Teaching meaningful lessons to children
When presented with the task of teaching a class of children about Cambodia, I immediately thought flag and then map and then all those pragmatic things that represent a country, popped up in my head. Would this really teach the children something about Cambodia that would be meaningful and stimulate their thinking? What could I do, that would provoke something more profound? My network of loved ones is extensive and spreads all around the world and so I approached Elana, my nearest and dearest who lives in Sydney. Together we always came up with innovative songs and ideas and this time, it was no different. “Shell”, she said. “Why don’t you teach the children what it feels like, NOT to have.” Whoa! This sounded like an enormous challenge. How could I teach the children what it felt like to NOT have? In consultation with my Director and with permission from the parents, we went ahead to teach this concept to the children. We decided to pack up everything in our classroom, so that we had no toys, books, paper, pencils, dress up clothes etc. to play with. And we did it with the children. Including them in this process made the experience have far more depth than I could ever have imagined. We ended up with a shell of a classroom. Tables and chairs and empty shelves. How were we going to learn, was a question asked by the children. “Well, where do you think the children in Cambodia learned, if they didn’t have a classroom?” “Outside, came the answer”. And so our learning tree came into existence. For three weeks we went to the park and learnt outside, using sticks, sand, stones, leaves, acorns and all those things that nature provides for learning. I videoed the experience and cried on the first day, when we were walking back from the park. The children had connected with one another in a far deeper way, than I had seen in the classroom. They shared. They cared. They were kind. They were helpful. They lived harmoniously together without the burden of materialism and the competition that sometimes comes with it. At the end of the first week, I asked the children if there was anything that they really missed in the classroom. I told them that they could choose just one thing to bring back from the storage area into the room, for the upcoming week. And what did most of them want? Their Life Books. Their Life Books are books with photos of themselves, their family members, friends and places that they know. These books represent family and friendship and bring these special people into our classroom every day. These were most popular. A few other children wanted pencils and paper and so the following week these few items were included into the fabric of the classroom. We still played in the park and used stones and sticks to create stories, which we all made up together……...
This was how we made a truly meaningful experience of learning about Cambodia with the children. And now, on the eve of our trip to Ohana Learning Tree, I am recalling the feelings that I had during this time; moved so deeply by what had occurred and how it had impacted on the children.
Our Cambodia service trip will include six Ohana International School families and their children and six staff members and one young adult. How will our trip unfold? What will the children see? What will they feel? What will they take away from the trip? I trust that it will be a meaningful experience for everyone and am grateful for the group of 31 that will join me on this journey.
