Repair the world

I went to a training day last Monday and we were asked to discuss the answer to this question with the people sitting next to us.

'How do we repair the world with children?' 

The answers that came up at the end were as I expected. "We teach them self-help skills", "We teach them about diversity and inclusion". Three educators from my workplace were sitting with me. They didn't say anything but all turned to look at me, waiting for my answer. I said, "I love them". They all giggled, but didn't make any comments. I said "I'm not joking. It sounds simple but that's my answer".

I've learned something lately that I consider to be very important. I need to be less judgmental of other people's interactions with children. To see someone stand and watch a child crying puzzles me and hurts me because I can't stand to see people suffer. It seems that for some people there is a barrier between themselves and a person who is feeling pain and it is difficult to cross. Maybe this is because their childhood experience is of having their pain unacknowledged.

If this is so, then this is an even greater reason to push through this barrier. We can't repair the world if we have barriers between ourselves and others, if we are impaired in our ability to give and receive love, and if we are unable to show the care and comfort that we feel. We want to create children who are different. Self-help skills and teaching inclusion are not enough to build a world that is safe and whole if people are undernourished in their sense of self-worth.

Self-worth is difficult to acquire if we have not been unconditionally loved and accepted. Love and acceptance of others grows from being loved by others. We put up barriers to protect ourselves and if we know we are loved and accepted we don't need barriers. I believe so strongly that we can teach children many things, but that they learn social and emotional skills primarily through the way that they are treated. We need to show kindness if we want children to be kind. We need to show them care and comfort if we want them to care for and comfort others.

I wish we could be less clinical as educators, stop talking around in circles, stop quoting frameworks etc., and get right to the heart of what matters most. One of the speakers said that she's recently visited some Reggio centres in Italy and found that their focus is now centred on relationships. This is enough for me to remain strong in my belief that this is the best approach. Without love, acceptance, trust and a strong sense of self-worth children will struggle to build friendships, develop their strengths, and learn. Let's cross barriers and 'repair the world!'

What the world needs now

"This is the place of love", one of my boys said as he walked past the art table where the children were making Valentine's Day cards.

This was what I was hoping to create in our kindergarten last week in honour of Valentine's Day. This year we've had more snatching, grabbing and hitting then I'm used to seeing. Gorgeous individual personalities, but many children who have been the only one for three or four years and who are finding sharing and compromising a bit challenging. I'm hoping they can start considering others a little more, and I know they will with guidance because I'm seeing it happening beautifully with last year's children. I see last year's children standing patiently in the line to scrape their bowls, saying nothing, while the younger children push in front of them to be the first in line.

Some of them seem to have arrived with a kind of 'famine' mentality, like they have to grab as much of everything as they can in case there is not enough to go around. I've always reminded the children that we have plenty of everything, so it would be nice if they would offer the tongs to someone else so that they can get their fruit first. Sometimes they do this, and I give them lots of positive acknowledgement for it. When they hurt each other I ask them to check to see if the other person is alright. I don't ask them to say sorry. I want them to stop and acknowledge that someone is hurt whether it was unintended or happened out of frustration.

As well as writing cards to their parents telling them that they loved them, we had some talks about how we can make other people happy. I kept saying that this week it's 'all about love' for Valentine's Day. We had a wonderful, romantic candlelit lunch on Friday. The children picked and arranged the flowers and set the tables. They made sure everybody understood how important it was to be safe around the candles. They were not perfect, there was still competition about the fruit, but they tried. On Friday afternoon, as she walked out with her Dad, I heard one of the girls say, "everybody loves". Well, I'm glad to know that they understood me in theory, if not yet in practice.

It's not just about art

Children's art is about more than just their opportunity to be artists.

Last year I went to see an exhibition of children's art at Gowrie Victoria. Gowrie has the name, the philosophy and the resources. Because of this I was pleasantly surprised to see that most of the artworks that were exhibited were refreshingly normal. Paintings, drawings and collages made by the children using normal paints, brushes and pencils. Although it's lovely for the children to be able to immerse themselves into a wonderland of sensory experiences while making art, the thought processes, the messages that are conveyed, and the creativity that emerge are of equal importance.

Art is not just about children's opportunity to be artists. Art is one of the languages with which children communicate with the world. Art doesn't just display their knowledge, understanding and self-expression, it also enables children to work through the concepts that they're not yet completely understanding. Art should be allowed to be a solitary, uninterrupted experience in which children are able to fully engage with whichever tools they choose to use. Art is about thoughts, feelings and physical experiences. It's about technique, textures, colours, shapes, shadows and perspectives.

