Rocking Your Inner Giraffe: Cultivating Loving-Kindness for Yourself & Others through Nonviolent Communication

Rocking Your Inner Giraffe: Cultivating Loving Kindness for Yourself & Others through Nonviolent Communication from sethdwebb

Charting the Free Horizon: Creating and Maintaining Positive Partnerships in a Montessori Classroom

Charting the Free Horizon: Creating and Maintaining Positive Partnerships in a Montessori Classroom from sethdwebb

How We Say, What We Say - Part III

In November of 2011, shortly after starting this blog, I created a “wordle” of all of the text of the posts to date in an effort to explore how I was saying what I was saying. It was certainly an interesting reflection of my priorities and sensibilities; at least, in how I expressed them at the time:

How We Say, What We Say

In June of 2012, I created another wordle upon which to reflect:

How We Say, What We Say - Part II

Now, a year and ten months and thirteen posts later, here is a third glimpse into the weight of the words I choose.

Try it out with your own work: www.wordle.net

The Alphabet Tree

In Montessori schools steeped in rich practice, elementary-aged children learn to see the world’s cultures and their histories through the filter of the Fundamental Needs of People: Food, Shelter, Clothing, Defense, Transportation, Communication, The Healing Arts, Self-Expression, Spirituality, and Belonging. Examining how humans across time and the global landscape meet the same needs allows for new understandings based upon the similarities of our experiences, not the differences.

Of these needs it is often the last, Belonging that stands out for children: at its most basic, the need for being cherished and cared for by others.

As children mature, they learn that Belonging is not only the desire to be loved and supported. We see it palpably as children move from a naturally selfish stage (as toddlers), to one where deep caring resides (in the elementary years), to where justice is paramount (as adolescents).

Indeed, in each of us there exists a tremendous yearning to be a part of something that matters. At some critical point in our lives the predominant function of personal survival transforms so to allow extending ourselves to work for the greater good. One’s definition of Belonging swells as one grows to include the pull to contribute to something greater than ourselves, to help create something that will, in turn, benefit the whole.

*                    *                    *

I have been thinking a lot lately about bravery and courage: when, faced with seemingly insurmountable odds, one embraces the uncertainty and fear of the unknown and move steadily forward towards Truth. 

What does one do in the face of injustice?

What does one say when conventional wisdom encourages silence?

What does one feel when one’s actions fall short of being true to one’s soul?

Oftentimes it can be the simplest explanation that carries the greatest weight.

First published in 1968, Leo Lionni’s classic The Alphabet Tree creates a story that is both a children’s tale and timeless parable.

In it, letters of the alphabet that once enjoyed a sunny existence - each on its favorite leaf – are blown asunder by a sudden and fierce wind. As the gale ceases, the letters lay huddled and frightened unsure of what to do. Aided by a wise friend, the letters slowly join together – making words; combined, perhaps they will be able to withstand the next storm that blows in. When the wind does return, the letters - now united in unique ways - are no longer fearful and resist being blown away.

But that is not the end. Lionni seems to ask us: Is it enough to just survive?

In the story, another friendly presence next greets the words and exclaims, “Why don’t you get together and make sentences – and mean something?”

And that’s just it, isn’t it? It would be easy to look back on one’s successes and relax, letting others now take up the fight. After all, the wind can be cold and strong; it has great volume and its reach is vast. And yet, can we not find the strength within ourselves to boldly step into its path?

Will we have the resolve to do the right thing?

As our story comes to its ambiguous conclusion the sentences are coached to further action, to not rest in the comfort of their most recent achievement. Indeed, it is not enough just to be good, the friend states; better to “say something important”.

*                   *                    *

Stories such as these serve as powerful as allegories to our lives and our work with and for children. Through them we gain a profound way of understanding that comes from the use of metaphor. Educators and school leaders can consciously use these fables to elicit the deep thinking so necessary for new and dynamic growth.

In the book, letters become words, which form sentences, which create statements – paralleling the arc of living and working in community. We, too, develop along a similar path: moving from existing solely as individuals, to collaborating with others, to expressing the community’s voice, and lastly shining out a unified vision in action.

When is the time to take the next step?

When you feel your conscience unsettled.

As one’s sense of Belonging is strong enough to loose the attachment to what is comfortable, real and profound learning can take place. Transformative change comes from taking risks and extending oneself beyond the ease of the familiar. To venture over that edge, into unknown territory where security is not guaranteed - that is the mark of one’s commitment to living fully.

The Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni

ISBN 0-679-80835-3

The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Cosmos

Many years ago my mother had an aged friend that for years took a photograph of the sunset from her balcony apartment. She had a terrific view and, while the pictures collected in multiple albums were indeed beautiful, as a teenager I found her practice to be a bit odd – if not peculiar. After all, there were so many other things that one could be “doing”!

Perhaps it’s not until you reach a certain age, or have had some set of threshold experiences, that you begin to reflect on your past and the whys of your present. If only such meta-cognition could come earlier! But then, I guess, it’s the reflection upon one’s own history that creates the deepest of meanings and the most settled understanding. 

What is it about youth that drives one so inexorably forward? Is it the sense that you are just at the dawn of life’s arc? I recognize and remember that person in me, but he and I are different somehow. I hate to think that it’s because at my ripe old age of forty-two I am sensing the interminable decline towards death! With sore muscles and joints that creak, has this mortal coil just about given up the ghost? Is it all just a matter of waiting out the game?

Well, of course not. Nor has it ever been, though it might feel like that from time to time. One’s life is punctuated with ripples and crenulations – some crests, some troughs. At any moment we can experience an event with the pull of gravity, or the exhilaration of weightlessness. We are who we are from the experiences that shape us.

The old and grey are not the only ones who can impart wisdom. When wisdom comes, it comes in the form of a unique kind of knowledge that has been forged by reflecting upon past events, and the feelings that orbit around them. Upon reflection, what is old becomes new again.

What if we spent more time examining the journey rather than focusing on our destination? As busy adults - with full-time jobs, mortgages, school-age children, etc. - if most of us spend our lives repeating similar habits and patterns day after day, mightn’t we find greater richness in the seemingly mundane if we took a closer look at the what and how of what we do along the way?

Perhaps what is truly essential and definitive is not just the thing we do, but the doing of the thing itself.

*          *         *          *          *

In The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe, author Chet Raymo invites us on a tour of his daily walk to work. A professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts Raymo shares with us the interwoven stories that lay at his feet. The book is broken into sections that define his walk. Each new chapter opens much as the landscape does before Raymo as he walks from his home: through woods and verges, across a brook and open fields, into the water meadow, an old orchard, and community garden.

Raymo speaks to us as a naturalist might, elucidating the particular geological and biological facets of his walk. One can imagine him lingering over the smallest blossom, or the flash of a crystal face reflecting the Sun’s light. And then, beyond the firm, to the cycles that draw the multitude together. The players he describes are connected by the very atoms that they share.

And yet, The Path reads more like a novel than a work of natural history alone. Raymo centers his love of wilderness within the frame of the human history that has shaped and reshaped the land through which his path meanders. Like the trail that he travels, readers are quickly mesmerized by the rich and complex lives of the people he describes. Each new story is another step along his path, another moment of unfolding and greater understanding.

Everything has a story. Nothing exists in isolation. Everything is related to something else, some how. In intimate detail, Raymo shares with us the preciousness of his slice of the cosmos, revealing connections where the reader may not have guessed them, and bringing to full consciousness the beautiful enormity of the world and our lives.

*          *         *          *          *

The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe (2003), by Chet Raymo.

ISBN 0-8027-1402-1

Enjoy the walk!

 

(Made using KeepCalmStudio.com)

Getting Out of the Way: Rethinking Discipline in the Montessori Classroom

 

Framing the Work

Presentations on discipline frequently focus on the rules and regulations, and the policies and procedures necessary to keep children safe. These conversations, however, have to be more than just about what forms to fill out and who to speak with about a student’s challenges. 

In our world, the question is not whether you handle the issue in your class or refer it to the office; it really has to be much more fundamental to our practice than just a question of paperwork.

Semantics

The way in which words are used is important. They carry particular weight, depending upon the time period and culture in which they are adopted. And, these subtle, commonly agreed upon meanings change as cultures develop.

discipline 1. from the early 13c. meaning "penitential chastisement, punishment"; 2. from Old French descepline (11c.) meaning "discipline, physical punishment; teaching; suffering; martyrdom"; 3. from the Latin disciplina meaning "instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge".  (Source: www.etymoline.com)

When we look at the etymological origins of the word discipline, we see that most recently it has been used to refer to something that is done to someone, a correction, indicating a necessarily lopsided power-over relationship.

