May/June 2003
Feature Articles
Holistic Health Q & A
by Julie Gatza, D.C.
To restore and maintain good health,
clean out your body's toxins first.
What is... Neurotransmitter Imbalance?
by John B. DeCosmo, D.O.
Depression, anxiety, fatigue and sleeplessness
aren't just in your mind. An imbalance of molecules in your brain could
be the cause.
UnCommon Sense!
by David Findlay
Winning the Pease.
Articles on the theme "Environmental Consciousness"
Cancel That Thought
by Dr. Audrey Craft Davis
You can stop contributing to planetary
pollution by changing your negative thoughts into positive ones.
An Inside Job
by Martin Montes
Recycling laws protect our outer environment;
good habits protect the inner.
Inside & Out
by Charles Larsen
If you're swimming behind a shark,
you'd better know where the rest of his family is.
Your Consciousness is Showing
by Nancy Buchanan
Manifesting the thoughts and things
that improve our personal and global environment.
Learning - Naturally
by Barbara Bedingfield
Helping children appreciate the environment
around them at the different stages of their lives.
Awareness of All Life
by Matt Guest
Our physical environment is a reflection
of our inner self awareness.
A Lost World?
by AnneMarie Dyer
The state of our environment is a reflection
of our overall spiritual condition.
Natural Wonders
by Suzanne Persons, Ph.D.
Connecting with nature is easy, and
often dramatic, when you live on Florida's Suncoast.
Learning -- Naturally
by Barbara Bedingfield
Today many of us realize that as a civilization we have become estranged from the world of nature. At one time human beings lived deeply within the rhythms of nature -- going to bed at sunset, planting by the moon, slowing down in winter and going inward. Humankind knew about healing plants; almost everyone grew their own food; everyone knew that there was a difference between a winter moon and a summer moon.
While it is not reasonable or even advisable to go back to an earlier time and live in simpler bygone ways, still there is a yearning in the hearts of many for something more than technology, consumer products, and our fast-paced lives. Our intellect has brought great advancements in science and in our culture and we enjoy the magnificent gift of freedom that allows us to make choices in our lives. We do not have to stay down on the farm! We are not bound to nature. We are free to notice nature -- or not.
Now, with this hard-won freedom of the human spirit comes responsibility toward those beings lower than ourselves as well as responsibility toward the earth we live upon. Those individuals who are active in the environmental movements have taken up this responsibility in an active outward way. Others have quietly formed gardening co-ops; others are learning to garden "bio-dynamically" in order to restore nutrients to the soil; others have pledged to recycle, to buy less, to live less elaborately, to plant trees.
How, then, can we carry this impulse of environmental consciousness into the future? It is through our children, of course. And how do we instill in children this awareness of humanity's responsibility toward the earth? Never, never with the shaking finger, the lecture, the admonishment, or filling children's hearts with grim predictions of things to come.
Environmental consciousness can only be taught through our own true example of gratitude, reverence, and awe for the world. It must start within us. Environmental consciousness must start with love. Love must start with interest. Interest must start with noticing. Noticing is a conscious act. Consciousness is developed by our egos. We have been given the freedom.
In the Waldorf school kindergarten, we honor the natural stage of development of children between 4 and 6 -- a time when that dreamy state of consciousness that is embedded in the surrounding world holds sway. When the teacher gardens with the children she does not "explain facts" about plants. She simply gardens with genuine love. She carefully gets out her basket of seeds, her gardening tools and, putting on her sun hat and garden shoes, she slowly begins the work of planting the tiny seeds into the ground. The children gather around with great interest! They want to help -- because all healthy children want to imitate what they see adults doing. The teacher quietly shows them how to work and, without instruction, they do what they see teacher doing. When the little seedlings rise above the ground, teacher lets the children discover them -- and how happily they do this!
It is the same when children are taken for a walk in the meadow. Teacher does not point out things to the children: "Look at this!" or "What is this plant called?" or "Do you hear that bird?" Rather, she walks along quietly enjoying the meadow, noticing and taking in things on her own and allowing the children to discover nature's gifts. When we ask children questions or point things out to them we pull them out of their warm natural state of connection with the world, and send them, instead, up into their cool intellects.
