Leading With Heart

We need all the wisdom we can gather now as we form communities that seek to stand for health and wholeness of children. We need wisdom to face the changes that are unfolding all around us.

The changes are beginning to happen very fast now - the rapid influx of technology, economical pressures, changes in social mores and more. And at times, it doesn’t seem we have the moral development to match all those changes.

It seems especially important that we strive to keep a focus on human to human connection with the children in our schools so that they can experience, each day, true human care.

One year, at the Kona Pacific Public Waldorf School on the Big Island of Hawai’i,  we had to interact with three of the Seventh Graders, because it was reported to us that one of them had brought an electronic cigarette to school and they had smoked it.  At first they could not be forthright, but we persisted steadily and calmly and by the second day they began to come clean.

Since their home situations are tenuous, they were given an in-school suspension. This was good, because it gave me the chance to interact with them more over the course of the next three days.

I helped them with their schoolwork a bit, but mostly I got to know them better - and them, me. On the third day, one of the teachers became ill and, with five minutes’ notice, I was asked to cover the Fourth Grade class. One of the Seventh Grade students, Mo'o, a girl from Samoa, is an incredible artist - rendering amazingly detailed Polynesian tribal designs within the shapes of animals, such as whales and squids.

When the request came to cover the Fourth Grade, I looked at her and said, "OK, Mo'o this is what we are going to do. I am going to tell them a story and you are going to draw them a drawing!"

She looked at me wide-eyed, but we got up and crossed the courtyard and entered the classroom of lively Fourth Graders.

I began to tell the story of a Hawaiian legend. A story of how the Hawaiians had crossed the open ocean to Hawai'i from their home in the South Seas. They were led by a great shark who guided them across the rough and endless sea both night and day. At last, one night, they spotted the glow of the volcano and they made land-fall the next day after weeks of journeying.

With some gentle persuasion from me, Mo'o went up to the blackboard and began to draw the most amazing design of a shark - intricately filled with remarkable shapes and figures.

She was a bit too shy to actually "teach" them the drawing, so I described what she was doing. The Fourth Graders were enthralled. They began to work and copy her design. They worked quietly for forty-five minutes.

When we concluded, the children clapped for Mo'o and we stepped out. I said, "Mo'o, that was really great. I'm really proud of you" and she just beamed.

This girl, who has very thin support at home and who could easily become at risk, felt "seen". The rest of the week she was a different person, not disruptive and uncooperative, but helpful and happy.

I believe the children need us to see them and I believe we need all the wisdom and heart forces we can gather so that we might reach them. What we envision for the children can unfold, in many ways it has to, for it is what is needed - right now - as we face the challenges of our times.

Karl David Johnson M.A.