In recent months, working on the Schools Spiritual Wellbeing Project, I have been reading many books and papers on children’s spirituality, exploring how our approach for adults might also work for children; and how it can also support teachers.
My thinking became puzzled as I reflected on how a sense of wonder might be recognised by a six-year-old. The concepts of wonder and awe are too hifalutin for young children. How could it be successfully communicated?
My daughter, Sophie, a primary school teacher, said it would be easy. She created a character called Sparkle, who represents wonder and awe for children.
At the same time, in my research I came across a very insightful model of spiritual experience in a paper by Tobin Hart*. He suggested that spiritual experience could be usefully characterised in four different ways. These ways are:
- Wonder
- Wondering
- Wisdom
- Relational empathy, which I prefer to label Love & Compassion.
This quartet can be unpacked and explored in many ways and in detail. Here are a few brief attempts.
Wonder
Awe. Beauty. The magic of life. This is the obvious bedrock of spiritual experience, when our sense of being alive expands to a dimension that is far greater than the usual mundane human experience. As I wrote above, it comes in diverse circumstances and variable depths — from a momentary heart-felt response through to a cosmic epiphany.
Wondering
How wonderful it is to recognise that wondering is also part of the spiritual experience. It is that soft sense of curiosity and enquiry into the great questions. Why do we exist? Who made the Sun? What is time? How can infinity go on and on? What is Love? What is Jesus? Who am I?
This kind of wondering is innocent and pure. It is comfortable with unknowing and mystery, yet instinctively expands. Its mood is beautifully illustrated by the mystic insight: The more I know, the less I know.
Wisdom
By wisdom, we mean here those wise and compassionate insights and intuitions that seem to come from nowhere. Suddenly we may know something that helps us to understand a situation in a wiser and more loving way. These insights drop into us from what the Indian sage, Patanjali, called ‘ the rain cloud of knowable things.’ We often see this wisdom and insight manifesting in children.
Love & Compassion
For many of us this is the deepest and most meaningful aspect of spiritual experience. It happens when we experience our inner relationship and solidarity with another, and have compassion and care for them. Children often do this when they see another child who is hurt or bullied. They do it too with animals and plants. Our egos expand to include something else inside the usual boundaries of our self-concern. We recognise our rapport with all sentient beings. It is ultimately a sense of oneness, that is expressed through caring and love.
*
Those four attributes of spiritual experience are obvious, but rarely made explicit. I find naming of them to be profoundly helpful. They expand how I understand my own development.
They also reinforce guidelines for how we best support someone else’s spiritual development, whether they are a child or an adult
As always, when spiritually companioning another, our core strategy, without exception, is to drop into whole body listening.
Be quiet. Reassuring. Non-intrusive body language. Eyes soft and watchful. Ears receptive.
Be a benevolent presence. Allow the other person to just be with themselves.
Then, if it feels appropriate, with spiritually pure curiosity, you can ask questions that support your companion, adult or child, in exploring their experience – in wondering about the wonder.
And listening from your heart, you yourself can also learn and grow.
Spiritual Experience:
• Wonder
• Wondering
• Wisdom
• Love and Compassion
_____________
* Tobin Hart. 2005. ‘Spiritual Experiences and Capacities of Children and Youth,’ The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence, pp 163–177. Eds: Eugene C. Roehlkepartain, Pamela E. King, Linda Wagener, & Peter L. Benson, CA: SAGE.
First off, a thanks to your daughter Sophie for creating her delightful family of ‘Sparkles’. I also appreciated learning about the four attributes of spiritual experience, and your thoughts about these qualities. Your post reminded me of a ‘wonder’ story that I’d like to share.
Years ago I was employed with the public library. I had an interest in puppetry and was given the green light to perform a shadow puppet show for preschoolers. The library program was being held in December, so I decided to bring ’Twas the Night Before Christmas’ poem to life. The library would provide the puppet theatre, a translucent screen for the shadow puppets to be pressed against, and a lighting source. My task was to design, colour and cut out paper puppets and ’set pieces’ for the performance: Poppa and Momma in nightclothes and caps, children snug in their beds, sugarplums and candy, a window silhouetted by tiny Santa in his sleigh and eight reindeer. And a bigger Santa with a big bag of toys, a fireplace with stockings ‘ hung with care’, and a Christmas tree. The back of each item was stitched to the end of an umbrella spoke. Each character received 2 or more spokes, so their articulated limbs could move and ‘handle’ objects. The effect of the puppets as they moved across the screen was a primitive yet engaging film animation.
