Podcast: Health & Wellness: Being Me, Out Loud

Written and Produced by Caroline Powell

Last year, I was inspired by a Writer’s Workshop in Discovery where learners created their own podcast, and so I made my own podcast for the TVS blog. I had so much fun that I wanted to do it again - so here is the second episode of “The Sounds of TVS”

FADE IN: Learners laughing

That kind of laughter - that real, authentic laughter, the kind that bursts out without any hesitation or worry - that’s the sound of Health and Wellness at The Village School. It’s the sound of learners discovering who they are through play, movement, and connection.In those moments of loud, unrestrained laughter, something really honest comes through. It’s a time when a learner is being completely themselves. 

Health and Wellness is my favorite time at the Village School. We spend lots of time outside, and it’s a time where I get to connect with the learners, and see them each at their most genuine. But sometimes when I talk about Health and Wellness and what we do to family, friends, or acquaintances outside of TVS, I am confronted with lots of questions. 

Mostly, it's an excited curiosity: ““Hold on, you get all this time outside? And you talk about identity and interpersonal skills?”

But occasionally, it’s more skeptical: “So, what are they even learning out there?”

So, I went straight to the source and asked the learners: “What do we do in Health and Wellness, anyway?” and many of them had the same idea: 

“Health and wellness is where we learn about ourselves.”

“It’s something where we go to the park at least once a week and we learn about ourselves.”

“A place to be yourself and be kind”

“It helps people learn about themselves” 

“A time where we can learn to be ourselves and who we are.” 

“Health and wellness is all about learning to be yourself” 

At the Village School, you will often hear the phrase “We believe that who you are is more important than what you know.” 

Facts can be memorized and skills can be practiced, but who you are is something you spend your whole life discovering.  As a character-focused school, self-discovery and character-building are woven through everything we do, but Health and Wellness offers a dedicated space for learners to reflect on who they are, and practice being themselves.

Being able to do this self-reflection requires learners to be open and vulnerable, and that can only happen in a space where they feel completely safe. When interviewing the learners, I noticed just how much pride they had over their community and the culture of acceptance during Health and Wellness. 

“I think health and wellness is a time where you can express yourself and be like, really open and there’s like, no judgement. And its really helpful for you to just express yourself and there’s like no judgement on anything.” 

“Health and wellness is a judgement-free zone where you can freely talk about yourself. It’s just a way to like reflect on yourself and just work on being a better person. 

“Health and wellness is when we talk about our feelings and we’re in a safe environment where in other scenarios you might not be able to talk about those feelings.”

Learners build this space of trust and acceptance for each other, and with that foundation, they feel comfortable to really reflect on who they are and who they strive to be, and that’s where there’s room for character to develop. 

Each Health and Wellness session builds on a theme tied to identity and character such as belonging, or this session, grace and courtesy, that is responsive to what the learners need. For example, if the studios are showing signs that they may need to work on managing friendships we will spend that session doing reflections and activities about friendship skills. One Spark learner gave an example of what activities we might do to explore this theme: 

”We speak about ourselves. We tell people about our emotions and what we do. And we draw pictures!”

And she’s right, of course!  Sometimes there will be picture drawing in Health and Wellness, such as the self-portraits and “I am” poems learners created last session. But that is just one of a whole host of fun activities including small group conversations, journaling, playing a game or role-playing and acting out scenarios that help learners explore their identity, as well as how they treat themselves, and how they treat others. 

Health and Wellness is also a time for studios to bond and build community and learn to live together. Some of this bonding happens during sharing in conversations and learning about their peers during activities: 

“We let each other know more about us.”

But this sense of community is really forged during one of the most crucial elements of Health and Wellness. During this time, each studio has at least 3 hours of outdoor unstructured play a week. For Adventure and Discovery, this is at a nearby park where learners have the freedom to do anything from play in a creek, to swing and chat on the playground, to engaging in the friendly competition of a soccer game. 

During this time outdoors learners can really practice self-expression and friendship. They navigate challenges, listen to one another, and collaborate. This long uninterrupted period of play allows for learners to build community, and resilience, and to grow their own character in authentic, natural ways (see this recent blogpost!). 

So, the learning during Health and Wellness time at the Village School may look very different from solving a math problem, but the learning is deep, personal, and lasting. 

“It helps me feel more calm and I feel more like, not like afraid to like, show my feelings.”

“Health and wellness has helped me make friendships that were meaningful and connect with others more in healthier ways where I was able to have fun and contribute” 

“Health and wellness helped me learn about myself because I have been like really focusing and just writing things that I like find out about myself deep down”

“It has helped to make me learn to like myself more.”

“Health and wellness is very important to me because it’s where I can express my feelings, my real self, and I don’t have to stay silent and just can show a side of me where I don’t always show.”

Each of these voices reveal how health and wellness gives learners the freedom to explore who they are and how they want to show up in the world confidently.  As one learner captured perfectly.

“It makes me feel like I don’t have to hide myself.” 

Health and Wellness is a space for self-reflection, growth, community building, and friendship-making. Most importantly, it is a place for learners to be their full selves, out loud. Maybe even sometimes out really loud, when that authentic laughter bubbles up and can be heard all the way across the park. 

FADE OUT: Learners laughing