The Garden School has three unique ongoing projects that other schools in our area simply don’t have. The first is our zoo room, the second is our swimming program, and the third is our long field trips.

These projects grew out of a philosophy about “possibilities.”  When we started with animals, we bought a pedigree rabbit we called Abbey. We gave her the run of the school, and the children loved her. When Oreo came our way, he and Abbey would curl up together and it was really something to see. Oreo was a guinea pig. We also got a hamster that we named Hamlet, and Hamlet wore a collar and was taken for walks to the playground where he would enjoy eating anything green he could find.

These animals prompted us to build a zoo room when we finally built our own building. We centered the zoo room between our two classrooms. At this point in time, we have gone from a mainly rodent room with rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, degus and chinchillas, to an aviary housing finches, diamond doves, cockatiels, Quaker parrots, and love birds. They all live together in harmony and peace without cages. The children can visit and feed carrots to those animals daring enough to come up to them.

The zoo room is a work in progress. I clean it every weekday, and I spend a great deal of time on it over the weekend. I have to…they are animals and they make a mess. Their litter has to be changed nearly every day someplace in the room, and they always need to be fed. The walls need to be wiped down, new bedding needs to be replaced, sick animals treated, dead ones buried, and new appointments need to be carried in and things generally need to be moved, cleaned, changed, and managed at least twice a day every day because the zoo room needs to always be inviting and always cheerful.

It’s truly a labor of love. So when it’s icy and cold, or a tornado is pending…Judy is over making sure the animals have what they need because that’s my job. It’s MY project. It’s a project I’ve developed for the children so they have something special to enjoy on a daily basis and they can’t enjoy something dirty, smelly or just hanging on.

Swimming is also an oddity about the Garden School. Twice a week the children change out in matching suits and we take them to a beautiful pool in Newburgh where they actually learn to swim. It’s a project we developed years ago when we first set up shop in an apartment complex with a pool. Swimming is something many full time childcare children simply don’t learn to do until they are older. The longer a child waits to swim, the weaker his swimming will be all his life. Swimming is a coordinating activity, a test of independence, a bravery issue, and it’s something nearly any four year old should be able to do as a safety issue. So we do it.

We introduce swimming as play. Then we encourage children to see what the pool looks like from under the water. When they can do that, and enjoy it, we take them to the deeper end and have them jump to us. We catch them over and over until one time…oops…and they find themselves bobbing in the water under their own steam. At this point they learn to doggy paddle to the edge. When they are swimming twenty-five feet, they are ready to go off the board. When they have successfully gone off the board, they are swimmers – and nothing can stop them…

The last unique part of the Garden School Plan is the long field trip. We actually travel with our children all summer long. For ten weeks, we take our children to the surrounding cities, parks, lakes and points of interest within a three hour radius. There really is very little to do in our immediate area, so years ago, we thought it was possible to “travel.” Parents loved the idea, because it gave children of lesser means a real summer vacation. A vacation they can brag about when they go off to big school. “I went to the Louisville Zoo, the Nashville Science Museum, the Cincinnati Aquarium, the St. Louis Zoo, Mammoth Cave, and parks and lakes and even to the Exotic Feline Rescue Center.”

Traveling is difficult at times, just ask any teacher. Traveling means taking the responsibility to put very young children on a school bus and go many miles from home. It’s about toileting, and lines, and obedience and carrying enough lunch with you to satisfy fifty people, and that lunch needs to packed to stay fresh by 7:00 a.m. It means being watchful all day in a strange place. It means counting heads a hundred times.

When you weigh the pros and cons of traveling, many lesser places have decided it’s easier to just stay home, and if children don’t get to travel with their families, well that’s too bad. It’s hot, after all, and it’s long, and it’s filled with problems from the start to the finish, and it’s expensive. The real question is: “But what do the children get out of staying home versus traveling?”

