Letting the flower bloom

I went to St. Catherine's today to observe a junior kindergarten teacher who is amazing. She uses the Reggio Emelia philosophy in her class. She was so wise. It was the first time I had actually seen it all in action firsthand.

However, I still left very frustrated because she couldn't answer a lot of my questions. In reality she was teaching early childhood. It's hard to know exactly how the philosophy fits with older kids and whenever someone gives their opinion about how it should be it sounds all nice but is really obvious to me that they have never actually tried it.

In all actuality the answers don't exist. The few schools in the world that are moving this philosophy into older grades haven't been doing it for more than a few years. The truth is that we are forging the way (with others). I get impatient and want people to tell me how it is supposed to look or feel or how to make sure you don't have kids slipping through the cracks in any areas.

I left frustrated today and went on a walk in the fall leaves. I realized that the answers don't really totally exist yet and that I have the power to find my own answers. I often pose questions to other people who don't have all of the circumstantial information and there is no way I can pass it all on to them. They tend to misunderstand and miss the mark when they answer because they don't know the whole picture. In those situations I know the most.

In the end I decided that ripping open the seed never helps the flower bloom. I need to let go and let it all happen.