News and Resources from the FGC Religious Education Committee
Issue 11 / Autumn 2006
In this Issue:
Considerations When Choosing and Using Books in FDS. By Gail Thomas
Sharing Faith Across the Generations: A FDS Project that Enriches the Entire Meeting. By Beth Collea
Lesson from a Book: The Empty Pot, by Demi (from Chinese folklore)
Lesson from a Book: Where Does God Live? by August Gold and Matthew J. Perlman
And Then There Was Light by Gail Thomas, NEYM, sojourning in BYM
Review of People, written and illustrated by Peter Spier reviewed by Johanna Halbeisen
Considerations When Choosing and Using Books in FDS
by Gail Thomas
The FGC Religious Education committee is encouraging Quaker religious educators to explore the many possible ways one can build a lesson around a single book. The Religious Education committee is calling such a lesson, especially one created using a form or template they have provided, a Lesson from a Book. (See sample lessons in this issue.) There are scores of excellent books available, so it makes sense to plan carefully and maximize the use of these books in the First Day School setting. Many meeting religious educators are challenged by irregular attendance or by wide age ranges within the same classroom. A Lesson from a Book can easily be customized to fit your specific meeting environment. Plus, more than one lesson can be created from the same book. When Lessons from a Book are kept in a notebook for future use, your meeting's resource library can grow surprisingly rapidly.
This article will discuss some of the many issues to consider in selecting appropriate books for Lesson from a Book plans, and will explore some of the "hidden" messages for which we need to look when selecting First Day School materials in general.
Age Appropriateness
Read any book you are considering for a lesson very carefully. Give books you are already familiar with a fresh look. The book, Peace Begins with You, by Katherine Scholes and illustrated by Robert Ingpen (Sierra Club Books, 1990), is an example of a book that at first glance seems to be aimed at five and six year old children, but which, upon closer examination, may actually be inappropriate for that age group. Like many books for a young audience, the cover portrays two young children, the illustrations are large and there is a minimum of text. However, upon reading the text and looking more carefully at the pictures, we see themes that are more mature, with sophisticated and sometimes painful images that make this book more suitable for middle school students.
Love Is..., adapted from the Bible by Wendy Anderson Halperin (Simon & Schuster, 2001) is another example of a book with a less than obvious ideal audience. I love half of this book. Using the text of l Corinthians 13, the book has lots of small, interesting pictures illustrating loving behavior, and including people of all ages and races with a diversity of ethnicities. Unfortunately, each positive page is paired with a page of negative behavior. While such contrast makes for great discussions with grade school age children, I would not look at these pages of negative behavior with pre-school children.
Know your book; know your age group; use material in developmentally appropriate ways.
Gender Issues
Be aware that many older books feature boys as the primary characters. This seems to be based on the assumption that girls will read about characters of either gender, but boys only want a boy hero. Even today, some of the nicest books available feature boys, e.g. A Quiet Place, by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Dan Andreasen (Aladdin, 2005) and God's Quiet Things,by Nancy Sweetland, illustrated by Rick Stevens (Eerdmans, 1994). However, there are also wonderful books featuring girls, and many, such as I See the Moon, by Kathi Appelt (Eerdmans, 1997) try to finesse gender. More importantly, newer books tend to avoid stereotyping behavior. Girls can be active and leaders. Boys may be sensitive and caring. Still, even new books are not guaranteed to be free of gender stereotyping, so read with awareness and sensitivity.
Racial and Cultural Awareness
As with gender, newer books tend to avoid racial and cultural stereotyping. Even if the main characters are white— and there are now many books which feature African-America, Latino or Asian children—the world of the book tends to be multiracial. Recently I was shocked to see a copy of Pat the Bunny, a children's classic by Edith Kunhardt Davies and illustrated by Dorothy Kunhardt, first published in 1940 and still popular: the two children are not only white, they are blond and very middle class in appearance. Older books in your FDS library need to be scrutinized care-fully—see Johanna Halbesien's article in this issues of REsource. Be particularly aware of how your books treat Native Americans and indigenous peoples.