I found it fascinating that Gowrie had brought in an artist to work with the children. This was the foundation of the Reggio Emilia centres. Atelieristas (visual artists who were not teacher trained) were employed to work with the children in the Reggio ateliers. We bring in trained musicians for music and movement experiences to supplement educators' limited knowledge of music. The artistic knowledge of most early childhood educators is also limited, so think of the rich experiences for learning that would result from bringing in real artists.

I believe art materials should be available for children every day, but I don't think we need to push art on children. Painting and drawing are two of the languages that children use. Remember the 'hundred languages of children'. Children have so many languages that they use and not all children are drawn to visual art. If communication and meaning-making are the objectives then we need to allow children to choose the languages that fit their temperaments and interests. If art is available and children are drawn to it, they will engage in it. Let's also embrace the scientist, the mathematician, the storyteller, the musician and the athlete. Children will surprise us with their enthusiasm if we allow them to use their preferred languages, and how much fun is that to see?

Sensory involvement

All else could be an illusion.

Recently I heard the term 'sensual involvement' and was re-introduced to the concept that being involved with the world with our senses is essential to our day-to-day happiness. In early childhood we would call this 'sensory engagement'. As humans who are probably only tapping into our spiritual side ten percent of the time most of our life is physical and therefore is all about our senses. Children are spiritually open and so potentially even more spiritually connected than we are. Their mentality, however, is not yet fully developed in that way so they are even more sensuality involved than we are. Personally I have the potential to be far removed from my physical body, with thoughts concerned with future worries or dreams, or uncomfortable realities, and a propensity to forget to be grounded in the present. And of course the present is life. All else is an illusion I suppose.

The great thing about my job is that it forces me to be sensually involved. All of a sudden I'm joining the children in smelling something or tasting something or looking at something. I mean, I would never stop and observe the patterns on the skin of a wiggly worm if they weren't doing it. In my personal life I would never find myself with my hands full of silky, melting corn flour goop, or experience the sensual pleasure of watching white and blue paint meld together beneath my hands into a pot of marbled, sky blue goodness. For sure I would forget to notice a bird tweeting on the fence, or a bee buzzing on the lavender bush. But, no, "Penny, Penny, we saw a spider, come and look!" is exactly what I need to remind me of the incredible reality of the natural world, and which is, by the way, the world that it was naturally conceived that I should live in.

One of the great joys of spending time with children is that they have such enthusiasm for experiencing the world with their senses, so we can take every opportunity to provide sensory experiences for them to enjoy. The delight on their faces when they are sensuality involved blows me away every time. I don't remember feeling that kind of happiness. On one hand you feel like you've done so little, but the children are getting so much out of it. Seeing it makes me happy. So it's win-win. So let's get them outside, get them tasting, smelling, seeing and feeling. Let's expose them to beautiful images, objects and artworks. Let's play music and dance, and dress-up in costumes made of beautiful fabrics. Let's do cooking and experiments. Let's put our feet in the water and our hands in the mud. Let's go out and run in the rain. Sensory involvement is important for children and it's so great for us too.

Autonomy versus group consciousness

I think we need to value both when providing a learning environment for young children.

This is tricky though and it's one of the dilemmas that we face as educators. I would lean slightly towards promoting autonomy, but that's my bias. My goals tend to be more individualized and personal. Our aim in fostering group consciousness is to create people who are connected. Connection to the world and to other people leads to the individual feeling empathy, developing an understanding of the commonalities that exist between people, and beginning to feel that he or she wants to join others in working towards goals and projects that are for the good of the greater community. The idea of seeing ourselves as global citizens is a very important one to me.

We want people to see the similarities between themselves and others if we are to see a world without war and racism. The difficulty is how we go about promoting this in the classroom without impacting on children's views of themselves as individuals. It's not enough to feel a sense of connection to others and a group consciousness if you are still wondering how you fit into the group and what your contribution can be. A group that is working towards common goals can be stronger if the individuals within that group are able to contribute using their strengths and gifts.

So to me the answer is to provide an environment in which children can discover their own abilities and interests. Supporting children's involvement in group experiences enables them to become more aware of themselves in relation to others. It's not so much about encouraging competitiveness as it is about enabling children to find out what makes them special. We can build confidence by drawing children's attention to their strengths. We just have to make sure that we don't preconceive them based on what we are hoping they will be. Children are strong and resilient, but at the same time they are honest, accepting and open. One small influence could change a child's perception of himself/herself in an instant.

We don't want to create children who will walk in lines, we want to create children who will rock the world. If we can encourage autonomy we can create strong, independent creators. If we can create strong, independent creators who are connected, we can build a world where anything is possible. That is the world that I want to live in.