Dear P,

As we wind down summer and prepare for a new school yearhaircut, gym shoes, another trip to the ice cream shopyoure feeling excited: you got the teacher you wanted, your Grade 3 classroom will be upstairs with the big kids, and you have a plan for how to decorate your locker. Youve grown so much in just two years at our neighborhood school; Ill never forget how you begged us for a day off after your second day of first grade, and now you wish you could go to school seven days a week.

This year, youll get to learn the recorder in music class, and the librarian has a special book club for your grade. Itll be your last year in Walking Club, but there are enough Fridays to collect plenty more shoe charms. Its going to be great.

As you know, I have a lot of opinions about school. And as I know, some of these opinions frustrate you. Please understand these opinions arent specifically about your school or you as a student. From a young age, I have been fascinated by how we learn and how we teach, and by the connection between learning and identity (who we are). I chose a college major, graduate school concentration, and career through which I could explore my questions, and my interest has yet to wane. You are a new lens through which I can view things, but Ive been thinking about this stuff for more than two decades.

Heres my love-filled advice for you as you continue your path as a learner. Maybe youll think about some of this while youre walking laps Friday mornings. Probably not, since most of this wont make sense to you until youre a lot older. Possibly youll disregard it. Definitely its only my point of view, and someday I would love to hear if and how yours differs.

Ive organized my thoughts into gifts, in homage to Friedrich Froebel , the creator of kindergarten, who designed learning objects (which he called gifts ) for children. (You know the tangrams we love? Those grew out of one of Froebels 10 gifts.)