A tiny virus with a crown returned my children to me. They used to spend eight hours a day, five days a week, in the care of wonderful, sacrificing, dedicated, creative teachers who themselves spent the day away from their own parents, children, husbands, wives, pets. And then, just like that, a tiny virus (with a crown) sent everyone home. The bus that dropped off my children from school one Friday afternoon didn’t return to collect them on Monday. But on Tuesday it came. A ghost bus--sans children--stopped at our driveway, handed over the education of my children to me in a blue bag, and drove away. Empty.
But my heart is full. Because now our days are spent...together. Days such as these used to be precious and rare and maddening, like the days immediately after a child is welcomed into the family. When you suddenly realize that the organism which is your family is in the process of completely reorganizing itself.
And you hardly recognize it anymore.
I feel like my family is being reorganized. There is a clear sense that what is forming will be beautiful, but right now...at times...it is ugly. Mid-metamorphosis is like that. Old patterns that no longer serve us must be continuously dismantled and reconfigured in increasingly more beautiful patterns. It is the only way to get from caterpillar to butterfly.
It seems that the entire world has been given the opportunity to re-examine and reconfigure the way we function as families and communities. And already some beautiful patterns have emerged: Italians singing to each other from balconies, artists and teachers and companies offering their services for free, Americans sharing their toilet paper.
And parents everywhere educating their children from home. I have spent a lot of time lately, blue bag in hand, trying to wrap my mind around what education looks like for my family. This quote sums up my thoughts perfectly:
“Consider how through education children gradually learn to look beyond their own interests to those of their family. With yet further training, they recognize the importance of respecting the interests of others and see as a sacred obligation service to their neighbours. At a higher level still, proper education can help children to broaden their horizons and set their sights on the advancement and glory of their nation. And when their breadth of vision expands even wider, they will undoubtedly come to see the progress of the entire human race and the furtherance of the true interests of all the peoples of the world as a guiding purpose of their lives.”
‘Look.’ ‘Recognize.’ ‘Sights.’ ‘Vision.’ Education is the process of gradually expanding what we SEE. With our eyes, with our minds, and with our souls. Until it becomes clear: there is only one reality. There are infinite mirrors, but there is only one light.
My son’s favorite part of the week is Sunday morning. It’s the day he goes to children’s class. Every week they explore a different virtue: love, patience, kindness, joy, generosity, forgiveness, compassion. They’re learning to notice the way light reflects off the human soul. And to name it. Which is no easy task, actually, because love has as many manifestations as there are mirrors. And some manifestations are more obvious than others. I know for a fact that hugs and tantrums can both be love.
My one desire for my children is that they contribute, in their own unique way, to making the world a better place. A more unified place. Baha’u’llah says that this process starts with recognizing beauty:
“Each sees in the other the Beauty of God reflected in the soul, and finding this point of similarity, they are attracted to one another in love. This love will make all men the waves of one sea, this love will make them all the stars of one heaven and the fruits of one tree. This love will bring the realization of true accord, the foundation of real unity.”
I am always asking myself how I can teach my children to be more kind, generous, forgiving. But I think the answer is, I don’t. I just get better at noticing when they ARE kind and generous and forgiving. I get better at recognizing beauty. The psychologist Rhett Diessner said recently that beauty is what lifts us out of our thoughts and into our behavior. When we find something beautiful, we love it. When we love something, we want to express it. Through action. And when our actions are motivated by love, they change the world.
This feels like how I want to (home)school: notice beauty. love beauty. And look always to the Source of Beauty itself.