We can also see, however, that this was not always the case. Look at discipline’s earliest record of usage: "instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge". Perhaps, when taken this way we can come to view discipline as less of a reactive behavior, and more of a proactive one – one where power is shared.

So, let’s reframe our definition of discipline and refocus our energies in a positive, future-oriented way so that we are building relationships with children.  

The Art of Discipline

The art of discipline is to mold others in your image: who you are and (most importantly) what you do. Who and how you are helps to define what kind of people your students will become.

I would argue that this is our most important work. 

After all, who has the greatest opportunity for consistent messaging about what it means to be fully human? 

We do.

Discipline is best viewed as an act of peace education, distilled. As learning to be peaceful is an active process we need, therefore, to examine our own practices to ensure that the actions that we model to our students are aligned with this vision.

Looking Inward

When we are presented with behavior that flies in the face of our desires and expectations we need to look inward first. Most of the time it is about how we have prepared ourselves and the environment to meet the child’s needs that is the root of the child's actions. 

This can be a challenging proposition for us: it means that we have to be as open to change and risk as we ask the children to be throughout the school day. To accommodate this demand, we need to be flexible, spontaneous, dynamic, humble, specific, direct, and purposeful in our work with children. 

How Do We Get There?

It is important that we recognize our personal limits of behavior:

·      What is it about certain behavior that really pushes your buttons?

·      What is your “shark music” (those cues that alert you to a change in a child’s behavior that will be challenging for you)?

·      How will you convey that “music” to your assistant(s) and colleagues so to get the support you need?

Challenging children are not malfeasant beings created to undermine your every move; they are waiting for your loving guidance and support.

If there is a behavior issue, you need to examine what are you not providing the child: 

    What is it about your choices and decisions that have led to this point? 

Are you fueling and fanning the flames?

When faced with behavior that does not align with your expectations for the moment, what do you do?

·      Do you give a little more, loosen the reigns a bit and wait?

·      Do you pull in tight?

·      Which action allows for sustained and transformative changes in behavior?

Preparation of the Teacher

We must be present to the struggles within us as we make these decisions around our interactions with children.  

It is this mindfulness that will allow for partnerships to triumph over punishments.

Think about the children you have worked with. Which students come to the forefront of your memory? What kinds of memories are these? Do you feel:

                                                         Happy?                   Bittersweet?

                                                         Proud?         OR       Remorseful?

                                                         Fulfilled?                Embarrassed?

Why do we feel such conflicted emotions?

I propose that if we feel a mixture of emotions it is because we ourselves know that our most important work is to “be there” for the children in our care. And, that because of our own baggage around schooling, or our fears and pressures of the work we do, or the demands placed upon us by the multiple stakeholders in public education – we lose our way. 

We lose our focus and prime directive: to be stewards of the Spirit in the children who gather around us.

So. Take a few breaths. Think quietly and explore the light and the dark, the fear and the joy, the clouds and the sunshine of our work with children. As you think about the year before you:

·      In what ways are you coming from a grounded and present place?

·      In what ways can you see yourself growing?

Breaking Old Habits & Developing New Ones

It is through the Montessori curriculum that we meet the children in their heart spaces. As servants and stewards, we worship the child not the curriculum - children first then content, hearts first then minds.

How we frame the energy of our classrooms and the work that goes on in there is truly as important a component to "preparation of the environment" as is where the shelving is placed. 

Discipline is problem solving.

Discipline is more often about letting go and giving in.

Our goal is to become meaningfully attached to the children with whom we work, a system synergy.

·      What do you wish for in that relationship?

·      How would it feel?

·      In five, ten, fifteen years, what memories would you like to have made of the experience?

So often with issues of discipline we can get caught up in what the child is doing or not doing relative to our desires and expectations.

But here’s the thing: 

It’s not about us. 

It’s about being ready for them.

Seeing the Child Anew

We can be champions of our students' thirst to learn and experience the universe around them. We can stand beside them as they call out to their muse in search of beauty, liberty, trust, and joy!

Say Yes More

Anticipate the Struggle

Be Uncomfortable

Take Risks

“Sit on Your Hands” 

Choose Carefully When, Where and Why You Intervene

Let It Go

Broaden Your Definition of Work

Start Seeing “False Fatigue”

Give it time

Soften

Rethink Your Use of Consequences 

Conclusion

Discipline re-framed as peace education allows for the chance to teach and experience new ways of being in the world – both for the child and the adults that serve them. When we do this, we walk together towards a brighter horizon.

