Celebrate INTERdependence
Parents rejoice when their child takes their first step alone, when they can tie their shoes by themselves, or when they can read their favorite book without any help.
Teachers praise and reward students when they can complete a project without any assistance, correctly solve a difficult math problem, or independently write a well-constructed essay.
Parents and educators often set goals for students to perform certain skills independently.
When we only emphasize students performing tasks independently we lose sight of the interconnectedness that gives us the ability to learn and grow with and from each other.
While there is value in becoming more independent, what do we lose when we don’t also recognize the value of INTERdependence?
Archbishop Desmond Tutu defines INTERdependence as – a person is a person through other people.
As humans, we can’t exist in isolation, we thrive through interconnectedness. This goes beyond what is typically thought of. It’s more than relying on others such as doctors, mechanics, grocery store clerks, and first responders.
Yes, we all need other people in our lives to share their skills that we don’t have. But INTERdependence goes deeper than that. It’s that real connectedness that makes us a human family.
It’s about the genuine relationships we have with each other, the realization that each of us possess strengths, gifts and talents that add so much richness to each other’s lives.
When we separate, marginalize or merely tolerate people based on differences we lose opportunities to become the most that each of us can.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once declared, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.
Do our classrooms and communities reflect this sense of interconnectedness?
Does each student belong, participate, and contribute?
Or are some students excluded, uninvolved and disenfranchised?
Separating students diminishes the balance with each other. We lose the opportunity to recognize we have our own gifts that make us unique, while others have gifts we don’t. This wide range of gifts and perspectives bring richness to our classrooms and communities that cannot be replicated by being independent of each other.
As our country celebrates our independence on the 4th of July, let us also celebrate the beauty and need for INTERdependence.
