Thirteen years ago, at a MASCA conference, I co-presented with a professor from my masters program on Spirituality in Schools. In sharing the topic with others, people questioned how one can talk about spirituality in schools. Most people make a quick correlation between spirituality and religion, as if one word serves as a synonym for the other. However, this faulty assumption often translates into the avoidance of talking about spirituality and our inner spirits completely.During the second year of my career as a guidance counselor, I felt this overwhelming need to address the challenges of sophomore students. Sophomores are no longer the new kids on the block (much like seventh graders) , yet they are also one year short of being an upperclassmen (or eighth graders) and planning the next chapters of their lives. To bond with these students, I formed groups of students based on common study periods. During the first meeting, I required all students, in all six groups, to write down questions they wanted to talk about as a group. These questions were anonymous with no parameters. I took those questions and compiled them into a word document (pre-Google times).
Can you guess what the number one question was asked over and over again? What do you believe religiously? Can you be spiritual but not religious? Why do you believe what you do? Do you think it matters what your religion is? During the next meeting, I gave all students copies of the questions and sat back and let them wrestle with these questions. Without failure, these were the questions the students gravitated towards and debated at length.
Those conversations are forever etched in memory. The conversations, in group after group, centered around spirituality, where they find peace, what makes them feel better, how they wish they all just looked out for each other, how they wished school spirit could translate into spiritual goodness. The spirituality in all of us, the spirit inside of all humans which causes us to depend on one another, to rely on one another, to pull each other through challenging times, that is what the students defined spirituality as. Their need to want to connect with each other, their willingness to find a commonality, their interest in what each other had to say, demonstrated the very good in humanity we seldom celebrate on the news.
Last night I watched Deepak Chopra's talk on http://www.supersoul.tv/supersoul-sessions/supersoul-sessions-series-2-experience-it-live-saturday-april-9. It serves as a powerful reminder of what connects us all.
News and Notes
GMS Middle School Parent Coffee moved to Friday, April 29th at 7:30 am
AP Exams begin Monday, May 2nd
SAT at CHS on Saturday May 7th
