The mountain is beginning to feel like school time as the morning ocean fog begins to retreat and the warm fall weather arrives. The lotus flowers in the lake near the bus stop are in full bloom. The playgrounds are being filled with wood chips, sand and pea gravel. Our maintenance crews have been busy painting decks, classrooms, railings and the gym floor received a complete sanding and refinishing. The Mountain of Fun Summer Program was a wonderful success and a huge thank you to Jenni Leach for serving as the Summer Director and to Hema Walker for serving as co-teacher, as well as to Isa Stead for offering arts and crafts.
The volleyball program for girls is in full swing for students in grades 4-12, and the girls seem excited to see one another again and begin the season. Nate Rockhold and Tina Pendleton are coaching, along with our Athletic Director Sidd McDonald if we have enough turn-out for three teams. Please do contact Sidd, if you wish for your daughter to participate.
This coming week, all of our teachers return to campus for our annual two-week school preparation and training time. Our retreat is a time to connect with all faculty and staff, reflect on our goals and school mission, and plan curriculum that will meet these goals. The retreat focus this year is on strategies to differentiate instructional levels within the classroom and articulate the implicit curriculum that underlies our relationships, classroom practices and teacher modeling.
Recently, I viewed a dialogue between two of my favorite poets, Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry. They have released a book of letters about their long years of writing to one another, sharing their perspectives on life. At a Q and A point with the audience, someone asked these wise men what they think is important to teach children. Gary Snyder said immediately, gratitude, and spoke about why he thought this was so important. An easy practice he suggested was to have children give thanks for their food. He is not particularly religious and said it is really about the cultivation of appreciation and thankfulness for what you are given. Another point he made, being a writer, was that children should know how to write. He meant cursive writing as he went on to explain. Wendell Berry shared about a relative who took his grandchildren to see the Declaration of Independence and they couldn’t read it because it was written in script.
The question stimulated my thoughts about children and what is essential to learn. Of course an enormous question! But a simple thought worth considering: Play. Do our children still know how to play with one another and does our society encourage playtime? Unplugged, wild, explorative, creative, socially connected time with peers, without being coached or steered by adults. This is how children for eons learned their adult roles in life: playing house, store, school, fishing, gathering, hunting, fort building, and more. There are studies in the past and currently being done asking how play affects learning and brain development.
“The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain,” says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. “And without play experience, those neurons aren’t changed,” he says. ‘It is those changes in the prefrontal cortex during childhood that help wire up the brain’s executive control center, which has critical role in regulating emotions, making plans and solving problems, Pellis says. So play, he adds, is what prepares a young brain for life, love and even schoolwork. But to produce this sort of brain development, children need to engage in plenty of so-called free play, . . ., No coaches, no umpires, no rule books.’
You can read the whole article at http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/08/06/336361277/scientists-say-childs-play-helps-build-a-better-brain
There is another article link at the same site about competition in child development, and the great life lessons found in losing and winning: http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/08/05/331412567/when-kids-start-playing-to-win.
As we go forth with our school year, perhaps we can collectively model gratitude and play to our children. Not in a preachy, artificial, or contrived manner, but more from a place of taking time to give thanks for one another’s friendship, food, opportunities, our place on the planet, in whatever ways speak truly to us. Perhaps we can collectively encourage our children to go outside and play with others, leaving them as much as is possible to their own devices, granting them the freedom to invent and create with their peers.
Finally, THANK YOU, for choosing Mount Madonna School as the place where your children will learn with others and for giving your support to teachers and classes in all the many ways, making this educational experience community-based, relevant, play-full and meaningful.
A few upcoming fall dates include:
August 17 – Annual Pre&K Beach Party 2:00-4:00pm
August 23 — Pre&K Work Party at the Lakeview Classroom 11:00am-2:00pm
August 26 — Meeting for parents of grades 3-5 for overview of overnight field trips at the Courtside 6:00-7:30pm
September 17 – Lower School Back to School Night 6:30-8:00pm
October 10 – Play It Forward Golf Tournament
Looking forward to seeing you and your children on September 2nd.
Love,
Supriya
Mary Supriya McDonald
Head of the Lower School
Mount Madonna School