Additional Resources on Discipline

1. “On Discipline – Reflections and Advice” by Maria Montessori

http://www.montessori-ami.org/articles1/article01.htm

2. “The Montessori Approach to Discipline” by Mary Conroy and Kitty Williams Bravo 

http://www.montessori.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=230:the-montessori-approach-to-discipline&catid=27:articles-on-parenting-the-montessori-way&Itemid=42 

3. “Freedom and Discipline” by Marcie Hogan

http://mariamontessori.com/mm/?p=2050

4. “Liberty and Discipline in the Montessori Classroom”

http://www.montessoriforeveryone.com/Liberty-Discipline_ep_48-1.html

5. “Freedom and Responsibility: A Life in Balance” by Seth D. Webb

http://radicalmontessori.blogspot.com/2011/11/freedom-with-responsibility-life-in.html

(This post includes excerpts from a staff development training given on August 7th, 2013).

It's in Everyone of Us

I

 
I first heard this song during my initial summer of 6-9 Montessori teacher training in 2001. I was moved and left speechless; it spoke to me in many ways, on many levels. Now, more than a decade on, I am sharing the song and slideshow in preparation for this year's International Day of Peace on September 21, 2013. Enjoy and Blessings!

Click below to listen and watch:

"It's in Everyone of Us" - David Pomeranz

Our Planet, Our Home

As a child, my father often led me on an adventure in our backyard. On warm, summer days we would lay prone in the spiky grass of our lawn and inhale the sweet, humid smell of the earth.

We would next turn our eyes downwards into the grass to see what we could. Like a camera whose lens takes in more and more detail as it extends towards its focal object, so too did our eyes adjust. Gradually, the world above became less of our concern as we looked for surprises in the world beneath us.

Our eyes first met the brilliant yellow sunbursts of dandelion flowers, and their sisters’ ornate globes of seeds ready for dispersal. Then the feathery and torn blades of grass, the rich green of their stems. Below that, mounds of earthworm castings, wormholes, and sometimes the worms themselves – quiet and slippery as they undulated along in compressed coils, springing slowly forward. We saw ants, big and small, carrying food to their young and trash from their nests, as well as the occasional robin’s egg shell, lodged between the grassy stems and partly filled with dew.

This was a world unknown to me, but one in which I came to love because of its hidden richness and secret activity. Down there, in the grass and truly close to nature, I could feel the soil breathing and imagined the plants growing. I embraced the microcosm beneath my gaze for the connections it highlighted; how there was no part that I witnessed that was not unrelated to the whole.

______________________________________________________________________________

Our Planet, Our Home: A Gaian Learning Material by Philip Snow Gang and Marsha Snow Morgan is a work that explores the relationships found between all actors in this cosmological dance. Drawing upon ecological principles and systems theory, participants use arrows to make unique and authentic connections between the pictures provided:

- a Spiral Galaxy

- the Sun

- the Earth

- images symbolizing the Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Lithosphere and Biosphere - the Biogeological cycle

- Soil

- the Five Kingdoms (Bacteria, Protoctista, Fungi, Plantae and Animalia)

- an image symbolizing Humans

- and seven cards representing aspects of Human Activity (Transportation, 

  Shelter, Clothing. Communication, Food, Play, and Love).

On a rug or tabletop with plenty of space, children and adults alike can collaborate to see how the components relate to the each other. It is a dynamic activity, filled with excited and spontaneous discussions as realizations are made and connections explored.

This is not a prescriptive work, but one that allows for wonderment and curiosity to be the drivers. There is room for numerous repetitions, each with its own new set of discoveries.

Our Planet, Our Home suggests a holistic approach to science education, one that emphasizes how things are related and not concepts held exclusively in isolation. It is a powerful work, one that asks us to open our eyes and minds to new connections and novel possibilities.

______________________________________________________________________________

Click HERE to Order

For more information, check out:

M. Ed. Montessori Integrative Learning (Endicott College) 

and

The Institute for Educational Studies (TIES)

In Praise of Teachers: Artists, Alchemists and Advocates

When we speak of the fabric of our society, no one besides a child's family has the power and potential to transform a child's life like a teacher does. Teachers perform the essential role of weaving together social mores, cultural practices and multiple ways of understanding to create a tapestry that tells our story. This work is an ever-expanding creation, made newly rich and complex as each one of us - students all - contributes our experiences and perspectives.

