Keisha Harris, acting principal of Ridgewood Avenue School, is leading the Capturing Kids’ Hearts program that is being implemented at the school.
Capturing Kids’ Hearts, a program focused on building teacher/student and student/student relationships was implemented last year at Central, Forest Avenue and Linden Avenue schools. This year it came to Ridgewood Avenue School.
“The teachers train to build relational capacity with children,” Acting Principal Keisha Hariss explained last week in her office.
She added that staff and instructors are to engage with the students before lessons begin, in an effort to relieve a child’s social anxiety. There was a quote, she said, that held the meaning of the program.
“People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care,” she said.
Teachers were more facilitators within the internet world and “a lot of things are relational with teachers and each other.
“The process helps students begin great relationships with each other,” she said and the program will give the teacher a framework for discipline.
“There’s no one-two-three,” she said. “Teachers automatically think about discipline, but there are steps before that. It’s good to keep a relationship intact.”
Does that work 100 percent of the time?
“No,” she said, “because we’re people. But if I have poured enough into the child, the child knows I care for them. So, if they’re called into my office, they know I care for them. I want to make sure I have a relationship with them.”
Harris said she did not want to come across as a rules-oriented principal because sometimes the kids are right.
“The entire school has a social contract,” she continued. “Everyone falls under those rules. Watching the tone of our voice is a big one. Or not putting anyone down. The kids can call me out if I’m not being respectful.”
But sometimes discipline is necessary. Capturing Kids’ Hearts does not rule that out, she noted, but children have to know there is always redemption.
She said that social, emotional and learning programs or SEL are popular in most schools.
“SEL is the big umbrella; Capturing Kids’ Hearts comes under SEL,” she said.
The program is made possible through the Glen Ridge Educational Foundation.
“The grant pays for training and a website,” Haris said. “A strategist tracks the data.”
Data includes student suspensions, attendance and volunteering. Harris said this was a big one because some kids do not feel safe getting involved. And the program works into the school guidance department.
“The program helps with the school culture,” she said, “Because all teachers and students are speaking the same language. The program codifies the language for teachers and it shows them how to build relationships. It doesn’t take the place of the guidance department.”
At the end of the year, staff, students and teachers will be surveyed.
“I want the kids to have agency,” she said. “I want them to decide. Sometimes they won’t make the right choice, but they’ll have the chance to make another choice, too. We were kids once, we have to remember that. We have to have empathy.”
She wants the students to feel empowered unlike when she was a kid.
“Adults were always telling you what to do,” she said. “I want the kids to choose and understand the natural consequences of their choice. Ultimately, we’re adults and make them safe. But let them make the decision.”
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