Preaching To The Choir

I'm not afraid of making a mess, I'm really not, and fortunately, our parent community supports the proposition that their kids may well come home covered from head to toe, and in fact there are always one or two who pull me aside each year for concerned conversations about why their kid does not. It's such a regular part of what we do that I don't really even think about it and am always a little shocked when I hear an adult not versed in our school say to her granddaughter or nephew, "Try not to get your clothes messy." 

Earlier this summer we tried out using shaving cream as mortar for building with wooden blocks. We've also painted with cars and on easels. So last week I thought it might be fun to try all 3 at once, side by side.

Ha, ha, haa . . . Oh? That wasn't a joke? Oh right, that's how the rest of the world works. 

We live here in a bubble in so many ways at the Woodland Park Cooperative Preschools. It's even a rather small bubble here on the internet where all us birds of a feather have flocked together around a handful of blogs and Facebook pages that support play-based learning, child-lead activities, positive parenting, progressive teaching, and playing outdoors.

I'm reminded of it about once a month when one of my more strident posts, as happened yesterday, pokes through the bubble and gets shared around the wider world out there where watching TV isn't such a bad thing or where spanking is the best idea they've got. I'm reminded that there are still a lot of people out there who haven't figured out that children are fully formed human beings with ideas, feelings and agendas, where "tough love" is still a thing, and where all those "messed up kids" come from  not enough of it. I'm reminded that there are children who will be punished if they get their clothes messy.

Every day, we send kids home wet or dirty or paint-y or something, not all the kids, because some don't like it, but there's always that option. I go home wet or dirty or paint-y on most days, as do many of our parent-teachers. Every child brings a change of clothes each day, and for those who need more than one change, the school keeps its own supply. 

I like it here in our bubble. I don't like it when ill-informed people come in here and accuse me of helping to create sociopaths, of advocating for "permissive parenting," or for insisting that children must be "trained" as if they're pets that must be taught to obey. I don't shy away from debate, but it exhausts me to have to make the same case over and over. Sometimes I just want to preach to the choir.

I like it here in our bubble where everyone can get messy if they want, where we respect and trust children and research and play.

Come on into the bubble and sing along. It's fun to sing with the choir.

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