Placing Children at the Center
Teaching and Learning in Unitarian Universalist Parish Life
Tracey L. Hurd Ph.D.
Children and Families Programs Director, UUA
Introduction
I place working with children at the heart of thinking about adult teacher development. Most people teach because they want to be with children. Children are natural spiritual guides. They are comfortable with the process of seeking. They are immediate in their response to love and injustice. They are forgiving companions for a journey of faith.
How does being with children nurture teachers?
The premise that children nurture their teachers is a radical one. It demands that we examine more deeply what touches us as adults working with children. Uncovering what is joyful, provocative and spiritual about being with children is both an individual and shared process. Creating processes that allow teachers to reflect about what they are gaining from being with children in RE is an essential step in understanding and supporting teachers. Structuring teaching so that adults can take time to enjoy and learn from children is essential.
Seeing the world through the eyes of the child is a gift. Walking slowly on the beach, with a toddler as our guide, we are overwhelmed at the intrigue and beauty that we see. Teaching and learning with children can provide alternate lenses for teachers. Children's clarity can be startling. A youth says: "people would think you were nuts if you did that Jesus turning the other cheek thing in middle school," and the lesson takes a turn from philosophy to authentic life. A five year old says, "God doesn't really make babies but he doesn't mind if we say that anyway," and the teacher doesn't need to comment. Later she asks, "Are there some things that God does mind?" and adults and children, ponder together the potentials of rights, wrongs, God and godlessness.
Children demand authenticity and force adults to declare truths, large and small. Teaching children during the period following September 11, 2001, those of us who teach were forced to reveal our sense of vulnerability to children. We also worked hard to maintain that we could indeed keep our communities safe. These conversations with children forced us to confront our concerns and claim our strength, as people of faith, anew. Many adults I worked with felt that teaching children was their most spiritually fortifying experience around September 11th .
Children also force us to explain parish life. Teaching three years olds this fall, I encountered a wonderful boy who asked me, "Can I walk in your maze [our outdoor labyrinth] sometime?" The way he worded this question made me pause: My maze? I explained (after giving him a clear yes ) that the maze belongs to all of us at church. I told him that one of the things that makes church special is that we share everything and that we're all in charge of taking care of everything together. When he replied, "Oh, so this is my room too, and my maze," I knew that we had shared and learned together a truth about what it means to be a parish member that is dear to us both.
What is unique about being a part of a Unitarian Universalist lifespan faith development program with children?
Searching for truth and meaning, is one of our core Unitarian Universalist principles. All learners in UU RE programs (teachers and children) are explicitly on this journey together. Since our faith and our ways of teaching do not follow a transmission (tell/remember) model, the process of learning becomes a process of the creation of our theology. We are a living faith.
When creating resources for lifespan faith development at the UUA, we always consider four aspects of development that occur through our religious education programs: Ethical development, Faith development, Unitarian Universalist identity development and Spiritual development. These aspects or strands reveal the complexity and strength of what we are learning in RE programs. In the process, we further define Unitarian Universalism for children and adults; we deepen our understandings of our faith. Considering these four strands, may help teachers better articulate what they are learning and how they are developing as adults of faith. The four strands may be tools for self or group reflection that support teaching as a spiritual act.
How can we further illuminate what is learned through the process of teaching in our parishes, both for children and adults?
Teaching and learning in our lifespan faith development programs is spiritual engagement. Much of what we do for children sustains our greater parish communities. Working with children, we often create routines or rituals, which help them to quickly gain a sense of belonging. Thinking deeply about what we do on behalf of children can help teachers realize how essentially spiritual their work with children is. I offer two examples: Snack and the fall water communion.
- Snack. I always make snack part of any religious education experience that I plan or teach. The sharing of food is a sacrament of hospitality and of coming together. To have and enjoy food together is a simple grace, a shared human experience that is both ordinary and sacred. It is through our deep enjoyment with each other, our sense of wonder and sense of gratitude that faith develops. We nourish our authentic selves and grow our souls. Snack both literally and metaphorically is central to this process with children.
- Water communion. Our parish community is a place where we make what is common, wondrous. We ask children to bring water from an ordinary or special summer place, to church with them in the fall. We know that our faith is one that welcomes us with our diverse experiences and paths. We come together, literally and symbolically, as a community in the fall. The water from the backyard sprinkler is offered and received from a child. The spirituality of everyday life is illuminated.
How can we support the learning communities of our classrooms and programs, with specific attention to teachers?
Supporting teachers means supporting the children who are learning with them. Our lifespan learning environments must be ones that allow children to be natural spiritual seekers. This happens when adults are able to conceptualize teaching as engaging children in pondering the spiritual, seeking justice, searching for what is true, learning about what is ethical and creating our Unitarian Universalist faith. Provisions of adequate space, curriculum, pastoral assistance and parish support, free teachers to enter fully into teaching as a spiritual act. The joys of teaching and learning with children can be realized most deeply when adults enter ready to learn and committed to creating faith together. Small group ministry with teachers, journaling exercises, spiritual companioning, and reframing religious education in the lives of congregations, may all be tools for adults in this process.
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Last updated on Tuesday, April 3, 2007.
