Kids Are Kids

This week I had the opportunity to visit a primary school in London, England and it firmed up a belief that I have long held over my 20 years in education: kids are kids no matter where you go.

I was visiting a 4th grade classroom and near the end of the morning they watched a news program specifically geared toward school age students, similar to CNN 10 in the US. During the news program a story came on about Elf on the Shelf and one of the tricks that was shown was the elf holding playing cards with the numbers 6 and 7. I smiled to myself and waited to see if the 6-7 trend had made its way across the pond and I immediately got the answer to that curiosity as the kids began waving their hands saying "6-7, 6--7,6-7," much to their teacher's chagrin.

Another day I was at the Tower of London and noticed a school group waiting in line to go in and one of the students turned to his friend and said "this is boring." Another kid in line was busily solving a Rubik's Cube to pass the time. Another school group was sitting on benches enjoying a packed lunch as a happy buzz of conversation filled the air.

While circumstances, conditions, curriculum, initiatives, and resources all vary greatly across schools, districts, and countries, at the end of the day one simple truth remains: kids are kids. They get bored from waiting. The come alive during social times with their friends. They enjoy participating in trends, especially ones that irritate their teachers. :)

My experience this week in London makes me wonder how we can create more cross cultural collaboration opportunities because many of the challenges that schools face in both places are similar. As well, many of the approaches to these challenges are similar. However, what is most similar is that what connects schools across the world is that at the end of the day, kids are kids.

solving a Rubik's cube