I have always had this idea in my head of creating an area of the classroom where a child can go to just be. Not a place to be alone, or to read a book, but to simply enter into his or her own thoughts, feelings and being. I never brought this idea to life because before I could adequately model it for a child, I needed to master those skills myself.
This fall we have set up corners of our classrooms for the children to go and be with their emotions and thoughts. We will present ways for the children to tune into their bodies and their emotions through the senses – sweet scented flowers, sand timers and kaleidoscopes, soft pillows, headphones for music, and stress balls and sensory materials for the hands. We will take it one step further and provide tools to outwardly express themselves through different mediums of art. The idea is to give children the tools they need to use on their own as needed or desired.
Everything we teach children, we teach to help create a better future. I thought that teaching children at a young age to find their inner peace was a novel idea, but just like most ideas I’ve ever had I find that they are recycled from someone before me. In the words of the Dalai Lama – “If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.”
