Goodness Weekly 4.15.24
"The earth is what we all have in common."
- Wendell Berry
What’s Good
It’s Earth Month and our big project to convert a formerly underutilized one-acre parking lot into a neighborhood park is nearing completion! Last week our staff and Sprouts Schoolers got to witness the installation of a special oak tree that was planted at the entrance to the park in memory of our dear friend Janet. The tree has a 24-foot canopy and will provide cooling shade as people enter the park. We will continue to actively fundraise for this beautiful park and encourage you to reach out to Taylor Bates or Jess Lowry for more information on how you can be a part of the creation of Charis Park for generations to come.
Janet’s Tree at Charis Park
With the wonderful weather we’ve been having, our Sprouts Schoolers have been extra active. This week, while taking their daily “hike” around the neighborhood, they got to see Charis Park’s first new tree being delivered. For information on registration, please reach out to Linda, Sprouts School Founder and Director.
A Message from Linda
Message from Linda Charlton, Sprouts School Founder & Director
I was speaking to a group of graduate students about the pedagogy of nature schools and asked them to help me brainstorm about what was meant by nature based pedagogy. We listed off a bunch of traits–sensory play, risky play, and outdoor play. Then one student said, “We are teaching empathy.” I was struck that he knew that (and a little jealous that I didn’t say empathy first).
I’ve been thinking about that piece, the empathy piece, for a while now. We humans have an easy time finding empathy for small fuzzy things–for baby chicks and baby bunnies, for puppies and kitties, for classroom pets. But the struggle is very real for other things, for roly polys, for spiders, and especially for plants. The kids always want to pick the leaves off of everything, pick the grass, pick the seeds, and it drives me absolutely crazy. I have asked every single child who has ever been in my care approximately 14,676,843,291 times not to pick things (yes, I have been keeping count). So they turn their backs and look furtively over their shoulders at me as they pick things. And I tell the kids, “We don’t pick the leaves off the plants. Plants are living beings and we treat them with respect.” This is something that has evolved over the last ten years or so, but I say it consistently now. Plants are living beings and we treat them with respect. It is another weapon in my arsenal against picking things. I say it often enough that kids can say it. I say it often enough that the teachers say it.
Since I say, “Plants are living beings and we treat them with respect” so often, I’m honestly not sure if it is effective. I know that if you have done the same thing a gazillion times and no one’s behavior has changed, then you should probably consider trying something new.
I also know that change takes a long, long time. It is incremental. It is quiet. Oftentimes you can’t see it happening. Sometimes I don’t even notice.
Sometimes it is more dramatic than that though. The 2020/2021 school year, we took a whole bunch of the kids who should have graduated into kindergarten back because their parents didn’t want them to do kindergarten online. Those kids were leaders in our classroom tribe in a very special way. They knew all the rules. They’d heard all the lessons. I could just look at them and they knew what I was going to say. The other kids knew that those big kids were the coolest thing E-V-E-R.
One day, we were in the forest, and the American beautyberry had blossomed. American beautyberries have these really striking pink flowers that stand out against the plant and turn into the most beautiful purple berries that the birds and other wildlife truly love. A handful of times we had quietly, patiently, watched the birds take these berries and eat them. Two of the kindergarteners came running to me, almost in tears, “Ms. Linda! Ms. Linda! So and so is picking the flowers off the beautyberry bush! Plants are living beings and we treat them with respect! The birds will eat those beautyberries! We told so and so to stop but they didn’t! You have to come!”
As I was reflecting about this whole experience, what really struck me was that these two kindergarteners were initially some of the worst offenders in the picking plants brigade. But now, years later, their hearts were hurt with the idea of less food for birds, the idea of the injury to the plant. The change that I was looking for had chased me down in the tears of a 6-year-old and I hadn’t even recognized it until that very moment. Those two knew that plants are living beings and we treat them with respect.
Then just the other day, the graduate student said, “We are teaching empathy” and this resonated deep in my heart. When he said it, I was thinking about empathy for land and empathy for animals, but then today I actually said to a child, “Plants are living beings and we treat them with respect” and it was like a slap to my forehead, duh, empathy. Empathy is everywhere.
This Week
Lunchtime Yoga Flow with NYX Wellness, Mon-Fri at 12pm, upstairs in Room 200.
Sign up for your class here.
For weekly hours of One Another Coffee, Scott’s Pizza, and NYX Yoga, please feel free to check our calendar and follow us on Instagram for any updates.
Interested in more of what’s happening at Sunset Ridge Church? Please consider subscribing to Views from the Ridge.
Inhale:
Empathy blossoms within me
Exhale:
Connecting me deeply with all that’s around me