Children who participate in our unique summer program go back to school with the idea that someone cared so much about them that “Our teachers were willing to reach as far as they could reach for me.”  This willingness strengthens the teaching bonds and allows learning during the school year to climb to new heights. Traveling allows children to see, hear, taste, touch and feel new things. They get to explore a bunch of new ideas and new experiences. They get to do more than play with the same old toys, in the same old four walls, in the same old place…

So…in future…what are the things I really want to do with them?…boat ride on the river…horse back ride…candy making plant…hatchery…and it will come…one step at a time, because we’re a unique place and the sky is the limit.

According to the dictionary, religion is a set of beliefs about the purpose of the universe. Everyone, quite frankly, has an idea about the purpose of the universe. Some people make it up as they go, and others believe theologies, philosophies, theories developed over time.

Every family has the right to bring up their child or children as they see fit and that includes religious or non-religious freedom — provided that upbringing is not abuse.

Teaching religion or not teaching a set of believes is the job of parents. It is not the job of government or government schools. But that doesn’t mean that belief in general has to be hidden in the public forum. Our Constitution separates Church from State…it does not give credibility to any one faith, prevent any faith from existing or practicing, or favor one set of beliefs or lack of them.

In a private religious or parochial setting, parents pay for their child to be educated in their own faith. They expect it. In other private school settings, religion is always a little controversial.

My job, as a school owner, is to find the common ground among parents while I balance what I think children should be aware of without teaching religion.

As a Catholic, I belong and believe the tenets of a church that’s been around for two thousand plus years – and man, we’ve seen it all.  One of the tenets of my faith is that one must revere all that is true and holy about another faith. That’s the easy part. The hard part is trying to exist in a world of early childhood without offending nearly everyone in sight.

My personal philosophy is that for the sake of being well rounded, a child needs to experience prayer, hear Bible Stories for the sake of reference, and know what to say, should he or she be so inclined at the moment of crisis or need.

I invite our children to pray before and after meals, and I enforce quiet during our very very brief prayer time because those who come from faith should have the time to pray if they choose. Those that don’t can be still for a minute.

At the Garden School, we have a prayer mission for the ill. We pray for lots of people who are ill and who have asked for our prayers. I think this teaches children, even of no faith, that we are all connected and should care about one another.

I teach the Our Father because it is the most universal prayer I can think of. I teach the Catholic version because that’s the one I know.

Bible Stories are a wonderful teaching tool. They teach obedience. Obedience gets a bad rap these days, but obedience is key in the behavior of a child who wants to do well. It teaches good study habits, trust of parent, and trust of authority, order from chaos, good civil tactics, fairness and affection. Of course I like to tell Bible Stories with great flair and over the top details. Kids nearly always get absorbed in the stories, and that gives them something to think about. My favorite Old Testament book is the book of Judith and my favorite part is when Judith cuts the head off Holofernes and hangs it on the gate…then quietly goes home to make breakfast for her family. Such a story…such a woman…such an exciting time…

Fairy tales are unique for lessons too, but fairy tales have no platform, so they fade away quickly…like the seed that fell on the poor soil. But they are fun, and can be exciting and are a good tool to act out.

But the teaching of religion is a thing I wouldn’t touch out of respect for my families. It’s not my job. My job is to educate in the areas that are appropriate to the ages of the children I teach and will lead children to thinking, behaving well in a group and learning about the world. My job stops there.

Sometimes parents want more. At one time, I had a parent ask me to spank a child…not my job. I wouldn’t presume to discipline more than taking a medal or offering a stern opinion. My favorite discipline tactic, if the behavior is rotten, is to return the child to the parent…it’s a parent’s job to rear his own child. My job is to add a broad spectrum of experiences and ideas that lead children to think.

Offering a space and time for prayer, exposing children to the stories from which many many references are made in common dialogue, books, news and movies, and something to say, should they choose to be believers is the most religious thing I can offer in fairness to those who don’t believe.

