Breeding Independence

One of the summer messages we give to the kids is "You can do this all by yourself." Some children come to us not knowing how to get dressed, sit at a table, use the toilet effectively including washing their hands. Some kids can't listen to a direction, a story, a prayer, or do they know how to take a direction and fly with it. Some kids can't eat a meal without an argument, eat more than cold cereal and candy bars, ask a question like, "Can you pass me the lasagna?"

Summer time is the time when the "I can'ts" become the "I cans."

Beginning with the pool, kids begin to figure out how to get the clothes off and the swimsuit on. They learn to stand patiently in line for sun screen. They learn to line up for head counts. They learn to sit on a bus feet forward. They learn how to carry lunch and help those smaller than they are. They learn to deal with the heat, use public bathrooms, and make room for others. But best of all, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, they learn how to swim.

The Garden School does not take a bunch of kids to the pool to flounder around. We take kids to the pool in order to learn to swim. It's a three hour swim lesson with a picnic lunch break.

First order of the day is to go over the kids in circle time and remind each child what he or she needs to work on. Today, three little boys needed to work on getting their heads wet. The ability to go under at will is the first real sign that swimming is emerging. Three other children were told that it's time to work with a teacher in the deeper end. These kids jump from the side of the pool into the teacher's arms. Then they paddle back to the side of the pool. This strengthens bodies and gets a child ready to keep himself up in the water for as long as the child desires. It's called swimming, and swimming is something that children can do "all by themselves!"

Do teachers look over and see out children prattling around in the ultra shallow end? Nope. Do we see our kids running around on the deck looking for trouble? Nope. We see them in the water doing what they do best - all by themselves- swimming and learning to swim.

Today we took 20 noodles to the pool to help children learn to float. Kids played for a time with these noodles, and then left them for a time to experiment with one underwater game or trick after another. It was a great day at the pool.

Field trips are another great "I can do this all by myself." Field trips are little treks out into the public arena where manners, thoughtfulness, patience, and the sense that "I can go without my mom or dad" and be safe and happy and learn something, and then go home and talk about it is the independence builder.

When kids have traveled all summer, when they've stood in line; learned to be quiet; have eaten on the go what's available to bring on a picnic; when they've helped, hoddied and hand held someone smaller; learned to swim well enough to swim in their clothes at the lake; used an out house that reeks of ick; when they've walked through a cave and listened intently to the guide; when they've sweat in the sun, been thirsty in the heat; when they've climbed, run, seen, experienced, watched, listened, and after weeks of seeing new things, they become independent.

Summer is a great and exhausting time, but the rewards are irreplaceable. This is teaching; this is learning; this is what living is all about.