For the past three weeks, I have been working as the teacher of a three-year old preschool classroom that is near and dear to my heart. In my short* career as a teacher, I have had the opportunity to observe an assortment of age levels in a variety of instruction types; small group, one on one, large classroom, etc. I quickly learned that the younger age groups hold my heart strings.
**While ten years doesn’t exactly feel ‘short’, compared to many it is but one ring of a larger ripple set in still water.
After only a few days back around this beloved age group, something hit me.
I have lost my wonder.
Minutes spent with a three-year old during free play will open a window into a way of thinking most adults have locked up, hidden away, and destroyed the key to. The joy they find in simple things and the imagination they unashamedly yield spreads contagiously. I find myself coveting the spark of hope and passionate glee with which they greet each and every new finding.
Somewhere in the mid-elementary years the spark starts to vanish. Wonder is replaced by reality and seldom shows its face again.
While a three-year-old’s life isn’t often complicated, there is something in their outlook on life that we should make our strongest attempt to replicate.
For them…
Forgiveness is easy.
Pain is brief.
Laughter is abundant.
Love is unconditional.
Feelings are open.
Life is good.
With spirits so free, no wonder they are free to look at the world through a lens which filters out darkness and only sees light. If only we could experience their simplistic joy, their spark of wonder for only a moment. We might all grow to become better adults.
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