Inside the classroom, teacher prepares a "nature table" that changes as the year proceeds. Soft colored silks, flower fairies, a figure of Mother Earth, seed babies and roots all come together to portray the present season of the year. When the children return from their nature walks, they place their gifts from nature on the table -- little flowers, seeds, cones, whatever they have found.
At circle time, teacher brings simple songs and verses about nature and she sings in a high soft voice that the children can easily imitate:
Caterpillar, wind about,
Round and round and in and out
When you are fed, come spin your bed,
Go to sleep, deep, deep,
As a caterpillar die, waken as a butterfly.
At the morning snack time, teacher leads them in a simple verse of gratitude:
Blessings on the blossom, blessings on the root,
Blessings on the leaf and stem, blessings on the fruit.
Throughout the grades in a Waldorf school, children are kept in close connection with nature. The hard sciences are not taught until 6th grade. In the primary grades "science" comes as beautiful nature stories of plants and animals, stars, sun, and moon. We teach beautiful poetry that the children memorize and recite together, such as Robert Frost's "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Night" or Walter de la Mare's "Silver." In these indirect ways we are building a foundation of love for the world and we know that out of this love will grow a strong sense of responsibility for the world.
We see the results in the children. On the playground at recess they run about finding creatures, picking flowers, digging for worms and capturing tent caterpillars. They build natural little shelters out of palm fronds, logs and branches. On rainy days they put on boots and rain gear and splash about in the puddles. They won't dare squash a spider or a bug that finds its way into the classroom!
The third-grade curriculum contains what is called "practical studies" and the children are taught about farming and house building. They gain a deep appreciation for all that it takes to produce food or to build a house. We go to a farm to live for a week and take part in the daily farm chores. By learning about the process of planting grain, threshing it, grinding it into flour and then baking it, the children have a genuine appreciation for the delicious taste of fresh-baked bread.
The point I am trying to make is that the very best way to help children gain an environmental awareness is through these natural indirect ways that are appropriate to childhood. And we must start first with ourselves to develop our own appreciation for the natural world.
An exercise given to parents in a parenting class by Jennifer Day helps deal with the stress of raising children in today's world and it goes as follows: Lie in bed for at least five minutes when you first wake up. Focus your attention on your heart and breathe slowly as though "through your heart." At the same time think about some scene, some creature, some experience in nature that you really appreciate and stay with that feeling in the area of your heart for five minutes. Parents in the class have tried this and they are finding that the simple exercise is beginning to strengthen their heart life, their appreciation, and their noticing and they are able to use this newfound strength when they need patience in the moment for dealing with an unruly child.
The Waldorf philosophy guides us to honor each developmental stage of childhood and the first stage, from birth to seven, is a stage when children should feel that the world is good and that they are safe. We should not burden children with the cares of the world, but rather teach them through our own reverence to notice and love the world. This takes place best in the back yard, not at Disney World.
From seven to fourteen, children are completely in their "feeling lives." By bringing them beautiful stories, beautiful music and beautiful experiences in art we allow them to develop their own inner pictures (not pictures given by TV or videos) and they learn to express this beauty in drawing, painting and modeling. Through these activities their interest is heightened and deepened and, in this very natural way, they can't help but fall in love with the world.
The child between fourteen and twenty-one has now reached the stage of consciousness that is capable of judgment and it is at this time that we bring the student the knowledge of environmental devastation by humanity. However, at the same time, we place before them positive pictures of human beings who are making a difference in the world for the good so that we foster and support their inherent idealism.
"For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven." For the young child there is a time for just living in the natural world. For the older child there is a time for portraying that world in beautiful art and for hearing wonderful stories. And for the adolescent there is a time for giving expression to his or her idealism by becoming conscious of what humans can do to protect and preserve the earth.
Let there be environmental consciousness.
Let it begin with me.
Barbara Bedingfield is a founder of the School of the Suncoast, a developing Waldorf school in Clearwater, Florida that is part of the worldwide Waldorf School Movement first begun in 1919. (727) 532-0696.
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