A Season of Awe and Wonder

Remember as a child waking early on a holiday or birthday with the inner knowing that there is more to life than what we can see? A deeply felt meaning, a divine presence, a responsive universe. At this time of year, adults continually set the stage for children to experience moments of MAGIC. In the midst of holiday conviviality and heightened social activity, we hope the meaning of the holidays will emerge when children take a breath of timelessness and joy. It all starts with stillness, the hallmark of the winter season.

Moments that distill the holiday’s meaning How does it happen? One father remembers, “I loved waiting for it to get dark and lighting the Chanukah candles. I’d get mesmerized watching the fire burn.” Perhaps the adults couldn’t tell that this father was having silent sacred moments as a child, but performing the ritual today still carries those feelings for him.

Sometimes we get a sense that children are moved by visual beauty or sound. When my grandson went to a house of worship a few years ago, he looked at a painting and whispered the word “behold.” We had no idea he had ever heard that word. If we see a child touched by something they see or hear, we can show that that we don’t want to interrupt their enjoyment.

We live in an area generous with light displays, and many families love taking nighttime tours of the beautiful displays. We can allow children to actually be still if they are silently absorbed in a particular scene. Maybe they are feeling a kind of awe at what they are seeing that can’t be spoken in words.

A chance to contemplate stillness At Sufism Reoriented’s solstice celebration on December 22, families have the chance to see a live tableau of the Nativity, frozen in stillness. Children will be able to view some of their teachers transformed into living statues caught in adoration of a newborn child. Again, in the midst of so much motion, there is the unusual opportunity to fully contemplate being still.

There are also teachers in the choral performances on that day, and many of the songs may be familiar to everyone and bring stirring remembrances of traditional music from winter holidays past.

Songs that create images of beauty and unity Many of the songs composed for and sung at our school are designed to inspire moments of wonder in children: Quiet as a Cloud, Bird of Perfect Joy, Pine Tree, Love Grows Like a Rose, When Every Heart. They are the auditory equivalent of looking at a surprisingly stunning sunset or display of holiday lights that pulls us into a contemplation of all the beauty in existence.

We hope you have moments of inner stillness and restoration during this busy, bright season.

Celebrating the Outdoors

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee has regular meetings, often including dinner, where parents, teachers, and administrators discuss topics of interest to everyone. Last month Jessica Kauzer, a naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District, who is also a Meher Schools parent and former student, led a discussion on the history of indigenous people in our area. She also emphasized the ways the parks encourage visitors to participate fully in the beauty of the natural world, which exists in such extravagant abundance in our East Bay environments.

Jessica shared that California is a “global biodiversity hot spot,” meaning it has greater biodiversity (different species of plants and animals) than any other state in the nation and more than most places on Earth. The California State Board of Education has identified environmental literacy as a key learning objective for all K–12 students in the state.

Jessica Kauzer speaking to parents and staff members

At our school, we start actively immersing children in many different outdoor environments on campus and teaching children about nurturing and protecting nature in preschool. These educational approaches are systematized and expanded in our elementary school through the hands-on FOSS Science curriculum, created by the Lawrence Hall of Science, and through amazing learning experiences with Adrienne Wallace in the 7 Circles Garden.

Parents can play an important and enjoyable role in that learning process too. You can start to appreciate the richness of East Bay ecosystems by getting familiar with outdoor environments in our area.

For a fun and educational outing, the East Park system includes 73 parks, each a jewel that would be a notable tourist attraction in another state. Jessica is stationed at the Black Diamond Regional Preserve, which contains 8,533 acres of trails and a historic sand mine to explore. The parks provide wonderful educational experiences for all ages.

The park district website includes many different categories of information. There is rich information about the cultural history of indigenous tribes in the area and wonderful things to look for in nature. There is a page on wildflowers and where to find them and another with photos of songbirds that reside in the park, with recordings of their songs.

Naturalists offer educational tours to visitors focusing on the unique environment of the park where they are stationed, often offering historical information about the tribes that populated the area. Jessica shared that before statehood, California had the highest population density of pre-European peoples north of Mexico, with over 500 tribes and 100 language spoken.

Jessica and her husband, Tren, who is also an alumnus, loved the outdoor experiences at our school. As an elementary student, Jessica was one of a group of girls who worked with our former facilities manager, Tim Tacker, to build the gazebo in the kindergarten yard. The Kauzers are happy that their two children are now able to have the same outdoor experiences at the school.

Parents can get involved in helping us maintain our beautiful outdoor areas. If you’d like to participate, watch Wednesday Messages for announcements about our monthly garden volunteer days.

Sharing Her Love of Native American People and Culture

Caryl shows some of the Native American artifacts she has accumulated over the years.

November is Native American Heritage Month. Room 8 kindergarten teacher Caryl Morton has been interested in Native American culture for as long as she can remember.

In January, just before her class begins its “Red, White, and Blue” unit, where they’ll learn about the history and geography of the United States, she’ll devote two weeks to teaching her students about the peoples who populated the land long before the first European settlers arrived.

In the classroom, she’ll tell them Native American stories and legends. They’ll make crafts like clay bowls and beads. They’ll sing Native American songs and accompany them with drums and rattles. They’ll learn sign language and choose names for themselves based on something they love from the natural world.

Some lessons will take place outdoors, as time and weather allow, where they’ll imagine what life would be like if they were totally self-reliant—as the original inhabitants were before there were cars, airplanes, and big cities. They’ll think about what it was like to build their own houses, make fires, and gather their own food. (In the past, her students even made acorn bread.)

“My students have always resonated with these ideas and love to learn about the people who lived this way,” Caryl says.

“My goal has been to teach the children to love and respect the native people who lived before us. I want them to understand that they revered and cared for our Earth and hope that this will somehow influence their own relationship with the land they live on.”