Life, School, Thoughts, Goodies

"The artist knows he must be alone to create; the writer, to work out his thoughts; the musician, to compose; the saint, to pray. But women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

I got this this morning from my daughter Molly and realize just how true this is. There are times when the world seems just too busy and too demanding, and most of the women I know will opt for the "hot bath." It's a time to pull back and be alone for a while so that the thoughts can begin to fix themselves with some reason and order.

I get up before dawn even on days off and bask in the silence and the deep shadows in my house. I never turn on a light. There's permanent light over the African violets in the dining room, and someone has probably left a light on someplace else. I often leave a light on on the porch for the wild cats to let them know there's food out, and that light shines in the windows.

Deep shadows and silence are a gentle way of starting a day, of being alone with your thoughts and your needs. Sometimes a person's needs are put away for the needs of another. I always thing people are at their best when they lose themselves in the needs of others. There is a real sense of achievement which builds real self esteem that comes from within rather than from without. We try to teach the kids this.

Yesterday we hired a beautiful young woman to teach in our first grade classroom. What made her seem so lovely was what she said, "I want to share the experience of teaching." These are key words, golden words. It is only through community and sharing the joy of teaching that real teaching can be accomplished. It sounds absolutely icky, but when one teacher tells a funny story from her classroom and shows another teacher some work or a project and gets a loving response from the other, the desire to work is prompted. It makes all the trials and efforts count and matter. There are days when successes seem few and the work seems like climbing a mountain, so the loving words are like food to someone starving.

When art makes its way to the front hall of the school and is displayed with enthusiasm, when children can recite a new poem, a new song, or understand a new concept like cutting or using glue correctly, it's a time to share.

But what happens when there is no communication between teachers? No stories, no anecdotes, no exchange, no art? What happens when the primary interest moves from the classroom and the children to the mundane lives of the teachers? It's as if the heart of the place has been removed.

There are 168 hours in every week. We talk about this a lot at school. What do you do with your allotted hours? The kids don't have a clue, but someday they will. For a teacher, teaching hours are somewhere between 30-40 a week. Those of us who are serious spend about 5 hours outside of school on school. But that still leaves 123 hours to spend on self, and when the cost of spending on self is supplied by the school, the few in school hours expected should be focused on school. I think it's like that with any job.

So this morning in the deep shadows of my house, I sit and share a few thoughts about teaching.

Yesterday:

We received yet another package from Out of the Box Publications. Matt Mariani sent us yet another game the kids will just love. You can find the web site by clicking here. It's a neat site and these are really child friendly games.

We need to have a game day. It creates a math high and replenishes the social order. Matt sent us three games and there are still a few from the toy test including Matt's game, Snorta. The kids like rounding the board on the Monopoly games, but these games are more manipulative than either Monopoly or cards.

Kaito's grandparents are visiting from Japan. As I was baking them cookies, they arrived, and I asked them to stay for coffee while the cookies baked and cooled. They speak a little English and we had a nice time trying to understand one another. They brought a huge amount of goodies for the children so we will spend some of the morning writing thank you cards.

Life is really beautiful when you let it shower you with gifts.