written by John Albright, Little Elk guide
On Tuesdays in Little Elk we begin our class meeting with a statement of our beliefs. The next thing we do is share “gratitudes.” These include thank yous, compliments, and anything that we are grateful for. We pass the talking stick around the circle and anyone who wants to can share. It’s quite common to be thankful for our cats, our friends and our parents. “I want to thank my dad for bringing me to basketball practice,” says a sixth grader. A fifth grader thanks her friends for “playing soccer with me at recess, because it was really fun.” Another thanks his parents for “giving me shelter.”
We also practice gratitude every day just before we eat lunch. Children choose one statement from a list of blessings from around the world, ring the bell, wait for silence and then read it out loud. It’s common for children to sneak bites of food before we ring the bell, but we consistently encourage each other to wait until we’ve given thanks. For example, “we honor the beauty and bounty of the food set before us. We are grateful to all those who grew and tended to this food. And to those who made it possible for it to be here for us.”
Some of us meet in the mornings to do calming work. One of the activities we do is called “three good things.” When we are disappointed, this exercise teaches us to think of three good things in our lives too. This reminds us that we can hold two feelings in our heart at the same time, that we can balance the disappointing with the grateful.
This week I asked some students what they were grateful for. Henry, who came to Little Elk three years ago from a traditional school, said, “I’m grateful that I have the freedom to choose research projects and make dioramas. It’s not like a set way of learning where everybody do the same thing all at once.” Henry noted that the transition to Montessori in fourth grade was kind of hard but “now it’s easier for me to work and I’m better at time management.”
Dakota: “Skiing is fun. I learned just learned how to ski this year. I can ski black diamonds now…. I think my favorite hills at Wild Mountain is Broadway you come down and you cut across like this…”
Lydia: “I’m grateful for pasta, the long stringy kind.”
Moses: “I’m grateful for having a nice class. Nobody’s really mean.”
Dorian: “I’m grateful for life and my pet and my parents and Legos. My parents gave me life and they feed me and they give me pets and they give me Legos.”
As for me, I’m thankful that I work in a school where older students mentor and pass along their knowledge to younger students through direct teaching. I’m grateful that I work in a school that serves real food for humans.
John
February, 2020