The Chicken or the Egg
Dear God,
I love my job.
I am a spiritual community animator. What is that, right? No I don't draw, and no, I'm not a warlock, nor a medium. I can't communicate with ghosts. I work with kids and help them develop their inner self. I get to create my own activities, which I run with various classes for 30 minutes each week. A teacher will sign up for my class, and I'll show up, do my thing, and leave on a high note. I'm wacky, high energy and sometimes ridiculous, but I get the point across. I let them do the talking and more times than not I leave with my own learning.
Like today.
March is nutrition month, so my focus is on just that. Nutrition. For the first half of the week in the elementary school I was reading from my whole foods encyclopedia. I threw in a British accent to make things fun. They got to choose their favorite food and I look it up and tell 'em why it's good. Most kids wanted to know about popular fruits like mango and pineapple. But some got creative and asked about durians and starfruit. I thought that was pretty cool. Then I had to visit a grade one class. I knew this wouldn't be as entertaining to them because they probably have no clue how food even digests so what's the use in telling them that blueberries are high in antioxidants.
I handed out some paper and asked them to write a grocery list. I told them they could draw the food if they couldn't write it. I asked them to think of specific foods they eat at home, on a regular basis. They were pretty honest. Hot dogs, carrots, cookies. Then I asked them to take a green marker and circle all the foods that grow. This question was inspired by Wednesday morning's special needs group. I wanted them to circle the foods that were made in a factory. One student wasn't sure about a watermelon. When I tried to explain the difference, he proclaimed "it grows." To me it was the perfect word to differentiate whole foods vs. processed foods. Just perfect. So I rolled with that and introduced color coding.
The kids weren't sure about a few foods, like peas and eggs, but once they could identify its origins, that it comes from the Earth, they circled them in green. Once the circles were done, I asked them to circle everything else in yellow. I told them this was probably the first time in their lives they've had to think about their food and where it comes from. Just like traffic lights, green means go and yellow means slow down.
Looking at some of the kid's lists, I wondered about their fridges and cupboards at home. Do you not eat any green foods at all?
At the special needs school, I had to bite my lip during one of my classes. I had done the same exercise and one down syndrome student's list was only yellow. He happens to be overweight. I shook it off as a preference thing and joked that we all love pizza, but when I asked them to go get their lunchboxes and reveal their contents, I was blown away by what was inside his.
Each item strategically placed in order to maximize space, he took out a bambino cheese pizza, two half sandwiches (on white bread of course), one jelly and one nutella, a bag of cheerios, a juice box and a cheetos snackpack. My heart broke. Poor kid. There's so much going on there. Later his teacher told me his parents wanted to send pizzas on a camping trip the kids went on because they knew he wouldn't eat the campfood. Well mum forgot to pack them, and the kid didn't eat the campfood.
Pick your battles, I get it, I just want to make sure this kid feels good about himself.
I decided the grocery list activity was universal and knew that the older students I visit would have deeper insights into things, like whether "water" would be green or yellow.
In a grade 4 class I caught myself saying you can eat the green foods all you like and not worry, when I remembered most kids circled meat in green. It comes from an animal, so it grows. I corrected myself but then got self-conscious about sounding preachy of being vegetarian. It got a little complicated, but luckily it was my time to go so I got lost fast. The next class I went into was a grade 3 class and they were full of questions. Do pineapples grow? As they were making the circles, I wandered off in my mind thinking about the meat issue again.
If we could trace the animal back to its origins, like where did it really come from, what did it evolve from, would we find out that it came from something out of the Earth? We all do, don't we?
Kids talk out of turn all the time when I'm in their class. Once they get going, they start having fun and forget about the rules, so questions come at me out loud all the time. But at the exact moment that I was thinking about this dilemna, about the chicken and the egg, the little boy sitting in front of me asked, "are we actually monkeys?"
I burst out laughing so hard that I startled the other kids around us. It's just that the question was so innocent and random that it broke me out of my own little bubble and made me so happy I couldn't react any other way. It followed the pineapple question too so it just gave me so much insight as to where each kid is in their thinking. I love it.
I brought the student into the hall to explain to him why I laughed like that and told him I was happy to know someone else was thinking deeply too. I asked him to answer his own question and he decided we come from God. Ultimately I think we probably do too, but I believe in evolution. It's just the spark that started it all, the first living organism, the concept of being around forever that boggles my mind.
In the same grade 4 class I caught myself tripping over the meat issue, we had a good discussion about whether water grows or not. One student said yes because "that's the thing that started life" and I liked his answer so much I wrote it down to quote now.
Living things need each other to grow. I can't water a plant with sand, as I explained to this afternoon's classes. That's the whole point of the green and yellow foods. Yellow foods are all processed, they come from a factory, not from the Earth. And the farther away the food is from the Earth, the worse it is for you. For instance, whole wheat bread vs. cheez whiz. The other indication of how far away it is from the Earth is in the name. Kraft, Coke, Mr. Christie, most fast-food chains, etc.
The lesson I wanted to leave kids with is to look at their grocery list and see if it's more yellow, or more green. Hopefully there's a balance. Be aware of what you're putting into your body because only you have that control. If you learn how to be aware and how to eat consciously from a young age, man you're set for life.
The green foods on all those lists grow for us, whole foods are meant for us, living foods keep us alive. They make us healthy. They're gifts we should enjoy daily.
I respect other's take on meat, but today's classes reinforced my beliefs. I want to eat foods that are still living. Yes they've been plucked from their tree or from the ground, but their life cycle is not over yet. They are still living, whereas the life force has been taken from the meat once the animal is killed. That's just me though. My steak-loving brother-in-law would probably argue that vegetables are dead too, but I've learned to smile and nod.
Love you Greg!