Racial sensitivity is a vast topic and I'm still learning. I'd like to share just a few of the things I've learned. Although there are wonderful books on the Underground Railroad and many of our meetings may even have been part of the story, please beware of introducing these stories at too young an age. Children in first and second grade are aware of color and, thankfully, may not be applying these stories to their friends. Consider the impact on your class (whatever its racial make up) of having the first stories they read about people of color characterizing them as slaves. Or, the first stories they read about Native Americans showing them as people at war with white immigrants, living in teepees and wearing feather headdresses.
First Day School teachers will also want to consider the messages hidden in pictures of Jesus and nativity sets. Do they represent a variety of cultures or are they mainly the more traditional Italian or European white ethnicities? If a fair skinned Jesus is portrayed, is there also a Middle Eastern Jesus, a dark skinned Jesus, an Asian Jesus? The important word is diversity.
Carefully develop FDS activities as well. We are accustomed, for example, to encouraging role playing with older children when discussing books. Remember when doing so that many people of color find it offensive to have a white person pretend to be a slave or to be a person of color. And one certainly need not be a person of color to find it entirely inappropriate and painful.
We all grew up with blinders. Especially as a person who is white and middle class, I tend to think of my behavior as normative. I'm often surprised how little I've considered some of my assumptions. Cultural appropriation is my current edge, but I know there will be others. Therefore, I try to read books by authors who are different from me. I take racial awareness classes when I can. I've worked on developing better listening skills—and I also seek to not feel guilty or become defensive, but to stay open and listen.
Considerations for Working with Middle School Aged Children
Sixth graders may still be insecure and tend to form clicks. Like 4th and 5th graders, they may still be testing what they hear outside, using racial epithets and disregarding how their behavior causes pain. Challenge such behavior whenever you become aware of it. With this age group, plan to select books and activities that will develop listening, caring for others' feelings, and self-awareness.
It is my experience that one can talk about anything with middle school children. Therefore, one can choose controversial or provocative texts. At that age young people are very interested in themselves and one another and will talk, debate, and hopefully, listen. A particularly sophisticated group might be able to help write lessons for younger children using the Lessons from a Book format.
Summary
The key is awareness, which comes by degrees. When evaluating books to consider for Lessons from a Book plans, we cannot catch those biases we do not see outside the books. We cannot avoid hidden messages we are immune to because of our assumptions. But we can practice reading with blinders off and, over time, and with the help of F/friends, we can grow in awareness and improve our evaluative skills. We can begin by knowing the books we are considering using, knowing our audience, and carefully considering the developmental levels within our group. We can look carefully at materials for those gender, racial, and cultural biases of which we are already aware, avoiding texts or images that are inappropriate and making good use of those resources that are truly excellent. And we can always listen.
Worship Sharing Queries
- How have friendships nurtured your spirit?
- Friendship and community involve both give and take, as well as joy and sorrow, gift and loss, and safety and risk. How have you experienced friendship or community (or both) as a weaving of such opposites?
- How has your meeting community changed you? How has the meeting community challenged you?
- How has your understanding of community deepened over the years?
- For what aspect or experience of your meeting community are you most grateful?
Sharing Faith Across the Generations: A FDS Project that Enriches the Entire Meeting
by Beth Collea
Reprinted, with permission, from the February 13, 2006, issue of REmail, the NEYM religious education E-mail newsletter.
As First Day School teachers, one of the richest resources for us is the accumulated faith experience of seasoned Friends. Their stories of God's comfort, guidance, and leadings make compelling listening. Helping our children to grow up to be committed, passionate Quakers requires finding concrete ways for intergenerational faith-sharing to occur.
Creating a "Gifts of Faith" booklet is one way to encourage this sharing. This idea was originally suggested to me by Ellen McCambley, of Wellesley Meeting. She and her brothers and sisters were gathering prayers and words of spiritual support that had upheld them to give as a gift to all of the children in their family. They were creating a booklet of these treasured words.
A First Day School can prepare a Gifts of Faith booklet as a meeting-wide project. Ask the adult Friends for the two or three prayers, passages of Scripture, or lines from hymns or poems that they call to mind when they need spiritual support. There are many inspirational books but here the focus is to share words drawn from real lives of faith and action that the children know.
