The Wisdom of Children

Yesterday as we were transitioning from Explore Time to Outdoor Break, we read the book, “One”, by Kathryn Otoshi.  The story begins with Blue, who is a quiet color.  Hot-headed Red likes to pick on Blue.  The other colors see what is happening, but are afraid of Red, afraid to do anything, until “One” comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up and “count”.

Below are a few pages from the book and a just a few of the many comments and questions the children offered as we were reading the story.

LB, ZB:  They were being nice to blue.

Many children:  Red was being mean!

SS:  I understand how he feels.  That’s happened to me before.

Many voices:  Me too!

Teacher Caroline:  How do you think red is feeling now?

All:  Sad.

One of the questions we are always asking at Opal School is, How do we build a strong learning community where each voice is heard and where every person feels integral to the whole as meaningful contributors?   Sometimes this happens in small and unexpected ways.  When this happens, even when it is unplanned, we feel it is important to make the time in our schedule for these learning moments.  Yesterday as we read the book,   we captured this beautiful example of how a powerful story can provoke dialogue in which children begin to connect to one another through empathy and beginning to create shared meaning. Children carry this wisdom and it is our role as Teacher-Researchers to make it visible to all.