Feel-good post this week.

Our school year is winding down. This week my second graders were rounding out their unit on the Desert Biome with a simple research report on a desert animal of their choice. On the first page, they had details to fill in as “field notes” using information they found online (with my support and guidance of course), and then on the second page they turned those field notes into a detailed paragraph about their animal. They all did so well! But anyway, part of the assignment on the field notes page was to include a sketch of their animal. I was complimenting them on their sketches, and almost as an offhand comment said that I didn’t think I could sketch the animals as well as they had.

Oh, the glorious uproar! It was meant to be a compliment more than anything. But my fabulous second graders weren’t having that kind of negativity, not in our classroom, oh no! Several of them leapt up to point at all of my own paintings that I’d hung up on our walls, some of which indeed included small animals. They told me, “Mrs. K, you’re an artist! Of course you can do this! Look at this painting you did here! And this one! And that one there!”

I must admit I was struck speechless, overwhelmed momentarily by the tidal wave of support from my students. When I got my voice back, I thanked them very much for the vote of confidence (and then encouraged them to finish up their work so we could have snack time). And maybe it sounds silly or pathetic to say that a handful of second graders can make you feel better about yourself, even about something as small as drawing animals. But after a full school year of constantly encouraging and reassuring these kiddos that they can do all the things, urging them to feel as comfortable and confident as they can about themselves…well, I wasn’t prepared to have them return the favor for me, to show me that they know the value of having someone say to them “oh yes you can!” when you’re feeling like you can’t.

You are never too young to give validation, and most especially, you are never too young (or old) to receive validation either.