______________________________________________________________________

We are artists. We express our love for life and living through the content that we teach - in both the method and materials we share. In an ever increasing search to meet the needs of each child, we transform the classroom environment and the content we study so that everyone might have a personal and meaningful relationship with learning.

We are alchemists. We constantly balance the needs of one child with the needs of another; we cater to each individual, in service of all. Throughout the day, opportunities are made available, and prescriptions are given. In each action resides the scaffolding for more and more complex educational options. Our compass is the warmth and growing light of excitement which we all feel when working with passion and delight. 

We are advocates. We greet the children with our hearts before we do so with our minds. To move too quickly, to rush head-long into the delivery of content, is to create a space where the teacher is merely performing - dispensing information, regardless of its relevance to or resonance with the children. We work to know both the head and heart of each child. This connection allows for the deep and purposeful exploration of our universe, powered by a trust and faith in each other.

______________________________________________________________________

Our work and the work of our students is not static or passive. Rather, ours is a rich and vibrant world, one where originality and creativity put young thinkers on the edge of new understandings. We are champions of joy and engagement. 

On the Day You Were Born

 

Many of the stories that we tell our students and the cultural lessons that we share are our part of our collective oral tradition – they belong to all of us. They are of the Earth and we are of the Earth. These stories resonate with us because we have lived them, experienced them first-hand as fellow passengers on this planet.

Like stories once passed down for generations and now seldom retold, the sense of intimacy present in these tales can be lost when not repeatedly shared with children. It is essential that we regularly return to this connection, to remind and refresh us all of where we came from and how we are all related – to each other, to the Earth, and the universe.

The atoms that fuel the energy of the Sun, that form the water in our seas, that build the cells that scaffold the tallest trees, and allow for our brains to make sense of what we perceive all can be traced back to stardust. They and we are one.

In On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier, one’s scientific way of knowing merges with the spiritual. Through gorgeously rendered paper collages and poetic text, the story tells the tale of each human’s journey from within the womb to the world outside – all the while speaking of the patterns and rhythms of nature that have always been. It is an intimate story that connects us again and again to the greater cosmos.

On each page there are volumes being said – the words speak like pictures and the illustrations root you to the world. Each conveys just enough to allow for the mind to wonder and make connections.

Following the story, there are additional pages that explore and illuminate the science behind each illustration. Each description dovetails nicely with the lessons we share in a Montessori environment: the Universe Story, the Work of Water, the Work of Air, Botany, Zoology, The Coming of People, etc. Children delight and find great comfort in the discovery that the stories we tell and the impressionistic lessons we share are part of the wider collection of knowledge held by others - outside the classroom.

On the Day You Were Born balances our inherent desire to highlight the gifts of each individual child, with the strength found in community. Despite the fabulous uniqueness of each one of us, we need to be sure to celebrate each child’s individuality while underscoring the connections that tie us all together. To only do the former, leaving the latter as an afterthought, teaches children just that: that our connections to others and the universe are to be secondary to the “mighty me”.

Developmentally this can be a challenge. Children can, at times, struggle with balancing their growing sense of self and independence with meaningful relationships with others. This makes sense for young children, as they are hard at work understanding how to get their needs met first and foremost. Those around them can be seen as either helping that process or hindering it.

No matter one’s age, however, in sharing stories like Frasier’s we subtly remind us all that there is more to our lives than meeting our own personal needs and desires. We have a collective history that has relied upon, and a future that now yearns for, our collaboration.

On the Day you Were Born by Debra Frasier

ISBN-13: 9780152579951

More at: www.debrafrasier.com

Seeking Truth in a Time of War: The Pledge of Allegiance in a Montessori Classroom

There is a level of transparency that teachers can create with their students that allows for real and meaningful relationships to develop – a way of being with children that offers Truth a seat at circle. This is no small invitation, for such a guest asks for consistency in practice and humility in spirit.

Montessori educators strive to build spaces that allow children to discover themselves unencumbered by the druthers and opinions of the adults around them. It is the structure inherent to a Montessori classroom, the integrated curricula, the specialized materials, and a holistic view of human development that speaks to the children – not necessarily the beliefs of the guides present in the environment.

*           *           *           *

This year, on Constitution Day and later on Veterans Day, I was moved and troubled by our practice of one of the most hallowed habits of an American public school: the Pledge of Allegiance. Each day, from classroom to classroom, students stand and face the flag with a right hand over their heart and recite the Pledge along with children’s voices coming over the PA.

