kids and make fun crafts,” said Fletcher. “This unit is important because we can have fun with them, and we’re showing them that they have friends and they can make friends and not be bullies.”
“These kids usually don’t have special guests come in, so I feel that they’re really getting more of a social time with older kids. It’s fun for our class, too, because you see all these people that never have really worked with kids before and they’re having a lot of fun,” McHatten said. “It’s important to show kids at an early age to be nice to everyone and to treat others the way you want to be treated.”
Sipe said for many students, Toddler Time is their first introduction to community service which is required by the high school for graduation.
“Students need to break out of the confines of the schoolhouse and see themselves as part of a wider, more diverse community in order for them to truly build empathy and understanding,” he said. “Toddler Time is one step on that journey for them.”
