The Raw Power of the Expected Surprise

October 29, 2020

In last week's column, I talked about how the most relevant superhero costume for Halloween is probably a set of scrubs. For today's column, I bring you another superhero: a teacher.

My friend Tom Paster is the vocal director at Northern Highlands Regional High School in New Jersey, and he also directs their award-winning a cappella group, Highlands Voices. When COVID hit in March and in-person classes were canceled, Tom noticed students tuning out instead of logging in, and realized that this super-stressful situation would require extra incentive to keep students engaged. So he decided to give them an extra-happy little push: a compelling reason to pay attention. Each day, for the rest of the semester, he assembled a different wacky costume from stuff he found around his house. Every. single. day. And every morning, his students would log onto Zoom to see what he looked like. It was a lot of costumes. But it worked.

Fortunately for his friends, Tom also posted photos of his crazy outfits to Facebook, so it became a reassuring little nightly routine for the rest of us during the worst of the lockdown. It combined the restorative power of a soothing ritual with a little jolt of joy and a guaranteed smile.

We all need something to look forward to, and if we plan surprises our family can count on, it will make the weeks feel brighter. Expected surprises can be games, or art, or meals, or activities, and they don't have to cost anything. You can come up with all the ideas yourself, or spread the responsibility among family members... it just requires some planning to get going.

The team at KidsOutAndAbout is busy compiling an article of ideas to get you started, and it should be available in the next week or two... but we'd love it if you'd lend a hand: After all, 360,000 people are incredibly powerful when we brainstorm together! Please email your suggestions for how to infuse regular little surprises into ordinary family life to me at deb@kidsoutandabout.com.

Like so many creative teachers this year, Tom put on a superhero costume in March and never took it off. We can't wait to help you do it too!

—Deb