Nest

Photo: Public Domain, http://iwallfinder.com/birds-collection/the-third-series-of-birds-photo-9997

Hasn’t school always held more than a frisson of danger?

Knuckle-rapping nuns, fears of embarrassment or social ostracism, gangs, test anxiety, over-loaded backpacks, predatory drug dealers, bullying and now suicide-provoking cyber-bullying, the latest school shooting: there clings to school a nagging narrative of peril.

In a school of repetitive classrooms on locker-lined hallways, where do you hide?
Where do you go when you need to be alone?

“School cultures reflect the greater competitive environment of global capitalism”…that quote from an article in the Atlantic titled “High-Stress High School, What’s the balance between preparing students for college and ensuring they aren’t killing themselves in the process?”. Not metaphoric killing: the real thing.

If these monumental tools of teaching, these fantastically expensive levers of learning, our schools, would be anything more than blunt hammers of culture, then we might consider spaces that support and protect instead of expose or challenge.

By enabling and ennobling solitary or small group activity, supportive nests offer a counter-narrative to, or at least a valuable respite from chronic and debilitating stress. It supports the possibility that students might be nurtured at school, that school might offer some psychological safety, and that students as individuals might be fully seen and heard and cared for and about in a school setting.

An environment can offer solace.