Emotional Security

All learning has an emotional base.

Plato

For over twenty years, I attended teacher workshops at The National Gallery of Art, The National Portrait Gallery, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I was treated to posters, exhibition catalogues, interesting lectures, conversations with fellow educators, after-hours access to popular exhibits, and food. Really nice food.

I have a file cabinet and a bookshelf full of resources from those experiences along with memories—wonderful although many are vague.

One piece of information I never forgot was this: Children need to be emotionally secure to learn. If children aren’t learning, examine their emotional security. If you aren’t learning, examine your emotional security. I don’t know why emotional security was part of an art lecture, but I’m glad it was. I wish I had known it before my children were adults.