The First Day School’s Corner of the World: October 2021
As we are moving into October, and our second month of First Day School for the fall, I am thinking of how lucky we have been with the weather. Being able to have our Sunday classes outside has been a blessing. However, as we slowly and surely are moving into a colder and wetter outside, we will be moving inside. We will be observing all the guidelines which also means that at times we might need to change classroom, or divide a larger group into two. Childcare services will be provided by Norma and Raphael on Business meeting Sunday and as other Sundays set forth by the Meeting.
Our Primary teachers for 2021-2022 are Steve as our Story Teller, three Sundays each month, and Liz once a month. Raphael Roberts is Door Keeper every Sunday and will assist Norma when we have students in the nursery/preschool. We are very fortunate to have Steve and Raphael as our main teachers and I cannot say enough how grateful I am for Liz for once again stepping up and being a teacher. Of course, I am also grateful to all the families who come and join us on Sundays.
In our Intermediate class, with the topic of World Religion, the students’ knowledge ranges from “nothing” to being able to name a few world religions and some of the basics, for example, we learned a lot about Judaism from some of our students. We also have some budding philosophers in the class and at times it is a challenge to move the class forward for all the interesting and deep questions being asked. How would you answer “What came before God? Who created God?” We spoke about the difference between religion and spirituality, that some religions are monotheist, some are polytheist and some henotheistic.
We spoke about religions and practices being created, developed, changed, and “passed on.” With that, an idea about “Burritoism” was brought forward by one of our students. You might now ask: “How did this happen?” A squishmallow, stuffed-toy burrito had been brought to class and the idea that the burrito was like a religion was introduced with the explanation that the tortilla was holding the content, the people together and the cheese, lettuce, tomatoes etc. were different aspects and perspectives of the people and, therefore, a part of the content, the essence of the religion which was held together, embraced, creating a community, by the outer tortilla. Since I am a strong believer in encouraging and supporting children’s intellectual and creative thinking as well as their philosophical and spiritual development, I was thrilled to see how they took the subject of religions to another level. The students made this association, came up with this symbol and what the different ingredients represented. They answered questions, and explained and, of course, at the end of class we were not sure if we wanted to eat a burrito or not after all the burrito talk…
October 3rd is World Quaker Day and as tradition has it, David will be joining us for an all-student class talking about World Quaker Day. To know that Quakers are all over the world is an important aspect for our children and for students to know. Molly spent time in Costa Rica, we have members who attend a Meeting in Switzerland, and I had the opportunity to visit the Quakers in Stockholm. I am hoping we also hear from Camille and her experience attending Meeting while in college.
We are still not doing Birthday cakes, pancake breakfast or potluck… but maybe soon we will…
A few words about the three photos. Lee Street beach, end of September, the beach is for me the place where I connect to that which is bigger than me. Middle photo is from Sigtuna (Sweden) and the swimming pier we bathed from. At this pier, I fed a duck mom a tasty granola bar while her 6 ducklings were bobbing in waiting to get their fair share of this treat. The last photo is from Velamsund, walking in the virgin forest, connecting to the earth and to that which holds us grounded.
