By Dan May
Rotary Club of Orange
Dan May
One of the most enjoyable community Rotary events in which members participate is our annual winter visits to Orange’s three elementary schools – Turkey Hill, Race Brook and Peck Place. The visits formally are identified as literacy events that promote reading to all children in the second and third grade classes at these schools.
Some of the gifted storytellers in the Rotary club – this year notably Trish O’Leary-Treat and Theresa Rose DeGray – read aloud to the second graders from a children’s book authored by club members from the Rotary Club of Fairborn, Ohio. The book is titled “Andy and Elmer’s Apple Dumpling Adventure” and describes how a young boy partners with an older neighbor to start a business together using the values of Rotary’s four-way test: truthfulness, fairness, goodwill and reciprocal benefit. It is a 15-minute storytelling, also widely viewable on YouTube, Facebook and even PBS sites. The kids go home with a related activity guide and are often excited about both baking and entrepreneurship.
Third graders all receive a hard copy of a combined dictionary/reference guide for their personal use. Club members help them learn to use a dictionary to expand their vocabulary as well as peruse the reference guide, which includes a bit of everything from our nation’s founding documents to sign language symbols. They also get a chance to read aloud the longest work in English noted there – all 1909 letters long. Paper dictionaries are old school, but are still the fastest and broadest way to explore the world of words. It is a fun time for club members, as the kids are great and the teachers and staff delightful.
It was particularly enjoyable for me as my youngest child is 30 now, and it had been 20 years since I was last in an elementary school. I noted many changes across that generation. Some changes were expected, especially with regard to educational technology. Every classroom had interactive digital whiteboards and few rooms had surfaces to write on by hand. Some security-related changes were also anticipated, but two sets of locked main doors protected by a security guard and CCTV cameras and monitors subdue the mood a bit for first-time visitors. Other changes were unexpected but very welcome – especially the presence of multiple teacher aides assisting with special needs children.
Special needs are sometimes visible – including mobility, speech, hearing and vision impairment – and considerable progress has been made in assisting students with these challenges. Other cognitive learning disabilities also are much better appraised and addressed in schools today. Less well addressed, however, are varieties of acute or chronic emotional and mental health challenges that impact even our youngest community members. Social emotional learning approaches are core to teaching in Orange elementary schools, and the Orange Rotary Club will soon be supporting activities and projects to supplement current district efforts to help young children address anxiety, toxic stress and bereavement – whatever the source.
Mental health is an increasing area of focus for all of Rotary International. Concerns exist across all age and demographic groups, and increasingly are noted in the media. I watched from the sidelines in a university role as staffing for psychological services grew more than three-fold in a decade. It was sad to see how much so many college-age students were (and are) struggling.
When our club began to look at ways that Rotary might help in the Orange community, one consistent message was for early intervention and assistance. We initially thought this would mean high school or middle school activities (and there are significant needs there), but it was evident that work with younger people was likely to be more effective. It is estimated that 10 to 15 percent of elementary school-age children and their families or caregivers would benefit from supplemental mental health services, to help children both learn more and grow interpersonally.
Meeting this need is fiscally challenging, but also operationally difficult to implement, since diagnoses and/or requests for mental health assistance are still somewhat stigmatized. And insurance coverage is often spotty.
But there is probably nowhere as supportive an environment as an Orange elementary school setting to add more assistance and foster community awareness.
The Orange school district will pilot some new programs assisting elementary-age children and families with these needs beginning this spring and continuing into next fall. Proposed activities added under Rotary club sponsorship will integrate district teaching emphasis on social emotional learning with school psychologists and social workers, parents and third-party counselors. Check in here for future updates.
Dan May is the president of the Rotary Club of Orange.