My own tradition is not to push my faith on others. My tradition teaches me to behave in the world as a believer, and if someone likes what I do…and asks…then I tell them what I believe. It’s a simple concept that has worked for two thousand plus years…I’m just one of the faithful…

Every once in a while, a word sticks in my mind and I evaluate the word for what I know about it. Sometimes I look it up in the dictionary or the OED (Oxford English Dictionary) that offers both the word’s history with examples of who used it when, and the first time it was used and by whom. Words are important to me because it’s through words that we are able to learn more.

The word responsibility has taken a beating in the last ten years or so. It used to be a “me” word, and now it’s a “you” word. What I mean by this is that years ago, we had this Latin saying, “mea culpa” meaning my fault, and I will take responsibility for what has happened…good or not so good. Today, we never hear that any mishap, injury, occasion of hurt is mea culpa. It’s never my fault. And because it’s not my fault, I don’t have to ever say, “I’m sorry,” which lets me off the mea culpa roles and the general hook for apology.

There are all kinds of responsibilities today that we run from like thieves in the night…we simply don’t want to take care of ourselves or anyone or anything in our lives that will take us away from recreation, a focus on self, and return us to a life of work and remorse.

Now where does this take us in building a child’s life? If we are the primary educators of our children, and children are watching us for example, we are teaching our children that responsibility is a bad thing…don’t ever take any…admit nothing…and pass the buck as often as you can…and never ever say, “I’m sorry.”

I work with a team of men and women. It’s always interesting to watch who will step forward and do what needs to be done without being asked. The other day at the pool, I was awed by two young teachers who wrapped up the lunch remains, packed the coolers and then carried it all to my car. It has always been my job, and these wonderful young girls took the responsibility on and finished the job. I can’t tell you how much this meant to me.

On the same occasion, I watched two other teachers get into the very chilled water at the pool and take on the responsibility of teaching our kids how to swim. This is a big job, and on more summers than one, I’ve had to push teachers into the water…but this year, two of our youngest have stepped forward and are working very hard so that every child swims. I am so proud of them. This allows the other teachers to monitor the very youngest child who is emerging as a “jellyfish.”

Creating a great program means at one time or another, everyone has to step forward and take responsibility for not only what needs to be done, but for projects and activities that go astray. Self reflection helps. It’s hard to admit that something didn’t work, that a project was a mess and the children learned nothing. But that errant project is not the end of the world. It’s a lesson well learned, and being able to admit that it was flawed, that the flaw was my fault, and I’ve learned from my mistake is a good thing…not a bad thing.

We know while teachers are stepping forward, the kids are watching and learning what it means to be a responsible person and a participant in the game, and that excuses for not participating and not accepting responsibilities won’t cut it in the active world.

It’s our job to teach our children how to step forward and grab the moment and thrive and some children do this very well. Hands go up to volunteer…not by all, but by some, and as a child grows older and wiser, and bolder, his hand is up to volunteer an answer, for a job and to offer an opinion. This is our gold. This is what we should be about.

In a media centered world, a very selfish place, a narrow and unlending place, one of our most important lessons in the sheltered place we know as the Garden School, is to teach our children that sometimes a failure is our fault, and sometimes our job has not been done by us the way it should be, that we make mistakes, and there are no excuses. And at the same time to reward, to compliment, to praise a job well done and a child who has learned to step forward.

Even the expression ADHD is annoying to me. I always ask myself why any intelligent person would say that someone who is high energy is attention deficit…that’s like saying that someone who is tall is short, or someone who is a Native American is European.

One of the gifts of humanity is being supercharged. I was once asked by a yoga instructor if I “liked being hyperactive” and I laughed and said, “yes!” I mean wouldn’t anyone like to simply never run out of energy? Wouldn’t most people like feeling that they had delicious miles to go…and rarely if ever feel tired…and even then, when drained of their last strength – regroup in five minutes and have more energy to go for another several hours or days…

About one in thirty people is supercharged or hyperactive. A hyperactive person has been endowed by their creator to face a 33 world in a 45 or 78 format. (That’s a phonograph record comparison.) A hyperactive person can and usually does twice the work of anyone else in half the time. We are made to move faster and think faster than regular people. It’s a gift…annoying to many others, but none the less a fabulous gift.