Peace by Peace,
Katie
I love my job.
I am a spiritual community animator. What is that, right? No I don't draw, and no, I'm not a warlock, nor a medium. I can't communicate with ghosts. I work with kids and help them develop their inner self. I get to create my own activities, which I run with various classes for 30 minutes each week. A teacher will sign up for my class, and I'll show up, do my thing, and leave on a high note. I'm wacky, high energy and sometimes ridiculous, but I get the point across. I let them do the talking and more times than not I leave with my own learning.
Like today.
March is nutrition month, so my focus is on just that. Nutrition. For the first half of the week in the elementary school I was reading from my whole foods encyclopedia. I threw in a British accent to make things fun. They got to choose their favorite food and I look it up and tell 'em why it's good. Most kids wanted to know about popular fruits like mango and pineapple. But some got creative and asked about durians and starfruit. I thought that was pretty cool. Then I had to visit a grade one class. I knew this wouldn't be as entertaining to them because they probably have no clue how food even digests so what's the use in telling them that blueberries are high in antioxidants.
I handed out some paper and asked them to write a grocery list. I told them they could draw the food if they couldn't write it. I asked them to think of specific foods they eat at home, on a regular basis. They were pretty honest. Hot dogs, carrots, cookies. Then I asked them to take a green marker and circle all the foods that grow. This question was inspired by Wednesday morning's special needs group. I wanted them to circle the foods that were made in a factory. One student wasn't sure about a watermelon. When I tried to explain the difference, he proclaimed "it grows." To me it was the perfect word to differentiate whole foods vs. processed foods. Just perfect. So I rolled with that and introduced color coding.
The kids weren't sure about a few foods, like peas and eggs, but once they could identify its origins, that it comes from the Earth, they circled them in green. Once the circles were done, I asked them to circle everything else in yellow. I told them this was probably the first time in their lives they've had to think about their food and where it comes from. Just like traffic lights, green means go and yellow means slow down.
Looking at some of the kid's lists, I wondered about their fridges and cupboards at home. Do you not eat any green foods at all?
At the special needs school, I had to bite my lip during one of my classes. I had done the same exercise and one down syndrome student's list was only yellow. He happens to be overweight. I shook it off as a preference thing and joked that we all love pizza, but when I asked them to go get their lunchboxes and reveal their contents, I was blown away by what was inside his.
Each item strategically placed in order to maximize space, he took out a bambino cheese pizza, two half sandwiches (on white bread of course), one jelly and one nutella, a bag of cheerios, a juice box and a cheetos snackpack. My heart broke. Poor kid. There's so much going on there. Later his teacher told me his parents wanted to send pizzas on a camping trip the kids went on because they knew he wouldn't eat the campfood. Well mum forgot to pack them, and the kid didn't eat the campfood.
Pick your battles, I get it, I just want to make sure this kid feels good about himself.
I decided the grocery list activity was universal and knew that the older students I visit would have deeper insights into things, like whether "water" would be green or yellow.
In a grade 4 class I caught myself saying you can eat the green foods all you like and not worry, when I remembered most kids circled meat in green. It comes from an animal, so it grows. I corrected myself but then got self-conscious about sounding preachy of being vegetarian. It got a little complicated, but luckily it was my time to go so I got lost fast. The next class I went into was a grade 3 class and they were full of questions. Do pineapples grow? As they were making the circles, I wandered off in my mind thinking about the meat issue again.
If we could trace the animal back to its origins, like where did it really come from, what did it evolve from, would we find out that it came from something out of the Earth? We all do, don't we?
Kids talk out of turn all the time when I'm in their class. Once they get going, they start having fun and forget about the rules, so questions come at me out loud all the time. But at the exact moment that I was thinking about this dilemna, about the chicken and the egg, the little boy sitting in front of me asked, "are we actually monkeys?"
I burst out laughing so hard that I startled the other kids around us. It's just that the question was so innocent and random that it broke me out of my own little bubble and made me so happy I couldn't react any other way. It followed the pineapple question too so it just gave me so much insight as to where each kid is in their thinking. I love it.
I brought the student into the hall to explain to him why I laughed like that and told him I was happy to know someone else was thinking deeply too. I asked him to answer his own question and he decided we come from God. Ultimately I think we probably do too, but I believe in evolution. It's just the spark that started it all, the first living organism, the concept of being around forever that boggles my mind.
In the same grade 4 class I caught myself tripping over the meat issue, we had a good discussion about whether water grows or not. One student said yes because "that's the thing that started life" and I liked his answer so much I wrote it down to quote now.
Living things need each other to grow. I can't water a plant with sand, as I explained to this afternoon's classes. That's the whole point of the green and yellow foods. Yellow foods are all processed, they come from a factory, not from the Earth. And the farther away the food is from the Earth, the worse it is for you. For instance, whole wheat bread vs. cheez whiz. The other indication of how far away it is from the Earth is in the name. Kraft, Coke, Mr. Christie, most fast-food chains, etc.
The lesson I wanted to leave kids with is to look at their grocery list and see if it's more yellow, or more green. Hopefully there's a balance. Be aware of what you're putting into your body because only you have that control. If you learn how to be aware and how to eat consciously from a young age, man you're set for life.
The green foods on all those lists grow for us, whole foods are meant for us, living foods keep us alive. They make us healthy. They're gifts we should enjoy daily.
I respect other's take on meat, but today's classes reinforced my beliefs. I want to eat foods that are still living. Yes they've been plucked from their tree or from the ground, but their life cycle is not over yet. They are still living, whereas the life force has been taken from the meat once the animal is killed. That's just me though. My steak-loving brother-in-law would probably argue that vegetables are dead too, but I've learned to smile and nod.
Love you Greg!
Peace by Peace,
Katie
Comments
Post a Comment