Start with your Heart
Several years ago, when my children attended Living Wisdom School, I drove carpool in the mornings. The car was filled with different ages of students ranging from 1st to 7th grade. On one particular morning, the older children brought up a news topic involving leaders behaving in ways that they couldn’t understand. There was a pause for several blocks, and then, while looking out the car window, the 1st grader says, “Well, I guess they didn’t go to Living Wisdom.” The culture of kindness, positivity, empathy, and joy is felt by all ages at Living Wisdom. We’ve primarily offered this Education for Life education since 1997 through our school programs,…
Learning New Skills in Preschool
Every day in preschool - as in life - there are times when things don’t go our way. Every day we practice facing these disappointments and upsets using the skills we have been taught or seen modeled around us. In our class we see these conflicts and upsets as opportunities to learn new skills...
I Believe in You
In a recent staff meeting we shared inspirational moments of our first week of the school. Our newest teacher talked about teaching her students the “I believe in you face.” She explained to her students that when classmates are trying something challenging like standing up in front of the class, we can radiate the intention of kindness and support...
Reach of Faith
At Living Wisdom School (LWS) we practice many little—and sometimes big—“reaches of faith” every day. Our teachers practice faith in the individual potential of each student, helping each student reach for the best within themselves. To do this, our community...
Share the Love
Listen to a pre-school parent talk about her family's experience at LWS...
Appreciating Internal Motivation
At our recent building fundraiser, Nitai Deranja, the co-director of Education for Life, gave an inspiring talk about the work we do at Living Wisdom Schools and why we do it. One of our goals at LWS is to create a schooling experience that is more internally motivated than externally motivated. When students feel safe and inspired, a curiosity bubbles up and learning occurs naturally...
The Polite Game
Our kindergarten teacher, Helen, teaches the students a game called the "Tea Party Polite Game" at the beginning of the year. The students sit down to tea and they brainstorm ways to be polite...
Teaching Positive, Solution-Oriented Thinking
A group of my students were recently confronted with a very serious childhood problem: the invasion of a sacred play space...
Affirmations in School
Lately, I've been enjoying introducing affirmations to the Primary class at various points in the day. I've found that doing a brief affirmation introduces sweet and positive spiritual moments throughout our day. We learn a new one weekly...
Working with Conflict
At the beginning of my teaching career, I often felt very worried about how students behaved toward each other. I put the expectation on myself to create perfectly behaved, well-mannered kids to show off how awesome my classroom is, as some sort of reflection of my teaching skills. As I’ve gained experience, I realize that it’s important to teach excellent behavior and manners, but it sometimes just doesn’t happen. Kids respond to each other in unexpected ways, often exploring boundaries. It is not a reflection of bad teaching or bad kids when conflicts occur. Rather, it is best to see these times as the most compelling teachable moments. Our kindergarten…
