The Season of New Growth

Every year teachers and parents stop at this time and ask, “What’s happening? Have our children become problems overnight?” Then we remember—that’s right, it’s spring. The fresh, forceful energies of growth always seem to surprise us. The forces that push nature to bloom and propagate explode in children’s bodies, and ours as well.

Scientists have researched “spring fever” and noted that people have more serotonin in their brains during spring. In the past, people thought of it as glee. No wonder children’s antics often have a silly, euphoric quality. In this season, a couple of preschool boys will forget indoor plumbing and relieve themselves in the preschool yard. Children will also display new skills, like turning on the hose by themselves and spraying each other—feats they couldn’t have accomplished in the fall. There can also be bursts of love—two kindergarteners announcing they are going to get married.

Children are full of new life, and research shows they actually grow more physically in spring. No wonder they move faster and often push more boundaries.

Poets have long expressed ecstatic appreciation for the season. It was probably spring when Walt Whitman wrote, “I believe a leaf of grass is no less the than the journey-work of the stars.” We all benefit from noticing the changes in nature and having reverence that we are part of them.

The fields around our school are bursting with yellow mustard flowers, purple lupine, and baby blue eyes. Often during this season, goats work side by side on the hillside next to our school trimming the fast-growing grass with complete absorption. Sometimes the females give birth. Then one day, they disappear again.

Our gardens all over the school are full of activity. Children of all ages pull weeds, dig, water, and plant with enthusiasm. They relish getting their hands into the earth. You can put them to work joining you in spring cleaning at home to channel that fresh energy.

At school we also learn about the ways diverse cultures celebrate the coming of spring. Families set up a beautiful Persian New Year (Nowruz) display on Tier 1, and teachers read books about the holiday in the classroom. Both Nowruz and Easter use the symbol of an egg to represent their spring holiday honoring new life.

Let’s join with children in their sense that all of life is expanding. Every evidence of spring is a sign that we are full of new life too.