Silent No More: How a Learning Community Helps Every Child Be Heard

Silent Beginnings

It was around 2015, and I was working in Johannesburg. In our learning community was a boy I’ll call Sven. His family had just moved to South Africa, and at school, he went silent. He didn’t talk in class, on the playground, or even on the bus. At home, he was apparently a blabbermouth—but at school… nothing.

We tried all sorts of workarounds to help Sven communicate. We could see he wanted to, but he just didn’t feel comfortable getting the words out. We weren’t reaching for the moon and stars, we just needed to help him find safe and comfortable ways to share his thinking.

In the second semester, my husband and I decided to run a robotics after-school activity for students in grades 2–8. The kids had a blast—they built, troubleshot, broke things, programmed, tested, and rebuilt. Big kids and little kids working together, learning from one another, really flipped my thinking about who the real educators were because in a robotics space, it certainly wasn't me!

What went unnoticed, though, was one of the seniors who quietly worked in the corner on his own project: building and programming a mini-Segway. Calibration issues kept it falling over. The other students didn’t pay much attention—he wasn’t part of the activity, after all.

Over time, Sven noticed. He watched. He sketched ideas on the table, pointed out possibilities to his friends, and finally—one day—he spoke up. Without words, he tried to explain his drawings to Segway Senior. At first, it didn’t click—the sketches didn’t fully communicate the ideas in Sven’s head. Frustration set in and Sven started to talk. He explained his ideas and debated what could work and what couldn’t.

And he did it out loud.

I stood in the corner, tears streaming down my face. The boy was talking. Ideating. Imagining. Arguing. Articulating. And, for the first time at school, he was being heard.

The Power of a Team

This moment made me reflect on how learning is often judged in isolation. Report cards parcel students into subjects—language, math, design, PE—and teachers write comments in their own “lanes.” Few people ever see the whole child.

In a learning community, more eyes are on every student—across subject areas (you’re not the only math teacher), on the playground, in after-school activities, during activities, at celebrations, or as a leader in school government.

Sven wasn’t “my student”—he belonged on another teacher’s homeroom roster—but because our team communicated and shared observations, I got to know him across multiple contexts. I could see his barriers, his strengths, and the small ways he was trying so hard to express himself.

In a learning community, no single educator carries the full weight of responsibility. Ideas, strategies, and insights flow freely. One teacher notices a student struggling with language, another sees their creativity spark, and yet another nurtures their leadership potential. Together, we can paint the picture of the whole child. We were all Sven's teachers. And we carried his communication barrier together.

If I hadn’t worked in that team, one that recognized they couldn’t be all things for all students, I wouldn’t have known Sven, understood his barriers, or been in the corner boo-hooing in the robotics lab. I wouldn’t have seen the transformative power of collaboration, trust, and collective efficacy in action.

I share this story as yet another reason why learning communities work. When teachers share responsibility, trust one another, and keep more eyes on each child, students like Sven have space to experiment and grow in ways no single teacher could facilitate. For some, it’s even the first time they’re truly heard.

The Legacy of a Voice

By the way… I don’t know what happened to Sven (this is the challenge of many elementary teachers). He’s likely heading off to college this year and off doing amazing things.

What he probably doesn’t know is how he inspired Segway Senior, to complete his creation... and who now works at Boston Dynamics, building highly mobile robots. I’d like to think Sven’s ideas helped shape something incredible.