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September/October 2001 Spirituality
Teacher of Wonder

by Vikiirna Wenzel

“Wow, look!” Outside with a friend, we could hear a family of three young children playing nearby. “Look, Mom!” we heard, “A bug!” From the marveling tone, we could well guess what kind. Iridescing bronze, gold, indigo and emerald, those beetles were everywhere that summer. Half an inch long, they moved slowly around, shining and looking for food. “A bug! A bug!”

“Well, smush it!” came the reply through the kitchen window.

My friend, a fellow teacher, and I exchanged stunned looks, only slightly deepened by the sounds of the children following mother’s orders.

Now it was not for me to be judging a mother of three, me who was not then even a mother of one. She was busy with dishes, and likely mistook the sounds of excitement for sounds of fear. She probably sought to give them an easy remedy.

But the experience helped me to vow to shun the easy half answers. I remember well the half answers I got in childhood. Grown-ups distracted by other concerns (and no doubt fatigued by my questions) gave me short-term solutions and curt explanations. As a Neo-Humanist teacher, I was dedicated to nourishing a sense of wonder. And wonder is often found in surprising places.

Sometimes you need to be breathing slowly and have your head three feet off the ground to reveal the wonder. The children find it first, and if you’re not too busy, you catch it. Bug wonder is often like this. If you listen, you might catch the many layers of their questions; and if you reply from all the layers of your mind, you might be able to answer three or four of them, deepening the wonder. ‘Should I be afraid of this bug?’ ‘What does it want?’ ‘Is it like me?’ ‘Does it like me?’ It helps when you can be very, very honest with yourself. Honest to size up the unimportance or importance of what you were trying to do when everyone got distracted. Honest to let go of carefully made lesson plans and still value yourself for making them. (They’ll keep!) Honest to size up your prejudices and separate them out, keeping to the amazing facts. (Ever try teaching the wonder of slugs?) Integrity, self-love and humor with oneself enhance your powers of spontaneous teaching, important for meeting sudden wonders with full answers.

Sometimes you can set the stage for a wonder to appear. You plant the seed (literally or figuratively) and nurture it over time, venturing that the sprout will inspire epiphany. At our school we do yoga poses and meditation, daily progressing our mind-body integration and physical control. This is yet another arena where children can eventually shine with a sense of accomplishment. This can flow into other areas too. I’ve seen children suddenly halt themselves from hitting or biting out their feelings, then hug everyone in sight, so relieved to be in charge of themselves. To set these up you need wide knowledge, empathy, confidence, and patience. The first two are much developed with training and experience. The last come from how you’ve developed your self. There are no shortcuts here.

In short, when you are a being of teacher of wonder, the preparation period is full-time. Before the teaching, you needed to have practiced being as true to yourself as possible. And the true human spirit brooks no half-answers, only full ones.

Vikiirna Wenzel is the Director of New Day School , Holistic alternative education for ages 2 1/2- first grade. 1825 Clinton St. SE Portland, OR 97202. Call 503-231-7425 for more information.