Over the course of the past few weeks, the “other duties as needed” section of my job description at Makom has expanded to include the following: soccer-ball-blower-upper, World Cup-playlist-creator, and amateur agility course builder.
Reader, you may be wondering: what does listening to World Cup music, kicking around a soccer ball, and running through kid-created obstacle courses have to do with Makom’s mission to build Jewish educational spaces anchored in families’ needs where adults and children co-create their environments with curiosity and joy?
My shortest answer is that I have had the joy of co-creating a soccer elective with some Makom kids on Friday afternoons. My longer answer starts with the firm belief that my job as an educator is not to just teach kids things that I already know, but instead to adapt the educational spaces that I facilitate to better meet their questions, interests, and needs.
On Fridays, Makom kids engage in a variety of electives to help us get into the spirit of rest and togetherness before coming together as a community for Shabbat rituals. Electives might include playing board games, doing puzzles, and participating in a kid-led Dungeons and Dragons campaign. While these kinds of semi-structured electives can be fun, relaxing, and connective, they have proven harder to engage with for a specific subset of Makom kids who are itching to release pent-up energy at the end of a long week.
A few weeks ago, two of our 4th-grade learners came to the Makom educators with an idea for a soccer elective. They proposed to spend the remainder of the winter teaching agility and ball handling skills to a group of younger kids, then to go to the park for scrimmages once the weather warmed up. To be frank with you, I was skeptical at first. Finding a space to safely kick around a soccer ball within our indoor space would be difficult, and these learners had spent the last few months of Fridays eschewing all other elective options in an attempt to instead wrestle each other on the rug. However, they had a solid proposal – firm ground rules for safety, a few weeks of working with younger kids on basic skills, and then scaling everything up to scrimmages in the park. Just like every other kid at Makom, these learners deserved the chance to not only bring in Shabbat with something that brings them connection and joy, but to step into their leadership skills and live up to Makom’s very name: a place where you can become the person you are meant to be.
What has happened since then is perhaps the greatest show of 4th-grade leadership that I’ve ever seen. These learners know how to get creative with drills in a small indoor space, how to deliver safety guidelines to younger kids so that they will listen and follow them, and how to encourage the younger learners enough to continue to grow their skills without scaring them off. I let them lead with their ideas, taking a supportive role and providing bits of guidance and feedback along the way, but ultimately letting them run the show.
Now, every Friday, our back classroom is transformed into a soccer gym. At any given moment, a few kids are stretching by the wall, others are shepherding a soccer ball through a line of orange cones, and others are shooting on a makeshift goal under a table. Best of all, it’s all orchestrated by two 4th-graders, weaving between groups and giving instructions like they’ve been doing it their whole lives.
All kids – even and especially those who struggle with the structures we’ve laid out for them – deserve the chance to share their ideas, take ownership, and shine. It is our job as educators to see our learners for who they are, to listen to their ideas, and to get creative in how to make them happen. Here’s to a spring full of renewed commitment to our learners, creative and reflective teaching practice, and maybe even getting a little better at soccer.