Recently, a teacher who was also a parent of young children said they “were aware of their baggage:” their training, the impressions from their own early childhood while teaching or at home. I heard myself saying “Yes, there is the baggage, then there is the moment.” The opportunity to stop, to see and feel the child or children as they are while questioning something as “the unknown” is the “secret sauce”of parent and teacher early childhood education.

Being in Awe Together

The child senses the moment you are there together, observing, listening with a sense of awe. For a while, I was a substitute teacher in public schools, so I know the obstacles to such moments. In one class where there was a large proportion of children who sought attention through chaos, I temporarily put the plan aside, took a figure of a giraffe down from a shelf, stroked its neck and asked the question: Why would an animal with such a long neck not be able to make sounds? We explored the fact that giraffes have no vocal cords. We wondered together, and the environment changed. There was a sense, for that time, that we were not only together looking and pondering a mystery, but that we saw and sensed each other.

I remember knowing at the time that I didn’t provide that “stop” primarily for them. I wanted it for myself, since I know from experience how children are sensitive to my state, that to be with young children is a work for me as well as for them. They bring the raw material for me.

When I look back at my own education and upbringing, while there are memorable moments of opening to new ideas from a “knowledgable adult,” it is times of being in question, unknowing, and being seen – together – that have the most life. Those few minutes in a day with a teacher or parent in the midst of many demands can be stored up for a child that show a way of being in life – perhaps the essential dynamic of a useful education.