And we really do think differently than other people. Most people think linearly…this than that…takes them a while to get where they’re going.  Hyperactives think like an explosion; all their information is suspended in their brain, and when they want something they grab it fast, line it up and make a neat package in record speed.

A hyperactive will do everything fast…sleep, eat, run, work, read, write, play sports…because it’s more comfortable than what we consider “slug mode.” Waiting for the world to catch up is a liability of hyperactivity. It’s about as scintillating as watching grass grow…

There are two kinds of hyperactives – directed and non directed. When a hyperactive does not have a family or parents who are willing to form him, he has no place to put his energy, his skills, his desire to move, accomplish and do. He is a whirling dervish of movement that often finds discomfort in the world around him, because he’s got all this motion that has not been directed, and that’s the fault of the parent. Parents are the primary educators of children, and when they have a hyperactive child, their responsibility is to direct that child in an appropriate manner and form him or her.

Much to the discredit of the psychology world, not all poorly behaved children are hyperactive, and few hyperactives are poorly behaved when you give them direction, and when the parent makes demands and holds them to a formative agenda. Is that tough? Of course, but it’s the challenge of rearing a hyperactive. It’s the work that MUST be done.

And cruelly, and much too often, a child who is pathetically poorly behaved is labeled “hyperactive,” because a doctor does not understand exactly what hyperactivity really is. It’s a personality type not a mental illness. Of course there are many slow moving and slow thinking people out there who are annoyed by and can’t understand anyone who works, thinks, and produces circles around them. Jealousy rears it’s snake like head and labels these achievers as mentally ill. High energy people are often the enemy of “slug mode” simply because slow movers can’t quite figure out why it is that the hyperactive never gets tired. It must be infuriating!

When you look at history, you can see the hyperactive emerge: St. Paul, Alexander the Great, Columbus, Theodore Roosevelt…were all obviously hyperactive. Look at their writing, their life stories, their tireless agendas.

I hear a lot about medicating the hyperactive to make him more equal to his peers, and this usually causes me to ask, “Would you medicate an artist so the artist couldn’t draw anymore? Would you medicate a genius so he couldn’t think anymore? Then why would you want to repress the natural energy of someone?”

The answer, of course, is simple. “Yes, I want to medicate my hyperactive child because I can’t keep up with him and don’t want to try.”

The next question I want to ask is, “Do you know why you have a hyperactive child?” The answer is: Hyperactivity is a family trait. One hyperactive married to a non-hyperactive will produce many hyperactives – 4/4 in my family. Half of the children of two hyperactives will be hyperactive. So if hyperactivity is not one of your attributes, your child is probably not hyperactive, no matter how badly behaved he is.

Some of the early signs of hyperactivity in children are, excessive crying, early crawling, talking and walking, food bolting and excessive eating, sleeping with eyes open, an ability to do things very early – like toilet training and making their own lunch at eighteen months. Interestingly enough, many hyperactives are addicted to oranges.

Rearing a hyperactive child should be a pleasure, but I’m speaking from the hyperactive side of the counter. I am, my four children are, and my husband is not. I loved the excitement of children who always tried to excel, to accomplish, to reach higher and higher for their accomplishments. The motto for a hyperactive is, “let’s see what I can do…” and the possibilities are like their thinking pattern…explosive.

So back to the initial ADHD title…the very idea that someone who is directed and supercharged is not paying attention is ludicrous…that’s like saying dogs don’t hear well….sheesh!