I think of it as giving the children a look at the underside of our tapestry of faith. Here, we see the knots and connections that produce the beautiful pattern on the other side. Now, we can begin to understand the dynamic relationship between the inner life of faith and the outer life of action and witness.
We are trying this at Wellesley Meeting. We first thought to structure the entries in the book around the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love." Many of the occasions for prayer and need of support are listed in this beautiful prayer: comfort, guidance, hope, love, joy, reassurance in times of doubt, forgiveness or the grace to forgive, and so on. However, Friends quickly went beyond any neat organizational system. Some offered special words for the beginning and ending of the day. Others shared prayers for use before meals and cherished lines of verse tucked away in their wallets.
Almost surely, Friends will not only speak of times they called their special words to mind but also times the words surfaced in their awareness unbidden. Memorized special words can come forth as the perfect response to the need of the moment. When the need is deep and the words are perfectly suited to sustain, guide, or heal, the sense of grace and divine presence is palpable. I hope Gifts of Faith can create an opening for Friends to speak about not only the words and thoughts of faith, but the feelings of their faith as well.
When you put the booklet together, leave blank spaces for additional entries. Have families make each book unique by adding words of spiritual support from grandparents, parents, and other F/friends. The book will be a powerful gift for the children of the meeting. At Wellesley, several adults have requested booklets, so you may want to prepare extras at your meeting. I think Friends hunger to know more about each other as people of faith. This is one way that an active First Day School can deepen and enrich its monthly meeting.
Grandad's Prayers of the Earth,by Douglas Wood with illustrations by P. J. Lynch (Candlewick Press, 1999), is one way to introduce this project. In this story, a grandfather lovingly guides his grandson on seeing prayers and looking for Spirit in all of nature. At the end, he talks about the prayers of people. The grandfather adds,". . . we pray because we are here—not to change the world, but to change ourselves. Because it is when we change ourselves . . . that the world is changed." It is a lovely introduction to prayer and can illustrate the treasure seasoned Friends possess.
Lesson from a Book: The Empty Pot, by Demi (from Chinese folklore)
published by Henry Holt and Company, 1990
Synopsis of Story
A young boy, Ping, loves gardening and has a green thumb with flowers. The king announces a contest to see who can grow the most beautiful flower from seeds he provides, the winner to become his heir to the throne. Ping enters and tries everything, but cannot get his seed to sprout. When the time comes to present their flowers to the king, everyone else has beautiful and grand flowers, but Ping can only bring an empty pot. The king calls Ping forward and announces that the seeds everyone was given had been cooked to prevent them from sprouting. He rewards Ping's honesty by making him the heir to his throne.
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN
Opening
Begin with opening greetings. If the children do not all know one another, be sure to include introductions. Allow for a period of check-in. Ask how the week was for each, and if they have had experiences they would like to share.
Query
The following Quaker query may be used for older children. Otherwise it is for the preparation of the teacher.
Are you honest and truthful in all you say and do? Do you maintain strict integrity in business transactions and in your dealings with individuals and organizations? Do you use money and information entrusted to you with discretion and responsibility? Taking oaths implies a double standard of truth; in choosing to affirm instead, be aware of the claim to integrity that you are making.
—Quaker Faith and Practice, Britain Yearly Meeting
The Story
Have children who can read read the story and show the pictures to the group. For the youngest children you may have to do the reading or ask an older child to help.
Discussion and "I Wonder" Questions
- Why do you think the king set up this contest?
- I wonder where the flowers grown by the other children came from.
- How do you suppose Ping felt when he brought an empty pot?
- Have you ever felt like Ping did?
- How did the king feel about Ping and about the other children?
- (older children) I wonder how things might have been different if the kingdom had been a truly open community where everyone shared experiences with others.
- (older children) How do you feel about the king's deception?
- Have there been times when you were tempted to be dishonest in order to look better to others?
Appropriate Age Level
Primary (ages 5 to 11), but story can be appreciated at any age.
