Wow! What a week. Between 70 degree weather and frightening thunder storms and tornadoes that now not two days later has gone to 20 degree weather and a chance for snow flurries, I think we're all slightly confused.
It's play week, and that's confusing enough. Sitting still, being quiet, remembering lines with all the weather changes and worries and on top of it, knowing that something big - Thanksgiving is on the cusp of our next adventure is enough to turn the school upside down, and I need to clean the pig pens - watch out!
Yet amid it all, the hugs and kisses and lap approaches have been abundant. The kids have been loving, fun, and a great growth has occurred. They have rediscovered geometry on the coloring table, and have invested in patterns with colors and shapes and have been wildly coloring some complicated geometric designs. Normally, I despise color sheets, but in this case, the children are using color to satisfy a need for mind order. It's interesting to see what they come up with.
Normally, I'm a sucker for ordinary time. I'm not an occasion person. I love ordinary days that come without fuss. I have to admit that Miss Stacey and Miss Rachel have really taken on the whole play and all the responsibilities and have done a great job. But towards the end, it's a project for the entire school. Everyone has to help.
Yesterday, the outfitting took place;
"Girls wear that."
"Not four hundred years ago."
"Growl"
"You look mah velous, dah ling."
"growl"
And that brings us to another question - ethnicity. One of our beloved parents wanted to know if we paid a lot of attention to race.
My racial preference is for green people with purple heads, but they're rare -- race is a compliment to God. It's as simple as that. One doesn't choose race, God does, and in His infinite wisdom He has allowed us the privilege of several, and each one is more wonderful than the next.
Culture is our compliment to God for what he has given us. The culture options are more diverse and even more descriptive than race, and symbolize in many ways our free will.
Some people are dispensing with culture in favor of this "citizen of the world" approach to living. I suppose that's fine for some, but refusing to attach oneself to a particular culture is a fairly arrogant and alarming thing. Nathan Hale comes to mind.
As for me, I'm a lost dog when it comes to culture. I have always thought I was Dutch - I'm adopted, and I was told by my adoptive parents that I was Dutch. When I found out recently that I am not Dutch at all, I was wounded by the lie and the confusion. I want to have a nationality to admire and be a part of, and I feel as if it's been ripped out of my hands. To adopt one at this point seems too far to go.
I think it's from not having an attachment that I treasure physical and cultural and ethnic participation. Who doesn't love a festival especially as a visitor? Who wouldn't love to visit any part of the world to experience the joy of the people who live there? My preference has always been to visit a village in any one of the African nations. How exciting to exchange lives with someone who lives so differently from us? To taste their food, and watch their children play, and see how they problem solve would be a joy.
I had a chance to go to China, but Miss Judy doesn't get along with airplanes. My preference on traveling is 20 mule team, and it's not feasible to cross the pole with a mule team. I'd rather ride a mule across the mountains than get into an airplane. Mrs. St. Louis feels the same about ships.
Culture and ethnicity are probably the most precious part of our lives, and it is our duty as teachers not only to encourage belief, but pride in every cultural background for the sake of the child and the family he comes from.
Religious views - ditto. As a Catholic, my religion demands that I respect all that is true and holy about any faith. It is part of our teaching. To love one another does not mean to cast aside someone's religious beliefs in favor of my own. The great Catholic missionaries did not go into places forcing belief, they went quietly and tended the ill, and fed the hungry, and shared their homes with any and all who came to them. They did not stay among themselves, they did not keep education for a few, they gave all that they had including their lives, and as a result, people came to be like them. That's the real story of evangelization. Mother Theresa did the same in our own lifetime, and she never once forced anyone to be a Catholic in order to reap the goods she had to offer. Faith is a gift from God, and who am I to try to change that?
So as far as differences among people go, bring 'em on.
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