Every year, we always take our school group to Lincoln’s Boyhood Home as our first field trip. It’s our shortest field trip and it’s close enough to home so that if we have any really severe issues, we can get back to town without a lot of trip engineering.

It also gives us a full field trip that is familiar enough that we have time to examine the following could be problems: general behavior of the children, who is going to react negatively to the bus, food prep problems, and length of day.

Every year, we notice and make notes about which children can’t and won’t follow directions, line up, use a bathroom when directed, or which ones won’t or don’t know how to eat a sandwich.

For the most part, the children are wonderfully behaved. Our children are expected to play with each other without aggressive punches, pinches, pushes or tattling. We expect our children to say “thank you, please, and no thank you.” We expect our children to stand in lines when required without shouting or making fun of standing in line. We expect our children to be quiet when necessary and always walk indoors. When in a public place, we expect our children to represent not only their homes, but their school.

The worst problem we usually encounter is the older children who bring their big school bad manners to us. We always re-enroll the older siblings of present students and potential students because it’s good business sense.  Older children can and often do help younger ones, add to the discovery of successful field trips for younger children, and show the littles how to.

I always use my grandchildren as a guide to what I expect from older children. My grandkids are 12, 9, and 6, all boys, and have outgrown the GS, but come every year on our field trips because their mother works for the GS. I never even know they are among the children. They ask for nothing, are delighted with whatever they get, and know how to respond positively and politely to any and all situations. Each one is an honors student at school.

And every year, the older children remind us of how firmly we enforce the kind of behavior that separates children whose schools and parents make demands and whose schools and parents who don’t. Sometimes a returnee will be brought up short if he or she has strayed too far from the good manner line. This is our job.

One of our tactics is to watch the lunch routine. My favorite “oops” is to watch those children who throw their lunch on the ground under another child’s place and then come to the teachers and ask for chips, or something they “want” to eat. Our reply is always the same, “If you throw your sandwich on the ground, first you pick it up and tell us it has dropped. Then you get a second sandwich to eat. If you don’t eat that one, if it mysteriously falls on the ground, you’re done. If you finish your lunch, you can have the same privileges that all the other eaters get.” It always solves the problem one way or another.

At the first field trip, we make a list of those children who can’t manage to eat on their own. These are the kids who take a sandwich to a table and put it down and try to do anything but eat. These are the children who find their new place at a special table monitored by a teacher. They have lost the independent prize of being a big kid and choosing where they want to eat.

Does it really matter? When a child passes on breakfast because he’s excited about the trip, and then passes on lunch because he’s excited about getting back to play, there is a nutrition problem. He might not eat again until snack, and that’s too long. So it does matter for the health and safety of the child.

One of the problems we encountered yesterday was a disrespect for other people’s property, and a general disrespect about what we were doing and why. When a person goes to an historic site to visit, it’s a visit to look, listen, and try to understand. When a child’s primary response is to act as if this whole thing is a joke, then the reigns must be pulled up tightly, and being able to know which children can be taken without this disrespect, and which children must be temporarily separated from the group and monitored by a teacher is the goal of the first field trip.

This summer we will be going to an historic place, two science museums, a zoo, a nature preserve, and five lakes. In order to manage children who push, pinch, punch, act disrespectfully toward what we are doing, or disregard the property of others, a firmness about who and what we are needs to be established quickly. The result of any poor behavior will be to sit at the entrance of the activity with yours truly and watch how the well behaved children act…as a lesson. It’s a good life lesson, and one I’m very willing and eager to teach.

Taking children on long and exciting field trips every week is my pleasure and my invention. The idea of staying in town and playing put put golf or going to the same miserable playgrounds all summer with a thousand children is about as exciting as watching TV all day. But at the same time, it’s the privilege of well behaved children to enjoy these places, and these trips without the embarrassment of those who bring bad manners from home or other schools as their example.

It’s going to be a fine summer. Next trip is the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Brazil, Indiana. Let’s see who sits at the entrance with Miss Judy.