Lesson Focus
Integrity, Persistence
Activity Suggestions
For the youngest children, plant seeds (radishes come up quickly) in an egg carton, with one seed in each segment. Water and cover it and see what happens in a couple of weeks. This activity helps children appreciate the work and joy involved in growing things, and makes the story more real to them. If someone suggests baking some of the seeds, try that.
In the late spring or early summer, buy a tray of annuals with buds but flowers not yet blooming. Each child is responsible for a plant. If there is a place on the meeting house grounds where they can be planted, each child plants and waters his/her plant and the next week or two the class can go outside to look at the flowers. Otherwise, each child takes a plant home and cares for it there.
Decorate a pot, such as a red clay flower pot. The important part of the decoration is to add self-adhesive labels on which each child has written a Friends testimony. You may have to tell them what a testimony is. The children may also include Quaker values and beliefs, and this is OK. Each child reads his/her label as it is placed on the pot. Older children or the teacher may need to do the writing for the youngest ones. Colorful pictures or patterns may, of course, also be on the labels. You may also add other decorations, such as children's names. The pot may be used in a number of ways, depending on how First Day School is conducted. It may be made at the beginning, and placed in the center as the story is read. It may be used for worship centering at the end of the session. Finally, it may be shared with the entire meeting.
Song
I Would Be True, #261 in Worship in Song (Quaker Press of FGC)
Closing
Form a circle, holding hands, for closing silent worship.
Lesson prepared by David Wood, Dayton Monthly Meeting,
OVYM, for the Religious Education Committee of Friends
General Conference
Top of Page
Lesson from a Book: Where Does God Live? by August Gold and Matthew J. Perlman
published by Skylight Paths, 2001
Synopsis of Story
The book begins with a girl asking her parents "Where does God live?" The rest of the book is filled with a wide variety of answers using both pictures and words. The pictures are very inviting and add a lot to the book. The description of where God lives is very open and compatible with Quaker theology.
SUGGESTED LESSON PLAN
Opening
Use an opening which includes introduction of the children and a check-in. Sitting in a circle, everyone shares his or her name and something that happened over the past week or something he/she is looking forward to.
Discussion
Have a short discussion about the many words we use to talk about God. Some of us use the word God. Some of us use the word Light. Some of us use the word Spirit. Ask the children what words are used in their homes. The author of this book uses the word God. Invite the children to respond to the author's words out of their own felt experience of the divine.
Explanation
Explain that you will read the book followed by one or two minutes of silence (candle optional). Ask children if they want to sit for one or two minutes. Sometimes this prompts them to ask for five minutes. Suggest what they can do while sitting in silence:
- think about the book
- clear their heads of thoughts and listen for God
- concentrate on their breathing in and out
- look into the flame (if a candle is used)
Explain how they will know when the silent time is over (shaking hands, putting out the candle).
The Story
Read Where Does God Live?, and then, at the end of the story, move into silence.
Group Sharing on the Book
At the end of the silent time, ask if anything came to them that they would like to share. After a short time, the leader can share.
"God lives in everyone / here on the earth; / That's why we all shine / from the day of our birth. / God lives in all people, / we all are God's light; / God lives in our laughter, / God is our delight."
Appropriate Age Level
3–6 years old, OK for elementary
Lesson Focus
Equality testimony; that of God within us all
Activities
- When the sharing is over, consider providing a time to hold people in the Light. If you have some visitors you will want to explain about the practice of "holding in the Light."
- Hold up the book and retell the main points of the book and invite the children to use the art materials to respond to the story in any way they like. You may want to have one or several of the following available:
- paper and markers
- paint with brushes of different sizes
- play dough or clay
- magazines, scissors, glue sticks, paper for making collages
- a box of knickknacks such as beads, eyes, feathers, chenille stems, smooth stones, etc.
- things for dramatic play such as small people and animals or dress-up clothes
It is easy to have the art materials in a portable box if you need to take First Day School on the go. A variety of materials will allow children to choose how they wish to respond.
Closing
End with a closing circle. You may offer a time for people to share. Some like to end with a song. George Fox, #2 in Worship in Song (Quaker Press of FGC), would be a good one for the topic of the book.
