Same Person on the Inside as the Outside

Over the past year I've transitioned to working in a primary school and it has been nothing short of transformational. The quality of the people I work with is ridiculous. One of those people is my good friend Jodie. I wish all my children would've had Jodie as a teacher; the article below that she wrote is but one reason why I think that.

"A tradition in our kindergarten is to end our unit on Creation with a beautiful fall walk at Fleetwood Park. So again this year on a rainy Friday in September we packed up our lunches, put on our raincoats and rubber boots and headed to the park. Children don’t just walk in the park they experience it with all of who they are. They are amazed at a slug, there is great joy in finding a perfect stick to poke with, the colours of the leaves are brilliant and there is nothing but pure pleasure when rubber boots and mud puddles meet. Kids experience the joy that is present in the everyday and the ordinary. That comes from wholeness within them. Their minds, bodies and spirit work together.

Educating for wholeness in kindergarten seems rather natural. Much of what we do takes into account the whole child; who he is and where he comes from. Our plans take into account that children need to experience learning through words, songs and movement. They need to see, hear, feel and move in order to learn. We set the tone for the school year with home visits where we meet each child and their family, one on one. Understanding the child in our classroom and building strong and positive relationship with them helps us understand the needs of our students. Children need to feel safe in a relationship before they can learn. We try to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

Kindergarteners come to school and every aspect of who they are is evident and matters. “I forgot my backpack, I missed the bus, I brought sharing, it’s my birthday, I was mean, I’m tired, somebody pushed me ,I’m so excited to be here, I hurt my knee, I love school, My socks are wet, I don’t want my Mom to go”--these are just a few examples of words that greet us each morning. What is inside the child comes out. If wholeness can be defined as being the same person on the inside as on the outside, then kindergarteners have it. As we deal with situations that arise there are many opportunities to teach our students about seeking justice and how to be a servant leader. Yes, it’s great when you help someone clean up even if you didn’t make the mess.

Yet I want to be intentional about teaching my class that it’s God’s world they are engaging in. When we learn the letters of the alphabet, we learn that God made us with the ability to communicate. He formed us in a way that our teeth, lips, mouths and vocal chords can make different sounds. We can form letters that mean different things and some of us can even put those letters together to make words. It’s not just something that happens, it’s all part of God’s design. We talk about those things while we’re learning the letters of the alphabet. When we write and draw in our journals or create colourful paintings we create beauty. We talk about what kinds of words we use to talk to each other when we work and play and we learn to use words and actions that build community. When we look at the days of the week and the months of the year and the seasons, we discover order. When we recycle paper and plastic from our lunches, we are earth keepers.

Educating for wholeness is what we do every day in kindergarten. It’s intentional and incidental. Frederick Buechner describes a moment where he experienced the holiness of wholeness in this way, “There was no part of me left over to be anywhere other than where I was or to do anything other than what I was doing”. Often, that’s what kindergarteners are like as they learn and interact with God’s world with everything that they are. I saw a glimpse of that at Fleetwood Park and I see glimpses of that every day as we experience learning in kindergarten."