Won't you be my neighbor?

     I think some days that I live in a my own little world. I spend time concentrating on my work, my profession, through reading and growing in my craft, my children, my family, and my friends (although said friends would say I do a lot less concentrating on them than I once did). I use social media for learning. Twitter is my favorite place to learn and collaborate with other educators-teachers and administrators. I also spend time running a house hold such as cleaning, cooking, laundry, paying bills and upkeep of the home.

     It was so super fun last week to have some time to unwind and concentrate only on family and friends. On Friday night, my boys took me to the movies. It was a highly energized “boy” movie and during the previews, I found out that a new movie about Mister Rogers, staring my most favorite actor-Tom Hanks, has been released. I wish I had known because I would have been in that theater rather than the one I was in watching racing cars and loud men talking about fast cars. As it often does when I am bored senseless in a movie, I started thinking about other things. My mind wondered to fun times watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

  

    Growing up in days prior to cartoons 24 hours a day, heck, growing up without cable, my sister and I loved ETV and most especially Mr. Rogers. While Mr. Rogers was my absolute favorite who can’t love to remember Lady Aberlin or Dr. Platypus, Chef Brockett, or Miss Paulifficate.  This show brings back such wonderful memories of my childhood. Next to HeeHaw or the Dukes of Hazard, I think this was the most played show in my house growing up. And this says a lot because our parents only allowed ½ hour of TV a day.

     I told my boys after “their” movie was over that we would definitely be seeing Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. I have made my boys watch Mr. Rogers from time to time and honestly they just were not that engaged. Probably because I am not like my parents and have allowed to much TV time or Tv and video has changed so much that the low key and language development of Mr. Rogers is just not as engaging as I wish it could be for them.  They questioned me as to why this was a “must see” movie. I, probably more than they had counted on, divulged every reason why we had to make this our next movie.

     In a clique way, I explained that everything I need to know I learned from Mr. Rogers. The first is that each person is worthy to be loved and HEARD. Would this world be so much better if we all took up that attitude. All too often we could tackle issues if we recognize that each person has unique experiences, fears, schema, losses and victories that help organize their responses to situations. We really need to do more listening than talking. Mr. Rogers did that so well. He truly believed and lived that one of the characters of highly effective people- seek first to understand before being understood.

     Additionally, Mr. Rogers quickly rose to fame. It did not change him. Nor did he take the role lightly. He took his place as a “TV Star” as an opportunity to help children understand the world around them. We, as educators, may not be on a TV screen, but we have just as an influential opportunity as Mr. Rogers. He once said, "I hope you're proud of yourself for the times you've said 'yes,' when all it meant was extra work for you and was seemingly helpful only to somebody else."  The most effective and most influential teachers are those who say yes more than others. The 8-3 teacher will never understand how influential they could have been and that makes me very sad for them.

     My favorite lesson from Mr. Rogers was to slow down. While this is probably the reason the Rosebros didn’t love Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood, but this show maintained a much slower and thoughtful pace versus the loud, fast paced somewhat silly or incomprehensible cartoons of today. The pace of his show was not only perfect it allowed him to explore issues slowly and thoughtfully and deeply. He did not have the need to “put on a show.” He used his show to develop a relationship with the viewers making them feel valuable and capable of loving and being loved. I often think that Mr. Rogers, being a teacher, would have hated the Teacher pay teacher effect of classroom instruction. He was no frills. He didn’t need the latest and greatest to get the job done. And he took his time. Classroom timing is one of the things that the best teachers do so well. They know when to slow down, reteach, regroup, or move forward. Mr. Rogers did it well and so do masterful teachers.

     And most importantly, Mr. Rogers taught us about being a good neighbor. He was kind to those around him. I, obviously, am not talking about physical neighbors but rather those you spend a lot of time with each day. Mr. Rogers recognized that those around you play an important part in making the world a better and more peaceful place. It meant that you had to get to know those around you. Again, seeking to understand before being understood is most important. Treating others the way you want to be treated is just as important.  How ever can we teach our student to be tolerate when we are not? How ever can we teach our children to respect differences when we talk behind each other’s back? How ever can we teach our children to build a bigger table rather than a bigger fence when we refuse to work harder and share with each other?

     Mr. Rogers said, "We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say, 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes." Exceptional educators understand this as a core value and are heroes. I mean, Mr. Rogers said it, so it must be true.