Austin grew up with my children and worked at Maary’s School several Christmas breaks home from Chapel Hill. He is a poli-sci major and is spending the next two and a half years in Nicaragua. As you look at the pictures, remember that he is 6″1′, and you will have a hint as to the relative heights of a typical Nicaraguan.
This week, Beckett (aged 2, curly blond hair, adorable), fell and hit his head on a table. There was bleeding, although he was very calm about it. Lynn and I did first aid: pressure, butterfly bandage, calm voice. (We talked later about how this is why we do first aid training every year, so that, when something happens, there is that calm voice in your head, telling you what to do. It really works.) Kristin did “triage†on the rest of the class. I expected there to be lots of questions and upsetness from the other kids, but they were lovely: concerned, but calm and helpful. Riley asked Lynn: “Do you think Beckett wants some water?†Beckett, calmly: ‘Yup!†Riley brings water, spilling some on my leg in his haste:). Freyja says: “Do you think he wants a cracker?†“Yup!†“Kristin, can I have one of the special Beckett crackers?â€
A group of kids helped me distract him while I wiped off his face, which nobody likes. They sat quietly and listened to books with him, and were even calm when his mom came, which was nice. Beckett left, to go get “glued†at the doctor’s office, and we had a conversation of the benefits of glue v. stitches, about which we apparently had a wealth of experience.
All this gave an opportunity for the children to show how much they like each other and how much empathy they have.
Montessori said, at the end of her life, that the reason to work with children was so make a world without war. She was nominated three times in her life time for the Nobel Peace Prize. When I see the respect and empathy that children learn in a multi-aged/multi-ability group, over time (3 years), when we learn to love each other despite ourselves and our faults, I have a lot of hope for the world.
This is a reason to do this work.
This begins with 2 boys, banging the heads of shepherds together in the nativity set: yah! Yah! I have one of those moments: “That is NOT what the story is (what is the story?)†I sit everyone down, haul nativity over: “Okay, this is a way to tell the story of Christmas.†I pick up Mary and the angel (made of red wool), and wave them around while I tell the story. Angel, Mary, Joseph, Bethlehem, donkey, shepherds, sheep, more angels.
As I am dashing over to a shelf to have the Wise Men come “from the East, following a starâ€, Kai asks me : “Why? Why were they following a star?†Good question. “Because they were very wise?†All faces look very blank. I realize that they are listening, not out of interest, but out of politeness. I hurriedly finish, lamely. “And that is the story that Christmas is about. It is in the Bible “
“What is the Bible???†“A book of stories.â€
Lynn, trying to help, said: :â€Jesus grew up to be a very good and wise man.â€
Zea chimes in : “and they killed him with nails.†Dadum. Wow. Everyone looks at her, horrified. She is very matter of fact, and shrugs.
Silence. Then Jack says: “Well, THAT is sure not true!†This, from someone who believes in Power Rangers, Scooby Doo, Darth Vader, aliens…
“How do you know?†I ask, dumbfounded.
“NOBODY believes in ANGELS.†Well.
“Do YOU believe in angels, Miss Mary?â€, asks Jack. Well. This was not supposed to be about what I believe, but a cultural exchange.
“Well…….sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’tâ€. Let’s get this over with, and never, never go here again. No one asks to hear the story again…
This is what keeps me humble about myself…