Learning.
When you read that word, what image came to mind?
Not everyone will have the same thought, but we are willing to bet that a great many people will envision a student at a desk in school, listening to their teacher. As a general observation, “learning” primarily refers to the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, or understanding through study, experience, or being taught. Most people associate that with school. The general public tends to believe that “learning” primarily happens in a math, language arts, history, or science class.
But this is quite incomplete.
Learning is more than intellectual study or an acquisition of facts. The academic classes we just mentioned are important, no question. However, when children come to school, they bring their whole selves. They bring their artistic inclinations, eager to engage in the visual arts, dance, and music. They bring their bodies, ready to move and be strengthened. They bring their senses, ready to explore the world through touch, sight, taste, smell, and sound. They also bring their emotions, learned behaviors, social needs, and past experiences.
Due to budget cuts over the years, the arts were adversely affected as school officials, students, parents, and the general public perceived them as less essential, despite abundant evidence to the contrary. Schools were put in the financial position of needing to increasingly focus on educating only part of the child, including here in Pottstown where, for example, our Middle School general music and foreign language classes were cut.
Recently, however, we have seen an increase in basic education funding from the state, a boost in resources from Level Up, and one-time COVID relief funds. With this additional revenue, the Pottstown School District has chosen to prioritize educating the whole child.
Over the past couple of years, Pottstown has been able to use these funds to invest in opportunities for our students so they can expand their horizons on creative, emotional and physical levels. We have established new sports teams like volleyball and girls’ wrestling, increased coaching staff, and added after-school activities like discussion groups, a comic book universe club, a drama club, a “safe house” club, a fishing club and more. Our co-curricular activities, whether they are new additions or have long been a part of our programs, are critical for the overall well-being of students — they facilitate connections within the school community and encourage higher attendance and academic achievement.
Additionally, the Pottstown School District has been able to invest in high-impact curriculum. For example, the new “Fundations” curriculum is addressing some of the basic reading needs of our youngest learners. It is helping to ignite a love for reading and is laying critical groundwork for future success.
Also thanks to this additional funding, we have seen an increase in relational and emotional support, most notably the re-hiring of school counselors at all of our schools. While there is clearly much work to be done in our district and all around the country as it relates to mental health, the addition of these professionals has already made a critical difference in the well-being of our students and the overall culture in our schools.
The progress we have been making in Pottstown School District is due to a commitment to teaching the whole child as well as the increase in funding that allows us to put resources behind that commitment.
We acknowledge that we aren’t where we need to be, both in educational opportunities and adequate and equitable state funding. We continue to lag quite a bit behind our neighboring districts in terms of resources, both academic and otherwise. Therefore, we call on our state leaders to continue the work to provide more equitable funding for under-resourced districts like Pottstown, so that we can keep moving toward a reality where all students have the full educational resources they need to thrive.
The Commonwealth Court of PA agrees. They have ruled that “the PA legislature has failed to adequately fund K-12 schools so that all of our children have access to a high-quality education. Every child in Pennsylvania has a fundamental right to receive a comprehensive, effective, and contemporary public education, and that takes adequate and equitable funding. It is now the obligation of the Legislature to make this constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”
If meaningful learning is our goal, we have no choice but to teach the whole child, to invest in the whole child, which in turn is an investment in each other, in our towns and in the future of our Commonwealth.
Beth Yoder is a Pottstown School District 29 yr veteran art teacher, Teach Plus PA Senior Policy Fellow, FPT President, and Equitable Funding Advocate. Laura Johnson is a Pottstown School District parent, Co-founder of Pennsylvanians for Fair Funding, and Pottstown School District board member; however, the views she expresses here are her’s only and not made as a representative of the board.