Lesson prepared by Robin Wells of Ashville Friends Meeting,
SAYMA, for the Religious Education Committee of Friends
General Conference
Top of Page
And Then There Was Light
by Gail Thomas
"In the beginning was darkness—and it wasn't good enough." This heart wrenching comment on Genesis 1 burst forth from a middle aged African American man in a class on Racism and the Bible. Instinctively I knew this wasn't true, and as a white person I had never thought of reading the text in this way; I could think of nothing to say.
So much of western Christianity and Quakerism, in particular, uses images of light for good and images of dark for evil. Quakers routinely refer to Fox's vision of an ocean of light overcoming an ocean of darkness and a number of our songs for children rejoice in light overcoming dark. As adults, we may rationalize that, of course, we are not referring to skin color. But then I remember another story told me by a Quaker of African descent. She felt she had made her peace with these metaphors and was using them in her First Day School class; then one day a young African-American girl in her class asked, "Why does God hate me?" So even when we are careful, subconsciously the message that dark is bad comes though. How can we make Quaker language more welcoming to people of color?
The solution, it seems to me, is not getting rid of images of light. A candle does shine in the darkness, and morning light ushers in a new day. I have had personal experiences of the Light. Expressions such as holding someone "in the light," and "the light of Christ," are powerful and convey truth. What we need, rather, are equally positive images of darkness. As I have had spiritual experiences of light, I have also experienced darkness; it is warm and sensual and womb-like as well as powerful and formidable. Fox's image of the Seed works for me as one image we could use more often. A seed needs the darkness of the soil to grow as well as light. Darkness also helps us to rest, and, for me, can be a metaphor for silence, for times of transformation, for deep holding.
We can also be more nuanced when we use words that contrast with light. Chris Ravendal in his Gospel of John class at Pendle Hill likes to remind us that the word in John 1:5 usually translated as "dark" more accurately is the Greek word for "shadow." It may look like a small change, but a shift in words can help break what may seem like a relentless equation of darkness with evil.
Do I have negative associations of darkness? I thought about how the Light can search my soul, but it reveals what is hidden, what I have been ignoring or denying; I do not experience these places as dark but, rather, unexamined. If I use metaphors of darkness, it is from custom not from experience. Do I experience emotions as dark? I have felt anger, jealousy, self-righteousness, self-pity, but, to me, these feelings are not associated with a color. The only emotion I associate with darkness is fear. Being in a dark place without light can feel scary. But should it? Isn't that my ego fearing the unknown, fearing a loss of control? "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me." The message of most religions is that love overcomes fear, therefore, darkness should not be scary if I have faith. The so-called "dark night of the soul" may feel like God is absent, but, again, it is part of the journey to a more secure knowing. The fear and anxiety of our ego self may call this "dark" and attach a negative charge, but it can also be seen as positive. Usually what is happening in a dark night is a deepening; the seed growing underground. A new relationship with God is forming, as in a womb, or, if painful, as in the birth channel.
I may be going too far here, but it seems to me that racism, with its making "other" of people because of their skin color goes along in many cultures with treating women as less than men and a fear of sexuality. Most religions have positive images of light, but few see light and dark as simply ying and yan, two sides of one reality without judgment. Rather, light is usually associated with male energy and reason, while the dark, to be feared, is associated with women and emotions. Even in the Bible, as the man who is mentioned at the start of the article noted, "the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep." Then God creates and sees the light "was good."
We cannot change ancient metaphors or how ancient people made sense of their world. We can try to change how we use these metaphors, how often we use them, and whether we actively search for different metaphors to convey the same reality. A Friend suggested to me a way to interpret the Biblical creation story. In the beginning was a "void," a "mishmash." The creation of light and firmament provide a rhythm and beauty to things, with the alternation of darkness and light creating the measurement of days and months and years, providing the order and structure necessary for life. Both darkness and light are necessary. Both are divine gifts. In the beginning was God, and God wove the darkness and the light into the miraculous tapestry of contrast and complement that is this cosmos, this life, and all our knowing. And it was good.
