A New Life, A New World

I haven't posted recently because although we've been open and working, life has taken over every free moment of my time, literally! Meet me precious granddaughter. Audrey Elise was born October 5, 2011 at 11:13 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and was 21 inches long.







So when I'm not working with other wonderful children, I'm holding this precious little one. I'll be posting again soon, but some things in life are just so important that everything else, especially blogging, pales in comparison.

Grace

I was speaking to a young lady about all the wonderful things that are going on at Ivy League-West this summer. She was very excited and told me how her sister was majoring in child development. She went on to tell me how much she's learned from her sister and how now she sees parents at the grocery store and just wants to walk up to them and tell them how wrong what they are doing is.

I smiled. I remembered being 18 and working at a preschool with women in their 60's who still, to my dismay, referred to themselves as baby-sitters. At staff meetings I raised my hands eagerly with bright eyes to share all the things I had learned that they could not possibly know. Did I mention they were in their 60's? I blushed. I remembered being 21 and doling out parenting advice like it was going out of style to parents who had not requested it. I sighed. I remembered seeing, perhaps the very parents she's referring to and feeling like handing them my business card and telling them that parenting doesn't have to be so darn difficult.

I looked at this young girl and confronted what I do every day. How can I correct her misconception without stifling her enthusiasm. This is what I told her;

"Well yes, I've been there too. I see parents struggling at best, being completely inappropriate at worst and I too sometimes want to speak up, but then I remind myself that I'm looking through a very tiny window in what is a small part of the day and I don't know what this day has been like for that parent. They could have just received some terrible news or they could be dealing with an illness or they could be doing what's best at that moment for their child who may have a need that I am not aware of. There have been moments where, even with all my training and knowledge, I've snapped at my kids in public. These are moment where I am not at my best. They don't happen often, but if you happened to see me at that moment, you would judge that I was not a good mother, and I am a good mother."

She asked me if I had ever said anything to a parent.

"Yes, actually. If the parent is being inappropriate when they come to pick up their child, I will go over our policies with them and make an appointment to assess if they should continue to bring thier child to me. If it happens while I'm out and about and I don't know the parent, I say a prayer for both the parent and child because it is at moments when we are at our worst that we need God's grace the most. Everyone is doing the best they know how and I just remind myself that that's all anyone can do until they learn to do and be better."

Prayer in School

"As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools."

I read that on a bumper sticker once and it made me chuckle. I've been thinking quite a bit lately about public schools and the situation teachers are finding themselves in. I love teachers. I don't like public schools much. I feel that no matter how much politicians tell us that education is important, their actions tell us otherwise. Long before the debates over cutting teacher's pay or firing teachers to balance budgets came to pass, I had a feeling that the public school system was crumbling. For years now I've been mulling over what factors are leading to the demise of our public education system. Some are obvious. For instance I think it's obvious that we are still teaching children for factory careers that they will have for 40 years and then retire with a decent pension and a gold watch. What someone has failed to realize is that most factories in the U.S. no longer even exist! I think it's obvious that anyone who has a child, or has taught a child knows that child love to learn, that they have an inquisitive nature from the moment they are born, yet we constantly stifle learning by hand feeding children information they then need to regurgitate on a test and rarely follow their inquiries on a path that may lead to them actually learning something.

There are some things however that are not very obvious. I think public schools have no spirituality. I do not say this lightly. I have been and still advocate for the separation of church and state. I do not want a teacher that has different religious beliefs to pass their doctrines to my child as "truths." However, as are the problems when trying to please everyone, me included, we tend to go too far in one direction and that is never good. I think that what has happened is that in an effort to be inclusive and culturally sensitive we've excluded all religious culture and sanctity from our school and this has not served our children well.

I believe all people have a spiritual side, if not a spiritual connection to a creator. I call that creator God, but I have no issues with anyone who disagrees with that. I think religion is personal and for some a private matter. Spirituality is not religion. Spirituality is the connection we have with each other, with nature, with the animal kingdom and if you are a believer, to God. Excluding this type of spiritually from a child's life is quite damaging. A child that cannot see his connection to a bigger whole cannot see he own worth. A child that cannot see how his actions affect others cannot make wise decisions. When we take spirituality out of the classroom, we take out the very essence that is the value of learning. Learning becomes dry and devoid of life itself.

All this has led me to wonder, why not have prayer in school? Not a teacher led prayer, but moments throughout the day set aside for prayer in whatever form that happens to be for each individual child, a sacred time set aside for reflection. Would the system suddenly crumble? Isn't that happening already?

Here at Ivy League-West, we value the spiritual and sacredness in all life. We say a morning prayer to greet the day. We pause before lunch to say a brief prayer of gratitude for all who worked so hard to get our food to our table. During special celebrations, the lights are turned off and we light candles (the safe battery-operated ones). We do not promote one religion over another, but we do acknowledge that we are part of a bigger picture. We acknowledge our very sacred place in that bigger picture. I like doing that and I know the kids really like it too.