Fall, 2007

Dear Parents,

Our theme this year is 'Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself' and some of the ways it is reflected in the three streams: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

I would like to share with you part of a process that is on-going as we strive for peace in our hearts. One of the ways I work pedagogically with the children is by identifying an element (Earth, Water, Air, Fire) that might be strong in them or in the moment. It helps the children to know themselves better and offers a different perspective.

Below I have tried to give you a feeling for how I approached some recent conflict amongst the children:

We spoke in circle about what everyone witnessed and eventually identified that the conflict was precipitated by too much 'air' (which manifested as playful teasing that went awry) and activated a 'fire-storm' of aggressive behavior.

In our creation story we remembered that God/Goddess used earth, water, air, fire, and minerals to create us. It is our job to learn how to bring these elements into balance within us so that we can be in right relationship with others. i.e. What does too much fire need - certainly not more air.

Then we begin to see ourselves as alchemists (free of the burden and shackles of guilt and shame that can come with the labeling that usually accompanies inappropriate behavior.)

Below is a sketch of a pedagogical story I told to meet the needs of the situation.

I decided upon a story that began with a ship on the Arabian Sea - (the ocean of our feelings and emotions) On the ship there is a gathering of families from all over the world (a reflection of our very diverse community).

A storm arises - strong winds - violent waves thrash the boat. Chaos reigns, people are shouting, shoving, screaming, hitting. Children are separated from their families. Everyone is only thinking of themselves and how to be safe. No-one cared about the others. Violence ensued as they fought for lifeboats and 3 children were separated from their families and ended up on a boat alone. In the darkness of a starless night the boats wandered the currents. The children fell asleep.

They awoke to find themselves washed upon a shore of the Arabian Peninsula. A Bedouin tribe found them and gave them shelter. Once fed and nurtured the children spoke amongst themselves of their experience. They discovered that they were from very different lifestyles: Mary was a Christian, Azad was a Muslim, and Samuel was Jewish. Each of them spoke of the trauma of the experience, the violence, and how hateful everyone was toward each other.

Mary spoke of her religion and a man called Jesus and his teaching 'love thy neighbor as thyself.' Samuel spoke of Moses and the same teaching that he taught to his people, and Azad spoke of Mohammed and how this was the very first teaching that he brought to his people.

Yet, when everyone was frightened, all they could think of was themselves.

And then the rescued children wondered at how no-one on the ship seemed to be able to live what eventually became one of the 'laws' of each of their religions. (Certainly something we all continue to wonder.) I left the story at this point and will return to it as the need arises in our program and bring it to conclusion at the end of our time together sometime in May.

I returned to our situation and asked for reflection from everyone about what happened. We spoke about fire and what it needs if it gets too big and dangerous. We spoke about playful teasing and how, when you are close friends teasing can work. But that you need to know your friend very well to be sure that the teasing is going to 'work.' We spoke of other teasing situations that had backfired already.

We spoke of the intention behind the teasing; it was benign.

We spoke of earth, fire, water and air and played with what happens with too much of any one element.

We spoke of what the fire-storm needed to be calmed.

We apologized.

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