The Neverending God Project

Children in Kohavim have been talking about God this year.  Maria and Jesse began noticing this trend during Sukkot as children demonstrated intrigue around the idea that we shake the lulav to show that God is everywhere.

Today, Jesse, Maria and I spent time exploring how to support children's learning on the topic of God.  We began by looking at the children's own questions:
--Where does God live?
--Does God hear us when we talk?
--What does God look like?
--"Is it a boy or a girl?"
--How does God get the notes out of the Western Wall?
--One child said, "I think we can find out of there's more than one God."
--Another said, "If we didn't have God, we wouldn't be born.
(Click here to see more of children's ideas on the subject.)

As a team, Jesse and Maria have been struggling with how to help children study such an intangible topic.  We wanted to utilize two approaches to conducting investigations with children.  The first is the American approach called the Project Approach and the second is an Italian early childhood approach from the city of Reggio Emilia, called, in the book we studied, the Multisymbolic approach.

In studying the two approaches, we wrestled with our natural ways of thinking about curriculum development.  While we were inclined to ask, "What are we hoping the children will get out of this project?", we started to consider meeting the children where they are and engaging in a process of soliciting their ideas, exploring those ideas, and then refining them.  We continue to seek a marriage between these two approaches.

A big focus today was determining how children and adults can share their ideas and theories in non-linguistic ways.  How can we utilize drawing or other modes of expression to share ideas?  This approach is essential for helping us deepen our understandings and express complex ideas.  The idea that representing ideas in multiple symbolic languages yields maximal depth and accessibility for young children is essential to the educational approach of the early childhood schools in Reggio-Emilia.

Here are some first steps we devised for bringing the God project to the classroom:

• Looking back.  Convene a group of children to revisit past theories.  (Be sure to have a Flip camera or audio recorder available to record the experience and revisit later with the chidlren.)
• Drawing theories.  Ask children to draw a response to the question, "What is God?"  (Use high-quality paper and black felt-tip pens, ensuring that we are preserving the ideas as best we can.)
• Reflecting as teachers.  Stop here to discuss what we found and determine next steps for investigating the children's theories.
• Cycling between thinking and action.  Investigate and experience, then refine theories.  Repeat.  And repeat.  And again.

A second step:

• Bringing adults into the conversation: Use the blog to hear from adults in the Kohavim community what they think about God.  The God project is a never-ending investigation for all of us!  Ask questions that use symbolism or imagination to catalyze deeper thought: Picture where you are when you feel closest to God (if you believe in some idea of God)? Post a picture of an object on Facebook that is a symbol of what you believe about God; add a caption in explanation.

A third and parallel step:

• Investigating holiness.  As a lead in, we have talked a lot about how God gave the Jewish people a special gift, the Torah.  With the upcoming holiday of Shavuot (the celebration of the Jewish people's receiving of the Torah), we need to prepare to receive this gift.  Where will we put it?  How will we treat it? What is in it?  Record children's ideas on this matter.
• Engaging families: Ask families and members of the school community to weigh in on these issues.  Jesse formulated a question today, wondering why synagogues invest in multiple Torahs.  Are they all utilized?  When?  This was a reminder that as adults, we too must ask questions to better get to know Judaism.

A big question in all of this is:  How will we make the connection between God and holiness?  How can we make the jump from what is God to how we make space for God and bring God into our lives?