"I pledge allegiance to the Flag

 of the United States of America,

and to the Republic for which it stands,

one Nation under God,

indivisible,

with liberty and justice for all."

In my observations, often the children’s corporate recitation is out of sync with the guiding tempo. In some classrooms, children mumble or mouth half of the words. In others, children visit with their neighbors during the fifteen seconds or so needed to say the Pledge.

As professional educators, if we witness confusion, lack of enthusiasm, or disrespect following a lesson we know to first look inwardly to examine our own teaching practices: Was it the right time? Was it the correct group of children? Was the content appropriate and resonant? Was the material delivered in a way that suited the learners?

In the case of my witnessing children reciting the Pledge I wonder if we need to add an additional question to our meditation:

Should we be doing it at all?

There are routines and patterns that schools develop to create a sense of community and purpose. These are built to be in line with the institution’s grounding philosophy, so to underscore and emphasize what is held as important and meaningful and real. In Montessori classrooms we scaffold our practices - from walking on line, to the gathering of materials, to working with others – in a way that allows for the personal integration of a practice. These routines become held dear because the children can feel their importance – for themselves and for the care of the community.

I recognize that in the lives of public school children the Pledge is a mandated daily activity. I believe, however, that we need to think clearly about how to frame this part of our day; in fact, to create teachable moments using it as a centerpiece: word study, history of the Pledge and the changes to its text over time, nationalism vs. patriotism, civil rights, etc.

In reciting the Pledge:

• What is the educational aim?

• How else might we practice our patriotism?

• In what other ways could we be demonstrating good citizenship?

When it comes to the Pledge of Allegiance, I believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with teaching kids to recite a promise, the meaning of which they do not fully understand.

I believe that in having children participate in the Pledge without an attached frame of reference we are modeling for them that it is okay to just do, and not think about why. I worry that we are engendering a practice of not asking questions, of following directions without disobedience – of being seen but not heard. True learning, of course, happens when we stop and look twice – when what we thought we understood is laid open for further review.

*           *           *           *

Authentic Montessori programs work tirelessly to integrate Peace Education into the children’s day, as well as the running of the school; it is part and parcel of what such schools stand for, it is who they are. We need to remember that this is a curriculum of action. It is much more that creating a feeling. It is about fostering an outward way of being grounded in a powerful sense of oneself and one’s connection to the universe.

Our job, as peacemakers, is to do and say the difficult things. It is to question the status quo and hold it up to the light of Truth.

The Winter Solstice

In a Montessori classroom, the opportunities for curricular cross-pollination are many: a teacher’s presentation may lead to deeper questions that enrich and extend; a student-led study may pull from all areas of the curriculum before it feels complete. Each content area is able to influence the others, depending upon the medium required of the educational journey. Working together, the teacher and child use the resources before them to create meaning from their academic investigations.

There is, of course, another plane to this interweaving of curricula - one that lies in the space between the pages of our albums. At times, the studies we embark upon create far more questions than provide answers. While we may be able to label, define, describe, and share some parts of the universe and its rhythms there is still great mystery that leaves us all in awe.

In The Winter Solstice, written by Ellen Jackson and illustrated by Jan Davey Ellis, the search to make sense of one such mystery is beautifully illuminated.

Chronicling ancient people from Europe and North and South America, Jackson and Davey create a feeing for how some of our forebears approached the coming darkness and prepared for it’s hopeful return.

This time of year, as the days get shorter and the air temperatures fall, we all can feel something of a kinship for our ancestors. Can you imagine how the ancients must have approached the changing of the seasons? What practices and beliefs were created to explain the change, and provide for a return to what was hoped for?

Jackson’s writing reads like a whispered story over a fire, while Ellis’ painting places us beside people from many cultures as they share with us their way of knowing. Older students can both grasp the scientific basis for the changing of the seasons, and can marvel at how the ancients grappled with what must have been a very tenuous and scary time each year.

Share this set of vignettes with your students and staff. Allow them to explore that sense of wonder that comes from trying to understand people from the past. Like we do when discussing the Fundamental Needs, each new perspective on the human condition brings the possibility of new depths to our learning.

Enjoy the reading, and Happy Solstice!

The Winter Solstice

Story by Ellen Jackson, illustrations by Jan Davey Ellis

ISBN: 1-56294-722-2

Discover other Winter Solstice related activities bellow:

http://www.ellenjackson.net/winter_61490.htm