Performance day arrived. A gaggle of lively pre-schoolers arrived and settled in front of the theatre. Back stage, as I narrated the poem and moved the puppets, there was not a peep from the audience. Had my audience gone to sleep? Or worse yet, wondered off? After “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good-night”, I went to the front of the puppet theatre with some trepidation. Small round faces looked at me with wide eyes. I was relieved the children were still there, but was perplexed. Why are they so quiet? Then it dawned on me. This was the pre-internet era. It’s likely these very young children had never seen a shadow puppet show before. So I came to the conclusion that the expression on their faces was not disinterest as I initially feared, but wonder. With that realization I felt well-rewarded for my efforts.
I don’t know if shadow puppets could have a place in the Schools Spiritual Wellbeing Project, but sharing in case this tweaked an interest. Lots of online resources available these days for children to create their own ‘magical’ shadow puppets. As always, best wishes for the future of your beautiful and vital project.
William,
your wisdom is refreshing I drank your words. I am a 103-year-old child.
–
Giselle
How lovely to hear from you, Giselle – 103-year-old child!!! 💚
Just finished a week long ” swamp camp” with 12 and under here in the semi tropical paradise of Mississippi . You would of loved it as we use the swamp as an outdoor classroom of awe and discovery complete with microscopes ; Kyacks ; plant and soil identification ( living microbes ) and the abundance of aquatic ; bird and mammal wildlife with experts on each donating their time to be in the field sharing their knowledge . Young and old the joy of discovery and learning from nature never tires ; never becomes old hat
Beauty transforms us as it can melt the coldest heart.”; we become beautiful through discovery and its infectious
I love what you have offered, but I can’t help but feel something is missing. I’m not sure it is anything that could be taught, but it doesn’t involve any intention or slightest effort/action—even the “action” of thinking! It’s more of a Be Here Now sort of thing—-just “Is-ness.” There is not even the desire to help. Perhaps your “Wonder” category includes this, but when you say “Awe,” to me that is a response to stimuli, and what I’m talking about is not a response to stimuli. So probably an adult thing, not to expect of children . . .?
Thank you for sharing this William. As a mum of two small children, conscious of the lack of spirituality in school, this is so useful (and reassuring to know projects like these exist). As I tucked my eldest (8) into bed tonight, I asked her: “what filled you with wonder today?” The answer was unexpected and beautiful. We both parted with big smiles on our faces. xx
Such clarity and wisdom in your words, and beautifully illustrated for children. Thank you William and Sparkle !
Excellent, as always, William! Thank you! And the Sparkle pictures are delightful.
In Christian environments the three supreme virtues are often named as Faith, Hope and Love. But I have long believed (and tried to teach) that a fourth might be recognised: Wonder (in both senses of the word).
My first spiritual experiences (aged about seven) were connected with being out with my mother picking primroses and standing under a venerable beech tree in a wood. I think I would have described them then just as sheer happiness and a feeling that the world was OK (it was just after world war two) – the sense of wonder came from looking back on them.
William, your schools project is inspiring. In the Steiner kindergarten where I worked for 16 years, we endeavoured to foster an environment where the child’s natural sense of awe, wonder and reverence was protected and nurtured. For the child under 6, that included daily activities such as: lighting a candle for the meal (giving a lit taper to the child to light the main candle); answering questions with ‘well I wonder?’, rather than imposing adult understanding; and spending time outdoors in all weathers and caring for the garden. We didn’t talk about awe and wonder – as you say – too hifalutin for young children – we (staff) endeavoured to embody these qualities in our daily life with the children.
Sparkle’s animation and variety make me feel very – sparkly! An inspired creation, appealing to the ever-present child in me x