OPINION: The lessons of Mister Rogers resonate across the Suncoast

From the way our cities work to the way our brains develop, everything about our world stands to be revised, redefined and remade. Young people know this better than anyone because they experience social and technological changes at unprecedented speed. The last few years alone have seen the rise of remote learning; massive social movements; and countless new apps, devices and games. How can we adults possibly keep up?

We can find some answers in a familiar place: Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. For more than 30 years, Fred Rogers showed us how warm, safe spaces for learning allow curiosity and wonder to flourish. He taught us, that learning happens everywhere – and that we learn best when we’re immersed in the learning landscapes of the neighborhoods we call home.

As Ryan Rydzewski and I detail in our book, “When You Wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids,” everything about the Neighborhood was designed to support learning, from Rogers’ songs and stories to his puppets and props. Though we mostly remember him as the nice guy in a sweater, Rogers was so much more: He was an innovator and educator who made the science of child development accessible, applicable and attractive to kids and families alike.

How might today’s parents and caregivers find ways to do the same? That’s the question we’ve been asking here in Rogers’ hometown of Pittsburgh for nearly 15 years, thanks in large part to the efforts of Remake Learning – an internationally acclaimed network of more than 600 schools, libraries, museums and other entities working to spark more engaging and more equitable learning experiences for young people.

Remake Learning has long recognized the crucial role of parents and caregivers. That’s why in 2016 we launched the first-ever Remake Learning Days, the world’s largest open house for the future of teaching and learning. With hundreds of family-friendly events focused on the arts, technology, outdoor learning and other themes, the festival does what Rogers himself did: bring the latest in teaching and learning directly to families.

Remake Learning Days has since expanded across America with 17 regions producing their own festivals. The Suncoast region of Florida, with support from the Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading and The Patterson Foundation, recently produced an extraordinary inaugural Suncoast Remake Learning Days. With 150 events held throughout Charlotte, DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties, more than 10,000 neighbors attended the festival.

The Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading worked with more than 160 nonprofits, businesses, schools, religious centers and arts and cultural organizations to host this year’s festival.

As anyone who attended knows, remaking learning is about more than building a workforce. It’s about raising creative, curious, caring citizens. It’s about building stronger, more inclusive communities; a more robust, equitable region and a more loving, compassionate world.

“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is,” wrote Rogers. “Each of us has something that no one else has or ever will have – something inside that is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”

This is, after all, the true purpose of learning – and it is why we must work to remake it.

Gregg Behr is the executive director of The Grable Foundation and the founder and co-chair of Remake Learning.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: The lessons of Mister Rogers can reshape how we learn in the Suncoast