Review of People, written and illustrated by Peter Spier
reviewed by Johanna Halbeisen
Peter Spier's book, People, published in 1980, was the winner of many awards including the Christopher Medal, the National Mass Media Award "for outstanding contributions to better human relations and the cause of brotherhood." The book still shows up occasionally in multicultural bibliographies. In light of the FGC Religious Education Committee's ongoing commitment to evaluating books and curricula for cultural sensitivity, Johanna Halbeisen has critically revisited this 26 year old book. It may appear to the reader of this review that many of the shortcomings of Spier's book are obvious, but if you take a careful look at the books and curricula on your own meeting house shelves, you might be surprised at the lack of racial and cultural sensitivity you find there.What are the messages, hidden or overt, in Peter Spier's People? First of all, it is evident from most illustrations of "us" (the readers) that the author assumes a white readership. When making comparisons of people's appearance, dress and customs, it is clear that white people are always considered the norm. Illustrations emphasize how different, "ugly," "ridiculous," "lazy," "strange" and "desperate" other people might be. These are the actual words used in the text. Is this the way we want our children to think about cultural difference?
In several places, the indigenous Americans portrayed are dressed in "Indian" garb, including one man who is wearing a full feathered plains headdress, reinforcing the notion that Native Americans only live in the past and all wear plains headdresses. No one else in any of the illustrations is presented in clothing from the past; rather, many people are shown in "ethnic" clothing. For example, the people from the Netherlands are shown in wooden clogs and full colorful skirts. Scotland is represented by a person in a kilt with bagpipes. Also, "Eskimo" appears to be shown as an ethnic group, when, in fact, the word "Eskimo" is a white Western word for people indigenous to the Arctic, not a nationality or ethnic group. The "we" and "us" people are white and wear what in the USA is considered casual dress. Perry Nodelman points out the rationale for this in his textbook, The Pleasures of Children's Literature. If children were "supposed to be learning tolerance for people different from [themselves], it would be harder to make that point about people who dress and eat much like [themselves]."
What is most disturbing is the way black people are portrayed. When a number of people from many lands and cultures are shown in comparison, two-thirds of the black people are scantily clad, frequently have some jewelry through the nose, are holding spears, and, I'm guessing, are supposed to be from Africa. No countries are indicated. When the text describes people from other cultures as strange or laughable, the examples shown are a group of black people with bare feet, spears, bare chests and dramatic jewelry looking at a group of white people with shoes, shirts, and pants or skirts.
On the pages that show different foods people eat, one page stresses the food that "[we] would never touch, let alone eat." The list includes blubber (Eskimos again), snake, lizard, dog, sea turtle and monkey. In twenty-four pictures of different cultures, three portray dark-skinned people wearing few clothes.
The page showing different jobs that people do reads: "Many people work hard, but others are lazy." Excuse me? Do we really want our children to view any people as "lazy?" The picture illustrating "And many are desperately poor" quite literally equates poverty with trash. People in this picture are living in shacks with piles of auto parts, barrels, and broken furniture all around. In the background, presumably where the hard-working people live, are skyscrapers.
On the page illustrating different kinds of communication, six of the nine images are of white people. The one of black people includes a bare-chested person beating on a log (inaccurately called a tom-tom).
With only one exception, the people described as "mighty and powerful" are white. Most of the few who "are remembered long, long after we're gone" are Western Europeans and North Americans.
The text on a page at the end of the book reads, "It is very strange: some people even hate others because they are unlike themselves. Because they are different." The black people in one illustration are scantily clad and carrying spears. The text for the last illustration reads, "Now, isn't it wonderful that each and every one of us is unlike any other?" The illustration itself is a scene of a Western-looking city where 95% of the people are white.
It is clear that Peter Spier was trying to counter some of the racist beliefs of his time. It is also clear that he ended up reinforcing many of them. False assumptions were perpetuated and gross generalizations made. This is not the way we want our children to see the world. Toss this book and encourage others to do the same. Highly recommended for use instead are the books by Maya Ajmera (To Be a Kid, Be My Neighbor and Back to School are some of her titles), all showing the ways children around the world are similar, using beautiful photos.
