We Must Reach the Whole Child

So there's this saying in education: "To teach the whole child, you must reach the whole child."

This is a motto that many educators live by each day. We take money out of our own savings accounts. We buy extra groceries. We buy soap and deodorant. We provide clothing, a new pair of shoes, or a back pack when kids need it. It's what we do. We take care of kids.

I work in an economically diverse district. I teach students who live in houses that cost half-a-million dollars. I also teach students who are homeless. In fact, in our district alone, 27 students have been identified as homeless. Across the state of Kansas, 167 districts reported identification of 8640 students:

• 7023 students who are doubled up (living with another family)
• 914 students who are living in shelters, transitional housing, or awaiting foster care
• 166 students who are living in unsheltered areas (cars, parks, campgrounds, temporary trailer, or abandoned buildings)
• 537 students who live in hotels/motels

Several years ago, a few teachers and I started the Buhler Clothing Closet. I bought two shelves with brackets, two dowel rods, and four rubbermade containers. My administration gave me the go-ahead to hang these in our teachers' lounge so that any teacher could access them in a safe place. We knew we had students' whose needs were not being met. We also knew that if students were worried about their appearance or were hungry, they weren't learning to their fullest potential. We didn't know where we were going with this idea, but we knew that we could not ignore the need we were seeing in our students.

Fast-forward to today, and we currently have a clothing closet, food bank, and two blessing boxes for students throughout our building so that they can have better access. These are funded through our educational foundation and teacher/parent/community donations.

Our clothing closet consists of two closets purchased from a local hardware store; one was purchased by a teacher and the other was purchased by our educational foundation. They are simple, but they meet the needs of our students.

Our food bank is stored in the office. We had a few cabinets that were not being used. We also wanted the food to be centrally located so that staff and students could help keep the blessing boxes stocked.

Our blessing boxes are located in two places throughout the building. One is located in a discreet location in the hallway. The other is located in the women's restroom in the main lobby so that we can supply pads and tampons to students. In both locations we provide food and basic toiletries.

None of this is fancy, but it is accessible to students. And to be honest, that is all that matters. We want our students to know they are more than just a test score to us. We want to do what we can to help them. It isn't much, but we know they are using these locations to meet some of their needs. We don't ask anything from our students to use this, we simply encourage students to pay it forward someday. 

All schools can do this. All communities can support kids in this simple way. Aristotle once said, "Educating the mind without educating the heart, is no education at all."

Should you feel moved to donate to your local school, below are some items that we use frequently as Buhler High School. We have found that items need to be grab-and-go, easy to open, and discreetly located.